Remote work — working from home or out in the community — has seen a rise in recent years. This comes as no surprise. In the digital age, where long-distance communication is easy and both advancements in computer hardware and software support all facets of operation, there is no reason every task must be completed from a static work environment. There are plenty of ways that remote work can enhance how your business operates.
1. Offer Out-of-Hours Work
Not everyone is able to engage with your business within the 9-5 timeframe. Even if you are operating later than that, as many companies do, weekdays can be a challenge for customers with other commitments. To offer customers better opportunities in terms of contacting and working with you, flexibility is required.
Flexibility is one of the defining characteristics of remote work.
Remote work gives you and other staff members the ability to manoeuvre working hours around your own schedule, as well as those of your customers. The process makes it far easier to adapt life around work, which makes it easier to offer flexibility. Being able to offer better opportunities for out-of-hours work promises ample chance for growth, as you can start to work with customers you’d have previously been unable to. This kind of flexibility is something that will be appreciated by your clients, which in turn draws in more opportunities for your business.
2. Support Employment Needs
Growth cannot be achieved without good staff. However, hiring can be difficult. Many skilled jobs go unfilled. Effective onboarding processes and attractive job opportunities are crucial for the success of your business, and remote work can help support that goal. More and more individuals are seeking out jobs specifically with remote work available. Potential recruits want the flexibility that comes with the ability to work from home at hours that best suit their needs.
Remote work has also been shown to increase employee retention by boosting motivation and leaving employees generally happier in their careers. Remote work could in fact be the key to not only onboarding great staff, but retaining them too.
3. Support Data Security Development
Business owners face a crisis of information. Fax transmission remains an essential method of communication for many, but recent developments like faxploit highlight how vulnerable the technology is.
However, remote work could provide some potential solutions to this problem, simply by forcing a change of process.
In order to work effectively, you must be able to fax a document, as well as receive one. The use of faxing as a means to send documents is simply too entrenched within the system to lose this form of document transmission. But the physical fax machine itself is immobile. You cannot take a fax machine out on jobs, and having one set up in a home-based environment can create a myriad of data protection issues. You need an alternative when considering remote work.
Online faxing services facilitate the sending and receiving of fax documents through online portals and smartphone applications, so you are not tied to the physical fax machine to send and receive your documents. You can send and receive fax documents just as you would with a fax machine, only all communication is digital and paperless. You can even add e-signatures to your digital documents, without the need to have to print your documents to sign them and scan them. The benefit is that your business is now capable of sending faxes at your own convenience from anywhere.
By developing remote work faxing, you for the removal of fax machines from your company. This eliminates the paper from your faxing processes and reduces the paper-related risks associated, all while helping to future proof your organisation by bringing it further into the 21st century.
4. Lower Costs and Resource Use
In an era of budget cuts and resource challenges, cutting costs is essential not only to your business’ development, but also its very survival. Remote working can help to reduce costs through a multitude of ways:
- Space Saving — People need space to work. Space is a high-value commodity. By having some members of staff work remotely, you can free up in-house areas for others. This allows you to increase the size of your employee roster, as well as your capabilities to take on more clients, without having to add in the cost of expanding your real estate or resources.
- General Practice Fees — Electricity, water, coffee, stationary, and more — they’re all small expenses in the short term, but in the long term, they all add up to significant costs. Remote work can reduce these costs, simply by having fewer people in the office requires less investment in regularly purchasing these.
- Productive — Remote work has been shown to increase productivity; employees respond well to a reduction in commute times as it gives them more time to focus on other areas of work. The result is that you get more out of the investment you put into your business.
5. Reach New Customers
Remote work can dramatically impact your ability to reach clients. Movement opens up travel to new areas and communities, while working from home can invite the possibility of attracting individuals looking for services with a personal touch.
Business growth is often facilitated by an ever-growing roster of customers — especially if you work partially, or even exclusively — with private individuals rather than the business-to-business space. Remote work opens doors to better access for these kinds of individuals. The greater your reach, the more people you can offer care to. Attracting more customers enhances growth. It’s a simple, but effective formula.
