Over the past few years, there has been a noticeable shift in employers becoming more flexible with working arrangements – offering flexi time and working from home options to their employees. The recent Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown has transformed working from home from a ‘nice to have’ perk, to a necessity for organisations across the country. Businesses that have failed to adopt remote working have floundered in the current crisis, whereas those who have moved their operations to the cloud have breezed through and continued without interruption.
With an estimated 50% of the UK workforce predicted to work remotely in 2020, this figure looks set to rise dramatically with the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent workplace restrictions in place.
As well as remote working capabilities allowing businesses to carry on as usual in times of crisis, here are some other proven financial and social benefits of remote working for companies.
The explosion of wellness and self-care awareness over the past couple of years has meant that many businesses and employees are turning their focus to improving the balance between work and personal life. The traditional 9-5 working day is becoming a thing of the past, with businesses recognising that restrictive hours cause stress for employees, who have numerous obligations outside of work – children to collect from school, dental appointments or fitness classes to attend, or being home for the plumber to fix a sudden leak. All these things can be done a little more easily when working from home. The melding of work and personal life has become key to achieving more balance.
It is estimated that 90% of the UK workforce commute to work, with average commute times being highest in London (79 minutes) followed by the South East and East of England (60 minutes). Remote workers eliminate or lessen a commute, allowing them to get extra sleep in the morning, fit in a workout, spend more time with their family or even start work earlier. Winning all that time back in the morning and evening of each day can transform the lives of your team.
For both business owners and employees, remote working can mean significant financial savings. Where business owners can save costs on the rent and running fees of an office space, employees are able to reduce or eliminate expenditure on petrol, parking fees, a professional wardrobe, childcare and lunches and coffee bought out. These savings on both sides add up and put more money back into the business, and the employee’s pocket.
Employers are moving away from the age-old question of ‘if I don’t see my employees working, are they?’. The opportunity for employees to work out of the office could be the key to driving increased productivity. Research has shown that when employees skip extra coffee breaks, a long commute and other office based distractions to focus on their work, productivity rockets. A two-year study by Stanford University followed 500 employees after dividing them into “remote” and “traditional” working groups. The remote working group results not only showed a work productivity boost equal to a full day’s work, but also fewer sick days and a 50 percent decrease in employee attrition.
As we’ve seen with the outbreak of Covid-19, the safest way to stop the spread of viruses and diseases is to stay at home to remove the risk of infection. The ability to recover from illness or surgery at home means a healthier team due to reduced exposure, and hopefully a quicker convalescence period within the comfort of the employee’s own home. Working from home also means that employees have more freedom to make healthy life choices, meaning less down time through illness or injury.
Are you thinking of adopting remote working for your business? We can help.
At HDUK, we’re passionate about the economical and wellbeing benefits that working from home offers to both business owners and employees. Want to know more? Call our friendly team on 0203 239 6181 or email contact@hduk.co.uk today for a no obligation demonstration and quote of our services.
Behind the technology and security that customers have come to know and trust with HDUK, it's our people that make the real difference. We take great pride in offering dedicated IT support for our customers by investing in specialists, that are experts in the tools you use every day. Our team are very important to us and we know that you feel the same way about your employees. It's why we put people at the heart of our business.
We are dedicated to providing reliable, secure, industry-leading IT solutions to elevate your business and maximise your potential. Working remotely has never been so important, so join the 15,000 users who already trust HDUK with their hosted services.
