RWL041 How Remote Work Boosts Productivity, Enhances Well-Being, and Benefits Society

Benefits of Remote Work

Speaker 1

0:00

Hello, it's Alex from Remote Work Life here. I hope you're doing well, wherever you may be in the world, and thank you for listening to me. If you're new to the podcast, then you're very, very welcome. If you're a regular listener, thank you for coming back and listening to me and I hope whatever I'm putting out there is of use to you and, of course, I'm open to feedback. If you're enjoying the podcast, then please let me know. Please get in touch and I'll give you details later on in terms of how you can do that.

Speaker 1

0:31

But today I want to start by asking you a question have you ever thought about hiring people on a remote basis? Or, conversely, have you thought about allowing members of your current team to work remotely? If that is the case, then you're probably thinking about the effects it may have on the business You're thinking about. You know, if you're hiring, you think about the sort of person that you want in terms of I don't know the skills that they need, the type of person that they need to be. All those sorts of things are on your checklist and that's only natural and in my experience of hiring because you know I've done a lot of hiring in my time when I've either been speaking to clients who want to hire. More often than not they lead with the sorts of things that they need, their wants and their needs, and if you are, you know again, I spoke to hiring managers as well where they talk about the sort of fit that they need for the team and then, when they think about attracting people, they go on to list benefits, for example. People. They go on to list benefits, for example, and often the lists of benefits are very much the same from one person or from one business to another. So, for example, insurance, life insurance, things like 25 days holiday or wherever it may be, things like pool table, free breakfast, all those sorts of things.

Speaker 1

2:05

But what I would urge you to do is, when you're hiring, yes, think about those sorts of things, but also think about things from the perspective of the person that you're hiring. So try to really empathize with the person who eventually will become part of your business, and I think that way you will begin to see things more from their point of view and I think you'll be able to make much more of an attractive proposition when you come to market this particular opportunity or, you know, to attract people to that particular role and really I mean you all know that I'm a fan, I'm a big advocate of remote work and I think I mean there's a, there's a number of reasons why, when you're hiring, it makes sense to hire people on a remote basis, or at least it makes sense to really think about implementing remote into your way of work, to believe that you're either remote. You should either be remote or not. There's no halfway house and I agree with that. I think you should either be remote or not. But I mean really what I want to focus on today, like I said before, is really think about the person who you're hiring. And that in itself leads me to really want to talk about the reasons hiring remote makes sense and because when you're hiring remotely, you're really putting people first. I believe I really think that you're putting people first and in doing so you will experience the benefits to your business. So that should come first, and I've come up with a number of reasons as to why, which I mean relate to me and people who I've spoken to on a remote basis, and some of these reasons why it makes sense to hire remotely are backed by statistics and backed by facts as well. So let me just give you a rundown of the reasons why so.

Speaker 1

4:27

Number one reason and I mean again, these are in no particular order, as as ever, remote workers are more productive, and this is something that I've experienced myself I my productivity levels, I think went through the roof. I was when I started to work remotely. It just became, I just became my mind, my mind became clear. Um, I was able to organize my own day, I felt independent, I felt empowered, and that's what you give somebody. You give somebody that empowerment when you hire them on a remote basis. That's that's why keep saying think about the person as opposed to thinking about your wishlist. First, think about how you can empower your potential hire. And I think remote you know, allowing people to work remotely is one of those ways you can do that. And the Google sorry, the Global, sorry Workplace Analytics Costs and Benefits Survey shows that teleworkers in a number of large companies are actually between 35% and 40% more productive than their office counterparts. And again, obviously, if your team is more productive, then they're going to get more work done. They're going to be probably more efficient in the way in which they get their work done. That's going to no doubt have an impact on your bottom line. So, yeah, it pays, I think, to and I'll keep saying it to be empathetic when you're thinking about hiring or you're thinking about how your team is going to be working in the future. So that's number one more productivity. You'll experience that, I believe, and I experienced that for myself personally.

Speaker 1

6:10

Number two not having to commute can improve your health. Now, for me, it was more mindset than actual health and mental health for me, when I started to work remotely, I noticed a difference in how I felt when I got to work. Obviously, when you're working remotely, working in a distributed team, your community is going to be a lot less, or it's going to be to somewhere where you want to work and where you want to be, somewhere where you're comfortable being, whereas if you're, for example, on the london underground, well, in fact, let's go a step back if you're at home and you are preparing yourself for that commute, you're thinking about having to face whether this is subliminal or whether this is sort of you proactively thinking this. You're thinking about facing the hordes of people shoving you and being cramped up in the, the tube, train and or, you know, being stuck in traffic. All these kinds of things. You're thinking about, contending with those things before you even get to work, so that that presents a layer of I suppose a layer of of stress. Yeah, you've got to overcome that before you've even started your day's work, whereas you know, if you're completely eliminating that commute, there's nothing there to really sort of, there's no barriers, I guess, and there's nothing to weigh on your mind. To weigh on your mind.

