The work from home trend is not a new concept. Workers have been working from home from the dawn of civilization, but speaking strictly in the modern era, let's take the past 40 years this trend has increased year after year.
In 1979, with the OPEC oil embargo in its sixth year, the Washington Post published the article, "Working at Home Can Save Gasoline," which suggests telecommuting could have eased the gas crisis. This article urged companies to introduce telecommuting to conserve gas. As you can imagine, employers were opposed to this idea initially. They used argument such as:
How can you tell that the workers are doing any work at all from the comfort of their homes? Or, workers are missing out on crucial interactions with their team.
But the counterarguments must have been strong enough to help support this trend as it keeps increasing every year. Let's take a look at some of the advantages for both employer and work-from-home employees.
First and foremost, the best managers agree that the measure of workers' performance is based on their results rather than the hours of the day they spend in their offices.
Studies show that workers are less distracted at home than at their workplace. Which intern increases their productivity and performance. Offices are busy and noisy places, and co-workers can easily distract with questions or interactions.
Working from home doesn't need to be an all or nothing proposition. It could be a hybrid. Time shared between companies' offices might be necessary for workers to join their teams for important meetings or presentations and home office.
Studies show that workers that work from home display greater satisfaction and lower stress levels than workers commuting to the company's offices. Factors like avoiding commuter traffic and a decrease in work-life conflicts contribute to happier workers.
Some other significant advantages to note, workers save time & money by avoiding the office commute. They get involved in the communities where they live and improve their health and wellbeing.
Employers are winners, too, savings in office space as fewer workers are on-site — increased productivity from work from home workers and, most importantly, a vast talent pool. The best talent will require the employer to make concessions regarding their telecommuting abilities. These perks can be a deciding factor for a worker to accept a position.
We must acknowledge - not all workers can be work-from-home workers, but there's a reason this trend is on the rise year after year, and the most versatile forward-thinking employers will reap the benefits of these remote workers. Feel free to reach out to NexusCW for ways to improve the workers' experience for workers that work at home.
