If you have a business of your own, chances are, you’ve done a lot of consideration over the past couple of years in regard to how to keep your business up and running. Recent times have been difficult for business owners in a variety of ways.
We’ve struggled through the Covid 19 pandemic. We’ve found ourselves operating through a cost of living crisis and many countries around the world are facing an upcoming recession.
It’s completely reasonable to feel a little concerned right now and to be looking for ways to guarantee a brighter future for the companies that are providing us with our income and means of supporting not only ourselves but our staff too.
One area that you might be taking into consideration is switching your staff to remote contracts. This new mode of work offers benefits and perks not only for your team but for your business, its operating costs, and its profit margins too! Here’s some further information that can help you to decide whether this is a move that you want to make or not.
Why Consider Remote Contracts?
So, you may be wondering why you should consider remote working contracts. What’s in it for you? Many businesses are so used to having their teams in the office that it’s something that they do naturally.
Business owners automatically go to look at potential office spaces when deciding to take on a team, ensuring that they have somewhere they can comfortably work from. The issue with this? When you hire a commercial premises such as an office space, you’ll find that you pour a lot of money into it.
Commercial rent doesn’t come cheap – especially for offices that are in desirable locations that are accessible to your team members and that have the right size, facilities, and more to create a productive work environment.
Then, you have the costs of running and maintaining the office space to a high standard. You’ll need to consider overheads like electric and gas bills. You’ll need to furnish and maintain the furnishings in the space. You’ll need to pay professional cleaning staff. You’ll need to cover the costs of any repairs to things like the electrics and heating. The list goes on and on.
The truth is that many staff working in office-based positions that simply require them to work at a laptop or computer all day simply don’t need an office space to work from. They can complete the same work to the same quality from the comfort of their own homes, allowing you to cut out commercial premises rent and all of the other costs that come hand in hand with running an office.
Can Staff Work Productively From Home?
Of course, many business owners worry about staff productivity. The home environment can be distracting and when your staff works from home, you can’t actually see what they’re doing, how many breaks they are taking, and other factors of their working day.
However, you may find that micromanagement where you force staff in-office doesn’t just cost you more, but can also reduce staff satisfaction levels. Instead, you can simply set your staff KPIs and goals and ensure that they are hitting them.
As long as they are achieving the goals you set them, you can guarantee that they are putting the effort in that you are paying for. You may also want to look into tracking employee hours to ensure that they are hitting their working hours if this is something that you are concerned about.
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Getting Employee Feedback
Of course, this isn’t a small-scale change and some staff might not actually want to work from home. There are pros and cons to everything in life.
Some staff may find that they much prefer having the option to cut out the cost and time taken to commute to work every day. They may find that they are more comfortable working from home. Others may not have the optimal home environment to work from or may feel that they miss the face-to-face social interaction of in-office work.
The best way to determine whether remote working options work for your staff or not is to send out an anonymous survey covering all topics that you want to hear their opinion on. This will give them an environment where they can feel comfortable letting you know what they think and how they feel. This will then allow you to make a fair and informed final decision that lets you and your staff benefit!
Remote work can be great for business in many ways. Hopefully, the information above will help you to determine whether it’s for you and your team or not!