Speaker 1

7:50

And again, 55% of people reported increased levels of stress due to their daily commute, according to a report by the UK Royal Society for Public Health, and this was also cited by Forbes magazine. So again, some statistics to back it up. And again, if you can give your workers, your future workers, the gift of not having to commute, then you will probably experience and I'm sure there are probably anecdotes to this and probably testimonials on this to me now and your team has. You've experienced any of these things on your team? Please get in touch because I'd love to hear your story and perhaps you could even come on the podcast and talk to us about it. So, not having to commute, that's a big thing for me, and actually not having to commute, it's actually overlaps into another one of the points that I'm going to make in a little while. So let's get to point number three. Your work-life balance can be greatly improved and again, this is something that I experienced and it really is the case. There's no denying this one.

Benefits of Remote Work in Society

Speaker 1

8:58

In fact, I was reading an article on LinkedIn by Emma. Her name is Emma Dickinson and she is a business development manager for a company called the Virtual Training Team, and she wrote an article about her experiences of working remotely, and she's a parent as well. Like me, she has three children, as I do, and when I was working in an office and it seems like she's experienced this as well you find that obviously most of your time is dedicated to work, and in my case, when I first started out, when I first started my family, I had very little time left for my family, if any at all, and it kind of really got to me. So, for example, I was working till nine o'clock at night sometimes and they were already in bed by the time I got home. So there were times when I could go four or five days without seeing them until the morning, and when I was up in the morning, I was rushing to get out while they were going on the school run, so it was just almost like ships passing in the night. Sometimes it was, it was just really it was not on it. I didn't enjoy that time in my life at all and that's when I knew I had to do something about it.

Speaker 1

10:18

And Emma talks about this is is that when you work from home, it just gives you that opportunity, or not just home but work remotely. It gives you an opportunity to have more time, even if it's an hour, so you can I don't know take your kids to school or pick them up from the after-school club or just just do stuff with them, do their homework, and it's just so, it's just, it's just just great. And I think obviously it's going to have an impact on on the children as well, because when they, when they see that I'm involved, that they, you just be building a relationship with your children and that should be something that goes goes without saying. But unfortunately, you know if in our society today and the way we work, it doesn't often allow us to do that, you know, and, and it's a shame, and that's why I say being, if you're hiring or thinking about allowing people to work remotely, this is the gift that you're giving them. You're giving them that gift of creating more rounded families and more balanced families and allowing them to have their family life as well.

Speaker 1

11:22

And in fact, I've thought of another point which remote work enabled me to do and I, in fact, before I go on to that, I would urge you to check out Emma's, emma's article, because it's something that really, I think many people, especially mothers, I think, would appreciate because, again, as as working moms, you you often have to, not not just working moms, but more often not working moms when they're at home with their children, who their infant children, they will sometimes have to take a hit on their career and what? What I mean by that is they'll probably take time away from their career because their employer might not allow them to continue, or it may not be practical for them to continue, whatever reason. And working remotely allows for you to enable working moms to actually continue to do work, and often work just as effectively as they did when they were at home while raising their children. So I mean, think about that, think about the talent that you are missing out on if you close off, if you're closed to remote working, if you close off, if you're closed to remote working. You know it just has. There's just so many benefits to be had and, again, that's why I urge you to empathise with people who you know well, not just with people who you want to employ, but people within your team. And what you may find is, from all of this, it may, as I said, it will reciprocate in the sense that you will have a much happier team. I believe you will have a much more productive team. And again, all of that will impact on your bottom line and the way in which your employees look upon you. They'll look at you differently, I think, than other employees other employees anyway. So, yeah, have a look at Emma's article. I'd certainly say that.

Speaker 1

13:31

So, yeah, the point I was going to make, the additional point I was going to make, was working remotely enabled me to really get more involved with my local community, because there was a point at which I organised and I ran an after-school club. I did a software development, software coding after-school club for children between the age of I think it was six up until the age of 10 and 11. And there was no way I would have been able to do that, or well, I can't say no way for certain, but working remotely made it much more viable and much more possible for me to do that, because I was able to balance my work with the after school club. So, yeah, think about the societal benefit or the benefits to society that people who work remotely can do. They can be much more involved in their communities, much more involved in that development side. And if, again, if, you have an anecdote, a story of how you, how your experience of working remotely has enabled you to be more involved with not just your family and the work like balance side of things, if you have an example, again get in touch because I'd love to hear from you, I'd love to hear your story and, if possible, get you on the on the podcast as well. So, yeah, that's my additional point. So, yeah, number five then, because that was number four, I believe.

