10 Benefits of Telecommuting for Employers And Companies

Telecommuting or working from home or e-commuting is an arrangement whereby you work either from home or from a location near your home such as a library or coffee shop or from a virtual office setup in Tokyo, for example.. While e-commuting, you communicate with your employees via telephone or emails. Additionally, when telecommuting, you only go to the office to attend a meeting or you go there when there is a specific task that requires your physical presence. However, with the availability of video conferencing, it might not be necessary that you should go to the office to attend meetings.

When telecommuting rules are laid down properly, the company realizes maximum benefits from the arrangement because both the employer and his employees benefit from this arrangement. Many employers are realizing these benefits, and therefore, they are supporting this kind of arrangement in their organizations. As it becomes popular, let us take a look at the benefits of telecommuting for employers.

1. Increased Productivity

Most employers fear that allowing employees to work from home would cause them to ignore the company’s policies on time. They also fear that their employees would fail when it comes to handling the company’s projects. Contrary to this notion, employees tend to be more productive when they are working from home than when they are in an office setting. While working from home, employees concentrate more on their job as there are few interruptions. Moreover, working from home allows employees to work on a schedule that reflects their lifestyle. In the end, they can perform better than they would while working full time in an office.

2. Improved Morale and the Quality of Work

Quality work results are achieved if you have the morale to work, which comes with a positive attitude towards your responsibility. By telecommuting, as an employer, you can improve quality of work by following these simple steps.

• Planning meetings and office responsibilities each day based on the prevailing circumstances.
• Focusing on your work without distractions.
• Wearing whatever you want so that all your effort is on the job that is at hand.
• Many people complain that the reason they hate going to work is having unfriendly colleagues. By letting your employees work from home, you boost his morale because they does not interact with coworkers who do not like him.
• By allowing employees to work from home, you give them a sense of responsibility, and they feel energized to get their work done on time.

3. Increased Level of Flexibility

By working from home, you can plan your work, so that what you do at home is highly productive. Some people are productive in the early morning hours while others like burning the night oil. Whichever the case, telecommuting is the only way your employees can give their best at working at their most convenient time. Similarly, by telecommuting, you can balance between your work and other responsibilities in your life.

4. Additional Work Hours

The time your employees spend on commuting to and from work is part of the time when other employees in competing companies spend on their projects if they are e-commuting. Relieve your workers of the stress of daily commutes to and from work. Doing so will lead to more working hours in a day.

5. Reduced Office Requirements

If you give your employees the freedom to work from home, you can enjoy the benefits of telecommuting for companies from this decision. More specifically, you reduce office costs by limiting space and furniture requirements, which is a good way of reducing overall costs. The extra space can be used for other organizational purposes. You can even rent the space to someone else. In the end, telecommuting will reduce your total cost of doing business by almost 30%.

6. Improved Rate of Employee Retention

If you embrace telecommuting in your company, you can retain your best employees. For example, some of them may not manage daily commutes due to various personal reasons. Think of your employees who have to relocate a new place when their spouses live. You can retain them by allowing them to telecommute. This saves you from the stress of looking for another employee who suits that position. You also avoid the time taken to orient the new individual.

Similarly, telecommuting allows you to give employees a chance to work for you. As an employer with such employees, make sure you provide social interaction platforms for all your employees so that they also get to know one another.

7. Continuity of Initiated Programs

Another employer benefits of telecommuting is that allowing employees to work from home minimizes program interruptions due to reasons such as minor sickness. Instead of taking sick off, telecommuters can work from home without putting the health of their coworkers at risk. Telecommuting is also effective in minimizing the negative impact of other occurrences such as lateness due to traffic or commuting in bad weather.

8. Wider Pool of Talent

The next one of company benefits of telecommuting is that by embracing telecommuting arrangement in your business, you can hire only the best and most talented employees without limiting yourself to geographical location. Additionally, the production rate of remote workers tends to be higher than those who work in an office setting since there are fewer distractions at home.

9. Maximizing Your Time

If you are operating a small business, you cannot afford to waste even a single minute of your time. By working from home, you can use all the time you have at your disposal maximally. Furthermore, your employees would feel that you have given them a lot of freedom. That feeling increases the level of loyalty they feel towards your company. Happy employees tend to stay more in their job, hence saving you the stress of hiring and training new employees now and then.

10. Improved Trust among Employees

To allow telecommuting in your company, your employees must trust you. They will achieve their daily targets if they do because they know you will be fair and you will pay them on time. Accepting this kind of working arrangement improves your ability to give employees freedom without reserve. Consequently, the workers will feel trusted and will hence do their best to avoid breaking that trust.

With the numerous benefits of telecommuting, many businesses are embracing video conferencing solution to make telecommuting. Many employees are becoming compelled to make their work presence more visible. Since telecommuting gives the employers the freedom to employ skilled task force regardless of their geographical location, the job market is becoming more competitive. This in return compels employees to prove their value as assets to the business by working hard to avoid losing their jobs.