Employee Engagement and the Rise of Telecommuting: What It Means for Your Biz
TeleworkPH
Published: June 29, 2017
Isn’t it frustrating when only a quarter (or even less) of your employees are highly engaged in your business?
You’ve tried everything to make them happier at work. A competitive salary… Great benefits… Free lunches… Anything that you deem fit for improving their work productivity. But still, these don’t seem to be enough.
Most of your employees are still disengaged. They never do their best at work. They always seem indifferent to your business goals. In other words, they just work for the sake of receiving their salary – nothing more.
You’re not the only one experiencing this very serious problem. In fact, employee engagement has been dipping since 2012 – and that’s worldwide.
You’re scratching your head thinking what to do next. But here’s a very simple solution that you have overlooked. And it’s allowing them to telecommute at work.
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The real deal between telecommuting and employee engagement
Wait, what? Why would I even allow my employees to telecommute? Wouldn’t it decrease their productivity more? I wouldn’t know if they would even do their job properly at home when I’m not watching over them. Wouldn’t their engagement dip more since they’re having less face-time with me, their boss, and their colleagues?
That’s probably what you’re thinking.
But have you read the recent report from Gallup? According to its State of the American Workplace report where they asked more than 7,000 US workers, employees who are able to work from home at least three to four days a week are the most engaged and happiest among them.
Surprising, huh?
The telecommuting employees you thought to be more prone to becoming disengaged are actually the people who will lift up your biz.
When you let your employees work from home, they feel more committed and more enthusiastic to do their jobs. But why is that?
It’s because of the freedom, the trust that you are giving them, and the chance of providing them to be with people who matter to them the most even while working. Perhaps, their being with their family gives them an additional inspirational boost.
And I could attest to that, as someone who’s working from home too.
Still not convinced? Then let me lay out to you the benefits of telecommuting for your business.
Benefits of telecommuting: Why say yes to it
Having happier and more engaged employees is already a given as we have discussed earlier. But there’s more to telecommuting and they are:
- You can lower your overhead costs – When you let your current employees telecommute or hire new remote workers to add to your team, you can lower your office expenses such as office supplies, electricity, water, or even the coffee and lunches that you buy for everyone. Approximately, you can save 60% in operational costs. If you really want to see how much you will save when you outsource your work to remote workers, take a look at this article from Dummies.com.
- You can save on infrastructure and technology – If you begin working with remote workers, there’s not much need for you to build new office infrastructure or acquire new equipment since most remote workers have already invested in their own working space and technology to get the job done.
- You can save your energy on people management – It’s quite exhausting managing your staff especially when it’s face-to-face. But when you’re dealing with telecommuting workers, you’ll only have to be clear on their deliverables and deadlines. There’s no need to constantly remind them to do their work since professional telecommute workers always strive to meet their client’s expectations and can work under minimal supervision.
- You can help the country and the environment – How? If 40% of the US population would work together and companies would allow their employees to telecommute, the country could save about 280 million barrels of oil annually and there would be less pollution.
Aren’t these benefits amazing? So why don’t you give telecommuting a try and ride on its rising trend? And oh, here’s another thing.
If you’re willing to recruit remote workers, they have a higher chance of staying and working for your company resulting in a lower turnover rate. Gallup says that more and more (office) people are willing to leave their jobs if they have a personal office.
But if you already hire remote workers from the start or allow your current employees to work from home, you don’t have to worry too much about them leaving since they already have their personal home office.
Lem Enrile is a freelance writer for hire with more than 5 years of experience in web content writing. As a writer, she specializes in a variety of topics such as digital marketing, service-based businesses, health, and pets. Check out her portfolio here, or you may contact her at ranxlem@gmail.com for your writing needs.
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