Speaker 1

14:59

So, yeah, number five on the list is remote work is environmentally friendly. Now, I don't have hard and fast statistics on this, but for me it stands to reason that this would be the case. And, again, from the point of view of people who you're hiring, there are lots more people these days, I believe, or at least there's more, I guess, publicity around the way that the environment is changing and what you'll find is a lot more people are more aware of this and a lot more people want to be able to contribute to helping the environment to regenerate itself, or to, if not, regenerate itself, but improve. So there's a lot more people who are aware. So imagine if you can offer somebody the option to work remotely and therefore allow them to, or enable them to, perhaps not use their car or take an aer, or use a, I don't know, whatever it may be. Take the bus, because even the bus I know the bus, some of the buses are becoming more, uh, environmentally friendly, but I'm sure what I'm sure of is that if more and more people work remotely, then there are fewer cars on the road, and that in itself can have a benefit. You know so, and in turn you can have this as an initiative, in a way within your organisation, that you want to take cars off the road and, in turn, that may want to attract people who are of that mindset as well, and again they'll look at you, they'll view you as somebody who's really, I suppose, not necessarily an activist as such, but trying, is trying to do their bit, because we can only do so much, but we can. You know, we all have to start somewhere. So I think it's something that can be looked upon favorably, favorably by other people. So that's number five, the environmental benefits. And again, if you've got any stats, hard's number five, the environmental benefits. And again, if you've got any stats, hard and fast stats about the environmental benefits of remote work, specifically get in touch because I'd love to hear them. So that's number five.

Speaker 1

17:14

Number six on my list is it gives access to people who can't commute for whatever reason, who can't get to your place of work for whatever reason. They may be hundreds of miles away, or thousands of miles away even, or they may have some sort of I don't know disability that means that they're unable to commute or be unable to take the train or something along those lines, or I don't know what it may be. But it just offers, it just widens an opportunity for other people who probably wouldn't normally work because they can't access your, your place of work. It allows them to have access to that opportunity as well. So I think that's a great reason too, number that's. So that was number six.

Speaker 1

18:07

Number seven on my list Generally speaking, it just allows for a much more diverse workforce and diverse in terms of people from different nationalities, people of diversity of thought, and that can only serve to enrich your business, to enrich what you do, to really put you in a position where there's so much more creativity, there's so much more thought around what you're doing, and that you know if, obviously, if you're choosing the right people, that can only benefit your business, you know. So there is, I mean, seven reasons as to why hiring remote workers makes sense. And, as I said, from the point of view not just the point of view of your business, but the point of view of the people who you hire Think about the people that you're hiring. When you are hiring, put them first, because that's what we I mean as as a recruiter myself, as a coach myself. This is what I preach to people who are looking for roles. I always say to them don't think about your own needs and your own wants first. Think about the, the needs and the desires of the person who is is doing the hiring. What do they want? You know how can you help them, empathize with them. So it only makes sense for you to do the same thing when you are hiring think about the needs and wants of the people who you're hiring, as well as, obviously, the, you know, the, the, the checklist of things that you need, the, the skills, all of those sorts of things. So, yeah, I mean, that's it for me.

Speaker 1

19:48

I wanted to keep it nice and short but at the same time, as I said at the top of the show, please get in touch if you have ideas for the show, if you'd like to be interviewed on the show, because we're getting some really serious numbers now in terms of people downloading the show, uh, people listening to the show. So we're doing something right, or I'm doing something right. I think of those people that are coming back. Um, I, yeah, it's, it'd be good to to know, to hear from you, to to know what you want to hear, who you want to, who you want me to interview, who do you want me to to interview on the show? What do? What kind of who do you want me to interview on the show? What kind of things do you want me to do with the show?

Tech Businesses Making a Difference

Speaker 1

20:27

Because obviously I'm just going based off of research and I also obviously have a community on Facebook where I get lots of feedback, and generally the feedback about remote work is the supposed scams and the dubious roles that are advertised, but there's so much more that we have to learn about remote work, and what I want to do as part of this podcast is really begin to put remote businesses like yours on the map, because I just think that it's just something that isn't talked about enough.

Speaker 1

21:00

Yes, fair enough, it's been talked about a lot more now, and that's only good, but so few people, I believe, are aware of some of the great work that remote businesses are doing in the world, and many of the businesses are tech businesses, and I believe that tech is positioned to really make a difference in the world if used in the right way. So, yeah, get in touch. My LinkedIn details are in the show notes and that's the right way. So, yeah, get in touch. My LinkedIn details are in the show notes and that's the main way in which I urge you to get in contact with me. Say hello on LinkedIn, connect with me, let me know that you saw me or you found me via the Remote Work Life podcast, and we can get the conversation going from there, and I look forward to speaking to you soon on another show. Thanks, and have a good week.