Benefits of Working Remotely
With the widespread of people who can own their own personal computers and the ability of being connected to world wide web, working remotely is positively affected in the sense that many people would actually have the tools to work from their own homes.
According to a Gallup survey, it was highlighted that flexible scheduling and work-from-home opportunities play major roles in employees’ decisions in accepting a job offer1. Employers who adopt remote working, they must create policies that guarantee an environment that ensures employees’ development and improvement. This way, an organization will attract the top from the global talent pool.
The Advancement that technology brings nowadays, contributes greatly in making working remotely a remarkable experience. However, every system has its own pros and cons. While remote workers get to experience many perks and pros, they get to, as well, face some challenges.
Working remotely seems to be the safest and best option for an unknown period of time that, in fact, it is becoming the new normal. It has many benefits as follows:
1. Added Flexibility
Nowadays, a growing number of companies are more and more inclined towards quality over quantity; that is, businesses are becoming keener on the quality of the end product of an employee rather than when they did the job or how long it took them to get it done. Working remotely gives the full autonomy to arrange one’s schedule flexibly, as long as meetings are attended and deadlines are met with quality.
2. Less Social Distraction
The famous “water cooler” encounter is not at play when working remotely; where employees like to share what they did the night before or even some of the anecdotes that they face in their day-to-day life. Despite the distractions that may come across the remote workers, they are less frequent than some of the teammates who spend the time they are paid sharing personal stories.
3. Saving Money
On both sides, the employer and the employee, money is saved. For the employee, they do not get to spend money on the gas of the commute to and from the workplace, snacks and lunches. As for employers, even if they pay formal benefits for employees, they still save money on facility and maintenance.
4. Work-Life Balance
Saving the time to commute to and from work every day can help buffer extra time to manage personal life; such advantage can bring happiness to remote workers, as they have a better chance to balance their personal lives and well fit their personal responsibilities into their day-to-day schedules. The saved and well-utilized hours affect employees positively, which affects, in return, the bottom line of the organization; as they retain their satisfied, well-balanced, and motivated employees.
5. Keeping a Healthy Lifestyle
It is a challenge to keep a healthy lifestyle while working in an office. A lot of people find the daily rush keeps them from maintaining a healthy and balanced nutrition system. When working remotely from home, the pace is calmer; you don’t have to get ready to head to the office, and you don’t have to go through the commute itself, this results in a considerable amount of time that you save to plan on and further follow a healthy lifestyle. You can prepare nutritious and healthy meals and snacks. You can start the day with a jog or an exercise session. It is also possible to take short breaks throughout the day and do some physical activity to keep the circulation going.
6. More Freedom
Working remotely, especially from home, can offer some spectrum of freedom. You can turn on music to the level that helps you concentrate, given that you have no other working partners who may get distracted, or you can display as many personal pictures as you wish in your personal space specified for work. You can do whatever keeps you motivated; in other words, you are more in control.
7. Team Diversity
When organizations go beyond traditional hiring processes, they get to experience more employee diversity. Working remotely presents new calibers from different cultures not only from around the same country, albeit from around the globe. This contributes greatly to the diversity and inclusion in organizations, as this means they have more opinions offered, different perspectives, and different work styles that push towards more improvement and potential maximization.
8. Learning New Skills
The flexibility that working remotely offers provides a chance for remote workers to contemplate improvement opportunities. They could be work-related skills, or other skills that increase their feeling of fulfillment and sense of achievement.
1Niraj Chokshi 2017, accessed on April 28 2021,https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/15/us/remote-workers-work-from-home.html
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