6 Reasons Why You Should Let Your Employees Work Remotely

Remote work continues to gain in popularity as employees are starting to notice that they don’t have to spend 8 hours in the office and another 2-4 hours commuting. Currently, also employers have begun to notice the advantages of remote work. Some of them allowed their employees to work remotely for the first time because of the current situation.

Although managing a remote workforce may seem problematic from an employer’s initial point of view, it can also offer unique benefits in the long term.

What does it mean to work remotely? 

In general, working remotely means doing your job from any place outside of the office – not only from home but also, from a coworking space, a cafe or location with a reliable internet connection. People have been known to change their lives completely by pursuing the digital nomad lifestyle – which involves traveling around the world while working remotely.

Finding a telecommuting job is not so hard either, especially if you’re skilled in any branch of IT. There are many remote work job boards out there, where thousands of professionals can browse through relevant job ads. According to Buffer’s State of Remote Work Report – once you go remote, you’re most likely not coming back to the everyday grind.

1.You’re looking at a bigger talent pool

It’s much easier to employ a person who matches your needs when you don’t limit yourself to a geographical area. It’s particularly tricky when talking about seasoned technical experts, simply because there aren’t many professionals who have a high–level skill set out there. For example: let’s say you require a skilled web developer to take care of your website, and you need that person to work on–site. 

According to Stack Overflow’s Developer Survey Results; 12% of developers that work remotely full–time have 60% more years of professional coding experience than those who don’t. The survey states that highly experienced tech professionals are more likely to land a remote developer job.

What does it mean in the context of your on-site opening? You, as an employer, typically would have three options when it comes to seeking the right developer with the right experience: either hire a junior on-site, try out remote work, or try twice as hard to find an on-site senior developer.

The majority of software developers who work from home find it ideal and are unlikely to change their situation. By rigidly expecting highly skilled tech employees to commute into the office every day means that you’re missing out on thousands of potential candidates.

2. Your employer branding will stand out

More and more companies are embracing the remote work lifestyle; however, they are still a minority among most businesses. Adapting your company to telecommuting involves preparing specific documentation, processes, and setting up tools that help you stand out from your on-site competition. 

If you have any trouble in scaling your company, attracting passive candidates, employee retention – this is the direction you should be taking! 

You won’t have to instantaneously get rid of your office space and instruct your employees to work remote. Start with one day a week and you’ll notice an increase in motivation and productivity. Transitioning slowly to the remote work lifestyle also helps you retain employees. Once employees try out telecommuting, it’s challenging to return to on-site work.

However, it’s important to remember that communication is the key element of remote work – read the article Remote Work vs Company’s Culture – How We Can Make It Work? to learn how to cultivate the company’s culture.

3. You’ll build valuable connections

Especially applicable if your employees work from coworking spaces. ITCraftship is a member of WeWork Labs; this allows us not only to socialize over a coffee in the communal areas but to build relationships with other professionals. These connections are valuable for both employees and employers, as they can lead to potential sales or cooperation opportunities. 

Connections built through coworking communities can potentially lead to the collaboration with entrepreneurs from other countries and organizations. Recently, ITCraftship’s CEO Maks Majer held workshops in Stockholm’s WeWork about the Future of Tech Hiring and How to Hire Smarter.

4. You’ll save more money

When it comes to saving money – this one is obvious. As companies scale up, they incur costs from requiring more and more office space, in addition to moving expenses. Giving your employees an allowance for working at coworking spaces or cafes is much more manageable than having an office. You won’t have to worry about electricity bills, maintenance, cleaning, etc.

In London, the average cost of renting an office space for one person amounts to between £650 – £1500 per month. According to PGi, in the US, the average real estate savings with full–time teleworkers is $10,000 per employee per year.

In addition, it’s a great choice if you care about the environment. PGi reports that two billion gallons of gas would be saved annually by a US telecommuting workforce, which really makes a difference for our ecosystems.

5. You’ll save more time

The time-saving benefits should be evident. Having a broader talent pool of highly-skilled remote software developers enables you to close a recruitment process twice as fast as an on-site position!

If you’d like some actionable advice on how to conduct a remote developer recruitment process, check out our case study, where we describe how we helped a Norwegian software house, Northern.tech find a great remote software programmer.

6. You’ll see progress

Having employees all over the globe gives you surprising insights into other cultures. It’ll broaden your mind and enrich you. It can also bring business perks depending on what and where you sell. Having a local on-site can get you increased insight into the foreign market.

Opening up to the remote working lifestyle has proven to us that it is the most agile, economical, and productive workstyle. Our workforce is distributed across the world; we have employees in Poland, Slovenia, Argentina, South Africa and the Philippines.

Summary

We know that turning remote doesn’t necessarily equate to success for every company – to achieve that you need to have the right people on board. That is why we established ITCraftship – to help other startups and scale-ups give remote work a chance and to make the transition as smooth as possible. 

We help entrepreneurs having problems with hiring software developers by sourcing professionals all around the globe and review their skills, so that the risk for the employer is minimal. We shared lots of useful tips in the article Hiring a Remote Developer While Scaling up a Company – 5 Must Know Facts.

We don’t focus only on technical skills but also on the ability to communicate and be productive while telecommuting. Our goal is to build long-lasting relationships between companies looking for full-time development support with remote software programmers, who can help them achieve their business goals.