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This year has been like no other for businesses. Sure, there have been issues in industries before, and there have been plenty of economic crashes before, but it’s a very small number of people who have ever dealt with a pandemic. This time, a pandemic has been experienced by the entire world, and everyone has experienced it differently. When it comes to businesses, things have changed dramatically. Some have closed down, some have thrived, and most have allowed their employees to work from home for the year.
The change of working from home has surprised most people: some have loved it and others have hated it. However, in the interest of being an excellent boss, you need to think about what your specific employees want. You could have been rubbing along nicely when you had your staff working under the same roof, but perhaps your people prefer working at home. If this is the case for you, but you’re on the fence about whether to let them do it, it’s good that you’re reading this article! You don’t have to have everyone working from home full time when the world gets back to some kind of normal if you don’t want to. You can opt for part time working from home if you want! Either way, here are the reasons to say yes!
Everyone Saves Money
You could be paying your employees an excellent salary, with excellent benefits, but the commute often takes a huge chunk of that money from them. Not only will you be saving their time with no commute, you’re going to save gas costs, public transport costs and the cost to the planet of the commuting. Cutting out the commute will be a huge boost to morale, and it’ll help you to save a ton of time, too. This is a huge pull for employees who want to work from home as they can stop wasting valuable hours travelling to and from work.
People Are More Productive
When you don’t have the same 9-5 work constraints, people are far more productive. If you told your employees that they could work from home at any time of day, as long as daily deadlines are met, you can bet that they’ll be far more productive. They’ll want to get their work done and dusted and have the day to themselves otherwise. It’s a great way to make them feel like they’re achieving something in their day to day work, too.
Happiness Booster!
It’s so much harder to have a work-life balance when you ask people to commute to the office. You want to improve the way that people work, and if they can head to appointments and school functions while still balancing their day to day work, it makes for happier employees. The key here is giving people the choice whether to work at home or at the office. If the office makes them happier, then great. If not, home is where the happiness is!
It’s Not Hard To Say YES!
Working from home has been made obviously easier this year. There are tons of ways to be connected to the office without even trying; all your people need is a computer and a Wi-Fi connection. The best bit is that they don’t even have to be at home to manage it. People can work from a coffee shop or even the park with a USB internet dongle if they want to!
You Save On Space
When you run an office, the costs are high – as you know. You have to consider the rent for the space, the utility bills, the costs of insurance – it’s a lot and it does add up fast! Working from home means a lot less office space is required, so you don’t have to make a full swap over to the remote world, but you can reduce the cost of the space you need to rent for those who want to be in the workplace. This will help your bottom line and give you a little breathing room in your working budget, too.
Bye-Bye, Bulk Orders!
No one likes to work on bulk ordering office supplies. It’s a pain, so why not cut it all out and have your team working from home? You won’t have to pay to stock their desks and you’ll save a ton on printing, too. People can take on some home office ideas and tips for an inspired workspace and get their own supplies as they see fit. You could even give every member of staff a voucher towards costs, and it would still cost you less!
The savings you make can be realized right across the business too. You can save money on equipment for employees. Rent Macbook Pro rather than having to buy one for each existing employee, or introduce a bring your own device policy (BYOD) to allow people to use their own equipment.
Zoom, Zoom, Zoom!
Those endless boardroom meetings are a thing of the past when you keep people working from home. You can get people together on Zoom or Skype, and those meetings don’t have to last very long at all. Most of your issues in the office can be resolved through web chat and email, making it a much faster process to get through any conversations within minutes.
Hiring Becomes Global
When you don’t have an office for people to attend, you can broaden your search for the best of the best. If your business requires IT experts, you can hire them from anywhere in the world with freelancers. It can be tough to screen people at a distance, but it can be done and you can connect to the best anywhere in the world!
Loyalty Comes With Flexibility
Whether your employees want to work from home part time or all of the time, you get to offer flexibility that you couldn’t offer before. This makes your employees more loyal to your business. They will want to work for a boss who will give them the choice in how they can work. People work better when they are happy, and choices like this make people much happier in what they’ve got!
Working from home has changed businesses this year. Have you changed as a boss as a result?
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