What is telecommuting?

Telecommuting, or simply remote working, is the practice of working from outside of a traditional workspace. Telecommuters rely on the internet and phone to maintain communication with their employers throughout the work day.

Telecommuting can be a full-time or a part-time work arrangement depending on how many days a week the employee is required to be at the office. The option of remote work is not only cheaper for the employer, but it can also improve employee morale and productivity. Coupled with the facts that it’s an eco-friendly solution and that it can improve your company’s image, makes it clear that telecommuting is the future of work everywhere.

Here are the main benefits of telecommuting for employers:

• Operational cost savings
• Employee payroll cost saving
• Ease of using tools designed for remote work
• Increased productivity
• More working hours coverage
• Access to the global talent pool
• Employee retention
• Contribution to employees' mental health
• Positive impact on the environment
• Setting a progressive image for your company

1. Operational cost savings

The more remote work your company conducts, the smaller office space you’ll need. Telecommuting allows the employer to keep only a few essential employees at the office. Meaning the office you’ll need to rent will be smaller, and therefore, cheaper. Real estate is not the only cost that will be reduced. Smaller office spaces have smaller utility bills, so that’s another thing you will be saving money on.

This cost-saving approach is great for small businesses as every dollar you save on your expenses is a dollar you can invest back into your company. This will give you that much-needed starting capital at the beginning of your professional venture. Additionally, as your business grows, you won’t need to increase the size of your office and further stretch your budget. Needless to say, you will save a pretty penny by implementing a teleworking program.

2. Remote workers are usually cheaper

Another reason why you should switch to teleworkers over traditional office employees is that remote workers will usually work for less. Working from home is not just cheaper for the employer, it is also more economical for the employee. When commuting costs are reduced and your workers can save up to two hours they usually spend traveling to work every day. All of this makes people working from home more likely to accept a lower salary than office employees for the same job. Depending on the employee’s responsibilities and duties, a business can save from $5,000 to $15.000 per employee, every year.

3. Ease of using telecommuting tools

Another telecommuting advantage is that there are various solutions (free and paid) you can use to manage your virtual team. Tools like Skype, Zoom, or Slack provide an easy way to communicate with your team whether it is via instant messaging or video conferencing.  In addition to this, with online task boards, mind-maps, and other useful remote work tools for a productive team you can be as close as possible to having a face-to-face meeting with your team. Most of the tools you can find online have a free option and you can choose to upgrade once your business starts growing or you find the tool especially useful.

All in all, there are plenty of ways you can communicate with your team, as long as you make sure they check the designated communication platforms regularly and reply in time. Tracking your employee’s productivity when working from home can also be made easier with online tools, so you know exactly how much work a person puts in each day.

4. Productivity benefits of telecommuting

Boosting productivity has always been one of the most important challenges for employers everywhere. How do you get the most out of the resources you have available? Well, it seems that telecommuting is one way to make it happen.

Remote work team managers report a significant increase in both daily and weekly goals reached by their team members. In addition to this, fewer mistakes are made and smaller amounts of the workload need to be redone.

The traditional office setup is not everyone’s idea of a productive environment. However, it is impossible to cater to each employee’s specific needs for a working space when you’re in a shared office space. Luckily, when you are working from your own home, you can set up your home office the way that allows you to be the most productive.

It seems that giving each person their own “office space” at home creates a more productive work environment and allows each employee to give their maximum during working hours. In addition to being more focused and working more quickly in general, employees working from home will provide a better quality of work than those in a traditional office setting.

The benefits of increased productivity are many, but the main one is that you can accomplish more with fewer resources. Which can save your business some funds and open possibilities for growth. If all it takes is to start a telecommuting program, it is very much worth it. Just make sure you have a good remote work policy in place.

Read more about how to increase productivity in a remote team.

5. Get more working hours coverage

If you are a company that has customers or clients across the world, it could be challenging to cover all the time zones if you have all your employees in the office working standard hours. By giving your team the option of telecommuting they will more likely accept working unusual shifts, as they can switch between tasks and have working hours flexibility. Allowing people to work from home also means you will get fewer sick days. For example, a person with a cold will still be able to do their job from home, while coming to the office might be too draining for them.

