Yesterday, the LA Times reported "'Work from Anywhere'" is Here to Stay" noting that tech companies are leading the way to making remote work permanent for their employees. IBM's CEO also stated that even with a predicted COVID vaccine, remote work would continue. It's not a surprise that for technology or digital marketing companies, remote work will be the norm, even after the pandemic. What was a bonus for employees before, has now turned into cost savings for these businesses.
For digital or tech companies, remote work saves money.
Remote Work Increases Profits & Productivity
Working from home was already on the uptick, especially for businesses in the digital or technology space. According to Global Workplace Analytics, telecommuting has grown 173% since 2005, and that was before the pandemic. In 2019, 80% of employees said they wanted to work from home at least some of the time, desiring flexibility and even offering to take a pay cut (and some employers did offer pay cuts). Considering these factors, remote work can often increase profits for businesses.
Quite simply, working from anywhere but the office means that businesses don't have to pay for office space. If an employee works from home even half the time, it could save the business an average of $11,000 per year per employee. When employees have the flexibility to work from home, their job satisfaction increases, reducing turnover and saving $10 - $30,000 per employee.
SHRM reported that productivity was the same or higher since the pandemic and remote work policies were implemented. Remote workers take longer breaks but work an average of 1.4 days longer every month. There are fewer absences due to illness and employees save time and money with no commute into an office.
Other benefits from Global Workplace Analytics include:
- Reduced employee discrimination
- Reduced wasted time on meetings
- Increased collaboration
- Expanded talent pool
- Environmentally friendly
- Ensures business continuity/disaster recovery
- Lower healthcare costs
Cut Costs and Increase Working Capital
As many businesses are looking for ways to cut costs and increase working capital during the pandemic, remote work is a good place to start. Working capital is used to pay short term expenses to maintain daily operations. By reducing the expenses necessary to run a business, working capital increases, freeing up funds to stabilize or even grow business during the ups and down of the U.S. economy. Digital and tech companies will continue remote work long after the pandemic. Other businesses may consider making their pandemic policies permanent too.
