Teleworking is not something new. The technology has been around for more than 40 years. However, remote / virtual / distributed work is the combined result of all these years of innovation: computers, software, the Internet, and business management, which has matured to accept that productivity cannot be increased without teleworking.
The benefits of teleworking for the worker, the company and society are numerous and largely support the rise of teleworking that, although accelerated by the pandemic, many large companies had already started to implement it.
Thanks to technology, time can be used without the need for employees to always be located in the office. Although not all jobs can take advantage of teleworking, a large number of them can. Far from what we may think, the biggest obstacle to implementing it in many cases is the cultural factor: thinking of work as a place to go instead of an activity that we have to do.
In 2022 a transition to this change in mentality is necessary at a global level. The benefits of remote working are obvious and its advantages help achieve increased competitiveness.
Here are the main benefits of remote work from the perspective of the employee, the employer and society in general.
Personal benefits for the worker
They are based on saving time and money, more well-being and a better work-life balance.
- Possibility of living anywhere: choice of work environment
- More time with loved ones
- Less unproductive time commuting and getting ready for the office
- Increased motivation and productivity: Since the key performance metric is the actual completion of tasks (rather than the number of hours sitting in the office chair), the result is more focused work performed with greater efficiency and motivation
- More autonomy and flexibility
- Big money savings thanks to reduced fuel, elimination of car, insurance and maintenance expenses, reduction of formal wear, and reduction of meals out during lunch breaks
- Job finding opportunities for people with a disability and for people who live in rural areas or far from cities
Benefits for the company
- More efficient and motivated staff: higher employee productivity
- Decrease in work absenteeism
- Talent recruitment: access to a global pool of talent to hire, which is a competitive advantage. Teleworking can help attract talent to the company against others that do not offer the candidate the option of working remotely
- Reduction of office costs (real estate and technology costs)
- Flatter management structure, since middle managers are not necessary in an organization that works asynchronously (tasks can be delegated via software / email / zoom without the need for managers to supervise workers, but rather the top management just checks the results)
- If the company is the first to go remote among its competitors, this will give it a great competitive advantage. On the negative side, if they don't and their competitors do, non-remote companies will end up failing (workers will quit, costs will be higher, motivation and efficiency will be low)
- Better performance of workers, since they do not need to 'pad up' their 8-hour shift by appearing to be busy. Workers will produce more in the same total time
- Decrease in occupational accidents
Benefits for society in general
- Reduction of CO2 emissions of the order of tons per year derived from the reduction of transport: improvement of sustainability
- The diversity of teams automatically results from the massive increase in available workers. There is no need for laws that require it, a fairer recruitment will automatically occur, as now the goal is performance, not timed hours
- Bringing work closer to rural areas: Small cities will become more popular to live in compared to traditional workplaces located in large cities and capitals. This will mean an adjustment of prices in crowded real estate areas down to affordable levels
- Less congested and polluted cities: higher quality of life
- Greater labour inclusion of people with reduced mobility
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