Pro tip: Having a telecommuting arrangement with your employees can also reduce absenteeism and ensure they are working according to a set schedule.

6. Access the global talent pool

Though it is handy to have your employees always available to you in your office space, forgoing this can open up a larger talent pool. If you are looking for the best person to fill a position in your team, having more potential new hires overseas will let you get the best person for the job. This is perfect when you need a part-time team tailored for a specific project, even though it might be a bit more difficult to onboard remote employees.

Additionally, with your global choice of employees, you can build a team of high performing professionals, no matter where they live. The usual factors that would prevent you from hiring someone across the planet, such as accommodation and plane tickets, not to mention a competitive salary, do not apply for telecommuters. As long as you maintain proper communication you can make a full-time global team of experts for basically anything you might need.

The ability to hire anyone anywhere allows your business to establish a global presence. Having teleworkers in multiple countries means you can cover different time zones (as we already mentioned) and access different cultures, which is a great asset if your business is offering global services.

7. Better employee retention

One of the most important advantages of telecommuting is that it allows you to keep the employees you would otherwise lose to circumstance. In a situation where you would otherwise be forced to let go an employee who is relocating because of a spouse, you can have them telework for you wherever they are. Thus allowing you to keep a professional you trained for the job, despite commuting distances.

8. Benefits of telecommuting for the employees’ mental health

Employees’ morale and satisfaction should be pretty high on an employer’s list of priorities. An employee who is mentally healthy can deliver better work, more consistently. On the other hand, a stressed employee will not only underperform but can cause problems in the workplace.

Telework is proven to improve morale and be generally less stressful for most employees, and here’s why:

• There is no dress code - people find it stressful having to dress up for work every day. And no wonder! We are all constantly evaluating each other and ourselves based on the way we look. Instead of worrying about what they put on and how they look when they come to the office, telecommuters can focus all of their attention on the job.
• Remote workers get more sleep - working from home means that instead of having to get up early in order to have breakfast and commute to work, an employee can get enough rest and be in peak performance when it is time to work.
• More time for themselves - workers that don’t have to spend hours commuting to and from work can invest that time in what they like to do, leading to a better work-life balance and job satisfaction. More time to decompress or make a home-cooked meal after work definitely spells less stress.
• Workplace drama is filtered out - since the communication is reduced to a minimum, it contains only the relevant, work-related information. This means that things are less likely to get sidetracked and more work will get done. Also, introverts who find it difficult to communicate with their co-workers benefit greatly from telework.

9. Environmental benefits of telecommuting

When everyone has to go to the office each day, the carbon footprint left by your company increases. Whatever means of transportation (apart from the bike) your employees take to the office, they’ll have some sort of impact on the environment. Naturally, the most harmful emissions are those that come from cars, which are the most common means of transport used by employees making their daily commutes to the office.

By opting for remote work arrangements, employers reduce the number of commuters, and this reduces the effect their company has on the environment.

Additionally, by reducing the number of people commuting to work each day, the potential for car accidents is reduced. The fewer people on the roads, the smaller chance someone will have a road accident. This is a little unlooked-for public service bonus to embracing telecommuting.

10. Setting a progressive image for your company

Saving financial resources for your business development and maintaining a low impact on the environment while keeping a strong telecommuting program leaves an impression of a progressive company whose values are not selfish or centered around profit. Embracing what some call the future of work early on can lead to extraordinary opportunities in the future.

Tips for managing a good telework team

As you can see, teleworking has many perks for employers. However, there are a few challenges you can run into with telecommuting employees. These are, primarily, focused on oversight and security. Here are some tips that will come in handy if you are trying to manage a telecommuting team.

• Set clear expectations - give your team members clear and unambiguous telecommuting rules
• Keep strong communication - set a daily or a weekly meeting where you will talk with each team member and address the challenges they are facing in performing their job or having proper communication. Be forthcoming to your employees and allow them to ask you what they need to know.
• Address security issues - right at the beginning, set clear rules about handling sensitive data and keeping their personal and professional networks apart.
• Be consistent - stick to what you agreed on with your employees.