5 Reasons to Think About Work From Home

With the accessibility of everything online these days, working from home has become a very hot topic. For those that do freelance work, working from home is their whole schtick. So what about workers that spend their whole day online, interact with coworkers over the web, and have access to everything they need over the network but still have to come into work each day? For some this makes absolutely no sense. However some employers insist on their workers being in-house due to lack of trust or fear of losing control. Many other reasons cause employers to make it mandatory for their workers to come into work each day. On the flip side though, it has been found that telecommuting is beneficial for both the employee and the employer. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why employers should think about letting their employees work from home- if appropriate.

Trust
When you let your employees work from home, you are showing them that you trust them and respect that they will get their work done. If you know that your employee is a good worker and they complete all of their work on a computer every day, then why not let them work from home? Trust is a very important aspect of an employee-employer relationship. What better way to show your employee that you trust them then to let them work in the confines of their own home? On top of that, since you showed them how much you trust them and their work ethic, chances are they will be more productive. Which leads us to our next reason.

Increased Productivity
There have been many case studies on this “work from home” trend and most of them found that employees were actually more productive when they worked from home. One study from Pennsylvania State University looked at the employee’s self-perceived productivity and the employer’s view of their productivity. While the employees did not think they were being more productive working from home, their manager’s did. On top of that, the study also found that working from home did not lower an employee’s career expectations. All good things for the work-from-home pushers.

Freedom
When employees have the chance to work from home, they gain a larger sense of freedom. Employees that work from home usually have a larger sense of control over their work- which is expected since they are managing their own time and working from their own space! You’d be amazed at how much more you can achieve and produce if you don’t feel tied to the desk ball and chain.

Bring in More Talent
If you offer your employees the possibility of working from home, chances are you will bring in much more talent than if you simply keep it in the office. Working from home is a trend today for a reason. The benefits are endless. Most new, savvy workers these days will actually look for work opportunities that offer them the option to work from home. You can turn a lot of talent off by only offering an in-house position. If you offer work from home, chances are your employees will be happier and much more apt to stay with your company- meaning they will be loyal employees.

Save Money
If you want to grow your workforce, but don’t have adequate space then work from home may solve a ton of your problems. You can hire a lot more employees if you have some of them working from home. That way, you can have the employees that must complete their work in-house and the employees that can work all online work from home. You can then grow the part of your workforce that must be in-house and also grow your work from home workforce. All the while costing you little to nothing more.

Having a work from home option is certainly a choice that you will have to make for your own company or department. However, you can’t deny the benefits that go along with offering it. Of course, there are tons of companies or businesses that must have their work completed in-house. This post doesn’t apply to them. It applies to those companies that have most of their employees complete most or all of their work on a computer and can get by without physically interacting with anyone on a day-to-day basis. For those companies, offering work from home may be something to consider.

SOURCE: Chief Happiness Officer