Any successful organisation knows how important it is to build a productive work environment. We try to find ways to make our offices more conducive to heads-down and focused work. But what if the best way to make an office more productive is to take out the office all together?
There has been a steady increase in remote teams, and that’s for good reason. Many facts seem to point to the case that virtual employees are better set up to become more productive. In this video, founder of Outsourcing Angel, Linh Podetti, shares research and experience to showcase just how virtual employees are more productive.
1. No Office Distractions
Office chatter, noisy work mates, commuting, impromptu meetings. There is a vast number of factors in the office that can distract an employee from his or her work. Studies show that it takes a distracted employee an average of twenty three minutes to get back to a task after an interruption. With Virtual Employees, those distractions can be cut way down. That’s because they work in an environment they choose.
2. Lesser Sick Time
A Stanford Study recently showed that in-office employees took 62% more sick days than Virtual Employees. Offices make you prone to infections from other co-workers. If one employee gets sick, it won’t be long until one or two follow. Because virtual employees work from home, they can keep lessen sickness by keeping their places clean and tidy.
3. Better retention
The Millennial Survey by Deloitte states that 45% of employees in non-flexible arrangements have plans of leaving their current role within 2 years time. Work-life balance is becoming one of the highest values in today’s workforce. Virtual arrangements give remote workers that privilege and thus cause them to stay in a company longer!
4. Work Schedule Design
Because virtual employees can work anywhere, they can bring their work where they need to be. Need to visit the dentist? Virtual workers can bring a laptop and finish tasks while waiting for their turn. An in-office employee will most likely have to take half a day off to do the same. In the process, he or she loses half a day’s worth of work! Remote workers can fix their schedules around work and get more things done.
5. External Factors
Several office factors can cause stress and lower job satisfaction. Office politics, for instance, can cause a lot of stress. But it’s been shown that there are lesser and more subtle forms of office politics in virtual teams. Virtual Employees are also in complete control over who they surround themselves with, which helps them eliminate unwanted external factors.
6. Independence
With the absence of a helicopter supervisor, virtual employees end up becoming more self-disciplined and independent. The independence that remote workers can have can make them even more productive because they get work done whether they’re told to or not.
Conclusion
The nature of our work spaces are rapidly changing. We no longer need cubicles and desks to get things done. Just an active internet connection. Remote work arrangements are starting to become the new normal, and that’s because companies see the value in this set-up. If you want to build more productive teams, it’s time you started considering having virtual employees as well!
