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Benefits of Remote Working

  • Amruta Bhaskar
  • Aug 24, 2020
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When COVID-19 forced companies all over the world to send their employees home to work virtually, remote work had a big moment.

Yes, the rush to give employees access to all the tools they’d need to work from home was a bit, well, sudden for many employers. But after everyone settled in, what quickly became apparent to many office-based teams is that employees could be productive and focused when not in the office—in many cases, even more so. Employers everywhere began to understand that remote work works.

What will the future of remote work look like in a post-pandemic world? Will companies go back to “business as usual” and require that everyone work onsite, or is the pandemic the tipping point that finally convinces employers that flexible work is the way to go for the long haul?

Many remote jobs also come with flexible schedules, which means that workers can start and end their day as they choose, as long as their work is complete and leads to strong outcomes. This control over your work schedule can be invaluable when it comes to attending to the needs of your personal life.

Whether it’s balancing school schedules, medical appointments, and errands, or attending an online fitness class in the morning, or even being home for a contractor can all be done a little more easily when you work from home.

The average one-way commuting time in the U.S. is 27.1 minutes—that’s nearly an hour each day spent getting to and from work, and it adds up. According to the Auto Insurance Center, commuters spend about 100 hours commuting and 41 hours stuck in traffic each year. Some “extreme” commuters face much longer commute times of 90 minutes or more each way.

But wasting time commuting is just one of the downsides of getting to and from work. More than 30 minutes of daily one-way commuting is associated with increased levels of stress and anxiety and research shows that commuting 10 miles to work each day is associated with health issues.

Ditching the commute helps you support your mental and physical health. The time savings can allow you to focus on priorities outside of work, like getting extra sleep in the morning, spending more time with family, getting in a workout, or eating a healthy breakfast.

One of the considerable benefits of working from home are having access to a broader range of job opportunities that aren’t limited by geographic location. This can be especially helpful for job seekers living in rural communities and small towns where there may not be many available local positions.

Also, remote work is a great way to avoid high-rent and high-mortgage areas, especially for positions (like tech) that used to require living in a city with a high cost of living. With remote work, you no longer have to live near a major metropolitan area to have a career you love.

Remote work enables companies to embrace diversity and inclusion by hiring people from different socioeconomic, geographic, and cultural backgrounds and with different perspectives—which can be challenging to accomplish when recruiting is restricted to a certain specific locale that not everyone wants, or can afford, to live near.

 

And by hiring employees who can work from home in the communities where they feel the most comfortable and supported, wherever that may be, companies choose to support diversity, community, and family.

Remote work supports a variety of sustainability initiatives, from economic growth and reduced inequalities, to sustainable cities, climate change, and responsible consumption.

One of the fastest, cheapest ways for employers and employees to reduce their carbon footprint and to affect climate change is by reducing commuter travel. The world is already seeing markedly reduced pollution, congestion, and traffic during the pandemic response, and being able to experience the results first hand may be a driver of remote work for everyone involved.

Remote, flexible workers tend to be happier and more loyal employees, in part because working from home has been shown to lower stress, provide more time for hobbies and interests, and improve personal relationships, among other things.

In addition to personal health and well-being, coworker and manager relationships can be more positive without the distractions and politics that come along with an in-office job. A reported 72% of employers say remote work has a high impact on employee retention—plainly put, employees are sticking with their employer when they have remote work options.

Working from home can also lead to better health in a variety of ways: more time for physical activity, the ability to eat healthier, the ability to recover from illness or surgery at home, less exposure to illnesses, ease of caring for a health issue or disability, and the option to create a comfortable and ergonomic workspace.

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