Working in an office is fun! Wearing clothes that don’t need drawstrings to stay up, watercooler gossip, and – if your company is anything like ours – a constant stream of cake in one form or another. But isn’t it time that your team catches up with the rest of the job market and takes the WFH plunge? Here are five signs that your team is ready to move their operations away from the office.
If there is even a shred of doubt in your mind about whether your team’s operations categorically, undoubtedly, unquestionably MUST be done from an office, you owe it to yourself to check how much money your team could save by working remotely. The total amount that can be saved by this move is much, much higher than most of us realise. If most of your communication can take place via emails, chats and calls, both your company overheads and personal expenses could be just a click away from being drastically reduced. Office rent, Wi-Fi and utility bills, and other unconsidered preventive maintenance could vanish as well as travel expenses, morning coffees, the season’s must-have fashion trends, and toiletries (just kidding – please keep your hygiene up even if working from home). One study found that if a company allowed an employee to work from home just half of the time, it would save on average $11,000 per employee, and the employees themselves would save on average $4,000 per year. That’s a LOT of petrol.
In October 2020, Microsoft announced that they are giving their employees the option to work from home permanently, if they so choose. With the resources of a small country behind their decisions, we can be sure that they’re making the best commercial choice for themselves and their employees. Other companies that have announced extended work-from-home options include Uber, American Express, AirBnb, Indeed and Google. Is your company better than Google? Is it?
What? Oh right, we’re living through a pandemic! This one is self-explanatory but what we may not have considered is that there is no sign that restrictions on group gatherings will ease up any time soon. The World Health Organisation currently recommends that we maintain a distance of 2 meters from those who do not live in our households and most types of congregations have been outright banned. This is not a temporary measure. The relevant precautions that are necessary to maintaining a safe working environment for your team are costly, time-consuming and required indefinitely. Imagine all of the masks, sanitiser, extra cleaning and empty desk space that you’ll save.
As the next generation of employees enters the workforce, they are automatically drawn to companies with remote and flexible working options. Adjusting to the times is a necessary move for any employer with good business acumen, and in this case that means joining the rest of the organisations that are favoured by those with this best options. The best employees will have their pick of roles, and they’re certainly going to choose the option of working from home above a traditional and slowly declining office-based environment. You’d have a much larger, and much more qualified, pool of talent to choose from.
So you’ve decided to move your team into 2020 – congratulations! And don’t worry, you’ll still have access to all the cake your heart desires. Maybe even more.
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