With COVID-19 making it difficult for multiple employees to join office, remote work has gained importance. There’s no shortcut to the situation we are in at this time. We are literally forced to enter a business and workplace environment where remote work can benefit our health, office, and overall business dynamics.

In such a situation like this, how remote work can impact employers?

We are going to discuss exactly that in this article. Dive in and start exploring.

However, before we move forward, it is necessary to understand that remote work has been around for decades. Its importance is increasing every year. So, this article will discuss the collective pros and cons of remote work for employers regardless of the situations we are currently in. Simply put, we will discuss the benefits that you can gain or the challenges you can face with remote workers even when we are no longer in the COVID-19 lockdown. 

Pros

The good side of remote work falls on the heavy side. Undoubtedly, you can gain many more benefits of remote work when compared to challenges you may have to deal with. Let’s see what are these:

Productivity

Let’s be honest, your remote employees are more productive. It is known that while at home, employees tend to finish work earlier because they value work-balance. Due to this personal need, they are more inclined to taking shorter breaks and maintaining longer productivity streaks. 

According to a review posted by Stanford researchers, remote employees work longer hours when you compare them to in-house or on-site employees. This means their environment less distracting and more productive. 

Talent Pool

You have a wide talent pool. Of course, remote work doesn’t increase the number of employees or candidates available for a job role, but your area of search increases. This is because you can search in almost any country and go with the best prospect. There are no geographical boundaries and added costs of hiring an employee from another city, state, district, or country.

Employee Satisfaction

Every organization now strives to create a happier workplace for employees. This is why most of the HR teams are focused on employee satisfaction. 

With remote workers, this satisfaction is already there. Here are various reasons behind it:

•    There’s a work-life balance that empowers employees to take out time for themselves. They can take weekends off, unwind, relax, and shut down their gadgets at 6. This ensures a happier working environment.
•    Remote employees don’t have to commute for work, which eliminates the extra time. This increases the time to work and reduces the irritation of hectic commute or travel.
•    Since remote employees have to stay disciplined to get work done, they are more dedicated to their job. This helps them stay engaged and receive satisfaction from their job role. 

Collectively these factors also improve retention of the remote employees, which is again beneficial for the business. 

Lower Costs

Managing remote employees is cost-effective. There are multiple reasons behind it:

•    You hire remote employees on a contract basis. This means that you pay the employee on a contract basis, which automatically saves your cost when you don’t have a particular type of work for this employee.
•    You don’t have to manage these employees in the office. For example, you don’t need to offer training and orientation. This saves your money.
•    Employers don’t have to purchase additional office space for remote employees, which again saves the cost of infrastructure.

Cons

With so many benefits, there are 2 cons of remote working as well. Here are these challenges, which, of course, you can mitigate easily.

Finding Employees

While you have a greater talent pool available, it is not necessarily easy to find these employees. In between so many options, it is easier to select the wrong one or simply pay more to the remote IT staff.  

You have a wide talent pool but developing the skill of finding employees can help here. If you have a vendor who can do that for you, then you can mitigate this challenge without any issue.

Communication

Communication is one thing that gets affected the most in the remote work. The time difference, location difference, and no physical presence – everything contributes to lower collaboration and communication.

This is why the only thing that the manager can do is improve the manner in which they deliver and receive details. For instance, while delivering the project details, mention every little detail, give references, and talk on call or video call. Make communication easier with communication tools like Zoom, Slack, etc.

Conclusion

Remote work is not easy; it is just more beneficial and extremely feasible for most of the employers as well as individuals. From improved job satisfaction to enhanced work-life balance, it offers an array of benefits. Read the above pros and cons to understand how you can utilize these benefits for your organization.