If you own a business and you have selected your team carefully, opting for either remote or hybrid working would seem like a simple and logical way forward. Once you have eliminated the most common objection that you can’t ‘trust’ your employees to work unsupervised, then remote working has a number of benefits.
#1 Overheads
Fewer people in the office means that your overheads should decrease, or you might choose to do away with the office altogether and instead hire a meeting room for those customers who insist on old-school face-to-face contact.
#2 Headcount
If you are adopting a hot desking policy (where employees are in on different days share the same desk), then you can increase your headcount without needing bigger premises. This also means that all employees will have access to key services like being able to knock on your or HR’s door.
#3 Recruitment
This approach also means that your recruitment pool extends way beyond those willing to commute to your office. You can source your workforce from anywhere in the country or even globally, widening your potential skill base, as well as allowing for some flexibility when it comes to salaries.
Of course, there are provisions you will have to make to make all of this possible, but they are quite small in comparison to the potential benefits, provided you do them correctly.
#4 Equipment
If they didn’t have them before, your team now will need laptops that they can use wherever they are working. While it might be tempting to ask them to use their own, if it is a company laptop, you can ensure that all of the software and security is kept up to date.
#5 Move your data to the cloud
If your staff need to communicate and access their work from anywhere at any time, then the cloud is the best bet. While this might sound scary, engaging the services of a specialist company like www.avepoint.com to make sure the transfer goes without a hitch and can also be managed securely from then on.
#6 Accessibility to services
If your team is solely working remotely, you are going to need to provide access to services they would normally have at the office; otherwise, they are not going to have access to HR, their direct supervisor, or each other for face-to-face contact. This can have issues for both the business in that any dynamic that may have existed is now gone and the individual, especially if the team at the office were the only people they ever saw.
In conclusion
Remote or even hybrid working is an attractive proposition to many business owners. However, there are some big steps for you to take to make it work properly if you want to enjoy the benefits that come with it. Luckily there may be surplus funds from savings in overheads and salaries to pay for the equipment needed, the provision of services in the new environment, and moving the hub of your business onto the cloud to make the move as smooth as possible for both your team members and the business as a whole.
