We are in an era where telecommuting is proving to be a massive benefit both to the employee and the employer. Not long ago, working from home may have been seen as something only for the best of the best, and even then there were limitations. The landscape has changed dramatically over the past decades and it now appears that telecommuting is something all companies MUST adapt into their work portfolio if they wish to be both productive and maintain a healthy and happy workforce.
A Boost for Employee Health and Morale
It goes without saying that sitting in traffic or being stuck on a crowded subway train is mentally exhausting. Many people commute an hour+ to get to their work; 10+ hours per week of sitting in a car or on a subway or train. All of this takes a toll, reduces a teams morale and often is a primary reason why employees start to look for a better job. Just about any office task can be done using a secure connection to your cloud environment. What about meetings, conferences, education seminars? That all can be easily handled through audio, video and web conferencing solutions! Bottom line is that allowing your employees Not to have to go to the office is a huge boost to their morale, and is a great way to keep them from crowded spaces (especially during the flu season).
Improved Productivity
Going to the same office environment for a long period of one’s career starts to feel boring and employees begin to look for distractions. There is extensive research showing that the loss of U.S. revenue due to distraction is in the billions of dollars. The majority of employees who take advantage of telecommuting see it as a reward, and any such positive perception tends to have a net positive influence on overall work performance. Working from home is also a form of trust between the employer and employee, and it’s a trust that must be maintained by showing solid performance from an external environment.
A recent Staples Advantage study found that over 70% of telecommuting employees were readily willing to put in overtime and felt a greater sense of trust given them by their company.
Living in such areas as New York City, Newark, or Jersey City, one can waste an extreme amount of time and mental energy commuting to and from the workplace. Critical mental energy is expended on the commute instead of being focused on tasks at work.
Lower Business Office and Parking Costs
An employer must pay for office space and necessities such as heating or air conditioning, electricity, water, commuting fees and parking space. Additionally, there are other costs such as office furniture, coffee, equipment and so on.. All of these costs can be reduced when employees can work from home. Its easy to set up a secure and fast cloud based application environment where employees can log into their software tool set and get down to work. Over time, telecommuting allows employers a significant reduction in office space costs.
Employee Turnover
Not having to spend an hour+ commuting each way is a huge boost to employee morale, hence reducing turnover. With teleconferencing technologies and secure connectivity to your cloud based office system, it’s easy to let your employees work from home, saving them the time and hassle they would normally put into getting to and from their work environment.
We are strong believers that telecommuting is the right path to having happy, healthy, and super productive employees. We have a full suite of technology and telecommunication services that can make this happen. Some of our most popular services include cloud communications and conference solutions. Contact us to learn more.