Reasons Why Home Working Is The Future

The benefits of working from home can be huge for companies, their employees and their clients. And the number of home-based workers in the UK is growing year-on-year.

POSH Communication has been in business for 11 years now, and in the past 2 years, we decided to offer the option of home working to our employees. Here’s how it’s worked for us. Along with the pros and cons of working from home:

Business Benefits of Working from Home

Increased Productivity

In today’s online world, it’s very easy for teams to work remotely from home. Many workers prefer it. They find it easier to concentrate, free from the distractions of a busy office. They can keep in touch via phone and email. And If they need to have a meeting, they can use conference call or video chat technology. Lots of people work more productively from home, and they feel empowered and trusted. Also, they avoid the long, annoying daily commute to the office and home in rush hour. This means increased productivity for us, as and a happier less stressed employee.

Reduced Costs

With most of our team preferring to work at home, we have reduced our costs by around £20K per year. We have a much smaller office, reduced rates, almost non-existent associated bills and less stationary costs. Our office overheads are almost completely disappeared.

Reduced Staff Turnover

All Scottish digital marketing agency’s struggle with high staff turnover. We were many a time victim to spending years training up graduates. Only to lose them to other agencies once their training was complete. Since changing to home working options, we have only lost one member of staff. One who wanted a change in career. None have left for the temptations of other agencies, and all are much more content in their career with us at the POSH Agency.

Skills Retention

By increasing job satisfaction through home working, staff have a better work life balance. Employees now don’t want to leave as they have a much more balanced and happier way of life.

Improved Motivation

Home-working can improve the motivation of staff because they enjoy the independence and the trust invested in them. Our team here at POSH Communication are all passionate self-starters. They can organise their own work delivery and deliver work when and how they wish. They can now work, how they work best. Be it 6 in the morning with a big midday break. Or, working into the evening with a glass of wine. We don’t mind how and when our team work. As long as they are available when we need them and they deliver high-quality work on time… which they always do!!

Business Flexibility

With teams of home workers, pulling together the best skills and experience for our clients is much easier. We aren’t constrained to the skills within one city anymore. We have a wider pool of potential employees to choose from, as they could be located anywhere in the country. It’s also easier to find skilled part time staff, who are looking for a job that works with other commitments.

What’s more, in times of crisis or high workload, home-working can enable our super team of staff to catch up, without using precious time to travel into the office. We can also cope with external disruptions such as transport strikes and severe weather without any difficulties. Our business just keeps ticking along, no matter what’s going on outside.

Happy Clients

Keeping costs low by home working means that we can pass those savings on to our clients. So, we’re offering the best service possible to our clients at the best value for money. They benefit from our competitive rates, but many also prefer to work with smaller, more down-to-earth companies.

Benefits For The Employee

Better Balance of Work and Family Life

Our employees have a more flexible job that fits around their lifestyle. They are able to see more of their family and take on more of their share of home responsibilities. Such as ferrying the children around, shopping, being at home for gas/electricity/water meters to be read, parcels to be delivered, and so on.

The Challenges of Home Working

Training of New Staff

On-boarding new staff can be tricky. To be successful the employee has to be committed to their new role and want to work from home. We as an agency need to be extra vigilant at ensuring open communication with regular check-in calls and video calls to help them feel confident and supported. This is also essential to build relationships between staff when not in an office environment.

Loneliness

A few of our single members of staff have said that at times it can be lonely working from home. All have found their own ways of combating this loneliness. One of our team members now travels around Europe on short breaks, working and calling in from hotels and cafes abroad. Another pops in and out of our remote office and home works with family. When asked, however, all have advised that they still prefer the option of working from home for a friendly business, than being in an office full time.

Home or Office Working?

For us, the benefits of working from home outweigh the challenges. Our business is perfectly suited to home working and we would certainly recommend it. We are a happy team with happy clients.

What do you think? Would you consider home working too? And here are some great tools to help you be more productive when working from home.