Hiring new employees can sometimes be stressful, particularly when your roles require specific skill sets and experience levels. You might advertise in your local area for a long time with many desirable perks and still struggle to find the perfect person to fill the role.
As challenging as it might be to hire local talent, it can be much easier than you think to fill your vacancies if you opt for less traditional hiring methods. If you’re not sure if hiring remote workers is suitable for you, consider the following potential benefits.
Workers Feel More Productive
Even if you don’t yet know how to hire remote workers,
it’s worth knowing that you might experience an increase in productivity if you learn all there is to know about this working style and hire someone from outside of your local area.
Most people feel more productive at some times of the day than others, which means if you give up your rigid nine-to-five working structure and allow remote workers to work the hours that suit them based on their time zones, you might notice that they achieve more than if they worked during standard office hours.
Workers Are Happier
Most employers want their employees to be happy. When they’re satisfied in their roles, they might be more passionate about their work and provide better customer service, which might positively impact your business reputation.
Studies have shown that remote work can increase employee happiness by as much as 20%. There are no long, stressful commutes to worry about, more work-life balance, and often better working hours to suit everyone’s unique needs. Happier workers are also often considered more productive, which is bound to be a desirable benefit for any business owner or manager.
You Can Extend Your Operational Hours
Many businesses offer set office hours, which are typically between 9am and 5pm. During these times, customers can contact you by phone, email, or, sometimes, live chat on your website if you’ve made this feature available.
After hours, customers have to wait until those working hours roll around once more before being able to have their questions answered or problems solved. However, that might not be the case once you hire remote workers from across the globe. With enough time zones covered, there’s potential for you to be about to provide 24/7 customer service, something that might set you apart from other businesses like your own.
Your Employees Might Be Less Stressed
There can be a great deal of stress associated with employment. While the demands of any job might contribute to those stress levels, commuting and inflexible work hours also can. Stressed employees might be less productive and may not even provide your customers with the level of service you expect.
There is potential for remote work to change that. When workers can eliminate their daily commute and work their necessary daily errands and chores around their job, they might feel like they have more balance in their work and home life.
They can still produce the same amount of work in the same number of hours, but they aren’t having to spend more of their precious time waiting in traffic or trying to arrange child-minding and other essential activities.
You Can Save Money
Business owners can sometimes find themselves in a tricky position. They need to pay someone to perform a job, but they also need their profit margins to be as high as possible for success. When you compare an in-office worker to a remote worker, you might notice that the costs can be dramatically different.
While you’ll still need to pay a fair and competitive wage, you might save a significant sum of money by not paying rent on office space, paying for an internet connection, or even buying office furniture like desks and chairs. Remote workers work from their own homes, which means they use their own furniture, utilities, and, often, their own computers to perform tasks for their employers.
More Talent Options
While it has traditionally been quite challenging for employers to find employees with specific skills, the hiring process can sometimes be much easier when you remove geographical barriers. By making your position a remote one, you can tap into a global talent pool and seek out experienced people worldwide rather than just in your town or city. There are plenty of online job advertisement platforms that you can utilize to ensure your company vacancies reach as many people as possible.
Your Business Can Benefit From Inclusivity and Diversity
When you start hiring people from all around the world to work for you remotely, there’s a chance your business could become more inclusive and diverse than ever before. You’re now hiring people from all backgrounds, cultures, religions, and walks of life, and they can bring significant value to your workplace that you might not have anticipated. In fact, the benefits can be wide-ranging.
Employees with different backgrounds and knowledge might lead to an increase in creative ideas and innovation, which can undoubtedly come in handy for advancement and business expansion in the future.
Diversity might also provide access to a broader range of available skills in your workplace, enhancing your workers’ problem-solving skills to benefit both employees and customers. Even team happiness can sometimes be a happy consequence of inclusivity and diversity, with co-workers being able to share a range of experiences to learn and work well together.
However, the advantages reach far beyond your team and management. Customers, too, might benefit from a more inclusive and diverse business. Depending on your target market, having a wider range of people working for your company might mean that they can relate better to more of your customers and provide superior service as a result.
You Can Be Seen As More Environmentally-Friendly
Many customers value environmentally-friendly businesses, but it can often be challenging to improve your practices to change your current image. While you might adopt a paperless office and say goodbye to single-use coffee cups, remote employees can sometimes provide the most impact.
As they don’t need to commute to an office every day, emitting carbon dioxide into the atmosphere with their vehicles, your business can become a reduced polluter compared to what it might have been. You might also decide to purchase electric company vehicles and package any products you sell in eco-friendly materials.
You Can Save Your Employees Money
Most people gain employment to make money, but there can also be costs associated with being employed. If you’re not within walking or biking distance of your place of business, you must purchase gas to travel by car or spend money on public transport or alternative means.
Naturally, remote workers don’t need to concern themselves with any form of transport. They can work from the comfort of their homes or even tie in their work around vacations and road trips, allowing them to work on the road when they’re already traveling for leisure. Even if your wages and salaries aren’t the highest in your industry, offering remote work might balance this out, making your business even more desirable to a broader range of people.
There’s no denying that hiring remote workers can be challenging, especially when you’ve never done it before. However, if there’s no reason why your team has to work from an office, there might be value in advertising remote work roles and potentially enjoying some of the benefits above.
