During lockdown pretty much every office worker has had a taste of working from home. Some love it, others hate it.
Now, businesses have opted more for a hybrid work schedule, which includes a portion of the workweek to work from home. We’ve grouped together a list of the most common advantages and disadvantages of a work-from-home strategy so that you can decide what is best for your business.
Global Workplace Analytics conducted a study of over 4,000 reports to find the following benefits.
1. Improves employee satisfaction
- People are sick of the rat-race, eager to take control of their lives, and desperate to find a balance between work and life.
- As such, two-thirds of people want to work from home and 36% would choose it over a pay raise.
- In addition, a poll of 1,500 technology professionals revealed that 37% would take a pay cut of 10% if they could work from home.
- Gen Y’ers are more difficult to recruit (as reported by 56% of hiring managers) and to retain (as reported by 64% of hiring managers), but they are particularly attracted to flexible work arrangements (rating among benefits as an 8 on a 10 scale for impact on overall job satisfaction).
- 80% of employees consider working from home as a job perk.
2. Reduces employee turnover
- Losing employees can cost on average between $10,000 to $30,000 and recruiting and training a new hire can cost thousands.
– 14% of Americans have changed jobs to shorten the commute.
– 46% of companies that allow employees to work from home say it has reduced attrition.
– 95% of employers say working from home has a high impact on employee retention.
– Almost half of employees feel their commute is getting worse; 70% of them feel their employers should take the lead in helping them solve the problem.
– 92% of employees are concerned with the high cost of fuel and 80% of them specifically cite the cost of commuting to work. 73% feel their employers should take the lead in helping them reduce their commuting costs.
– Two-thirds of employees would take another job to ease the commute.
3. Reduces unscheduled absences
- It will come as no surprise that 78% of employees who call in sick, really aren’t! They do so because of family issues, personal needs, and stress.
- Unscheduled absences cost employers $1,800/employee/year; that adds up to $300 billion/year for U.S. companies.
- According to the American Management Association, organizations that implemented a work-from-home program, realized a 63% reduction in unscheduled absences.
- Work-from-homers typically continue to work when they’re sick (without infecting others).
- Work-from-homers return to work more quickly following surgery or medical issues.
- Flexible hours allow work-from-homers to run errands or schedule appointments without losing a full day.
4. Increases productivity
- Best Buy, British Telecom, Dow Chemical reported that employees that work from home are 35–40% more productive.
- It’s estimated that businesses lose $600 billion a year in workplace distractions.
- Over two-thirds of employers report increased productivity among their employees that work from home.
- Sun Microsystems’ estimated that their employees spend 60% of the commuting time they save performing work for the company.
- AT&T have reported that their employees work five more hours per week working from home compared to office-based workers.
- Whereas, JD Edwards has stated that work from homers are 20–25% more productive than their office counterparts.
- American Express believe their workers are 43% more productive and Compaq believe it’s 15–43%.
