The business atmosphere we currently live in does not require face-to-face contact to quickly move toward working remotely. Recent shutdowns have challenged companies to either figure out how to run businesses remotely, or else watch your dreams go down the drain.
With this mandatory shift to telecommuting, more and more businesses are seeing the viable option of a remote team. But what many may not know is there are many other advantages to this virtual work approach.
More Specialization
For starters, creating a remote team allows you to hire the right person with the right skills for the right job, rather than a jack-of-all-trades. Many virtual professionals today work for more than one person, and therefore develop very specialized skill sets. You no longer have to hire “Sally” to do customer service, bookkeeping and social media.
Instead, you could hire:
- Jane, a CRM specialist to create a system for you to maximize your customer communications and targeted sales efforts.
- Nancy, a Pinterest specialist (or YouTube specialist) to increase brand visibility, drive traffic, grow your email list and ultimately increase your customer list.
- Melanie, an email marketing specialist to create or improve client onboarding processes and to create ongoing value-based email campaigns.
- Diane, an administrative assistant to manage your inbox, answer phone calls, and handle routine admin tasks so you can focus on growing your business.
Higher Retention Rates
You can attract and retain quality candidates. Study showing 95% of employers surveyed reported that working from home has had a high impact on their employee retention rate.
For moms, working remotely provides the ability to have a better work / life balance. For instance, if a child is sick, mom can continue to work while monitoring their child. In the same way, she can take a break to go watch her child’s school performance and make up the time if needed.
Get More for Your Money
You get more for your money when hiring remote workers. According to Highfive, remote workers accomplish 30% more work in less time. In addition, Forbes.com reports that 77% of those who work from home get more done in fewer hours since they forego distractions like meetings, conversations, and noisy coworkers.
In addition to increased productivity, hiring independent contractors is more cost effective than hiring an employee with benefits. In many cases, those seeking remote gigs value their freedom and flexibility over an office job, and may be willing to work for less than a traditional employee.
Additional Benefits
Having a remote team also provides additional benefits to your business and the environment.
- As a remote business, you can save on office space, equipment, insurance. Businesses can save up to $11,000 per employee by working remotely.
- You can also save on pollution, commute, and travel time. According to the State of Telecommuting, a person can save up to 11 days a year by not commuting.
- The tools are there to support virtual teamwork. Here are just a few: Zoom, Slack, Trello, Basecamp, G Suite and Asana.
Having the ability to hire the right person for the right job and pay a fair rate enables small businesses to grow faster than in pre-remote team days. When combined with all the additional benefits, establishing a virtual team becomes a real advantage for many small businesses.
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