Remote Aug 3, 2023 The Deceptively Simple Link Between Remote Work and Company Growth Geoff Whiting — 3 min read What harms your workplace productivity more: a new worker who is fully remote or one who doesn’t meet the qualifications for the role? What about a remote worker compared to an essential position going unfilled for weeks or months? These dilemmas are playing out in offices across many countries, because many workers are attracted and retained by workplace flexibility policies. Return to office mandates are especially risky if you’re willing to fire people who want to stay remote. This is because of three core reasons: In the United States, there are 1.9 million fewer people in the workforce today compared to the start of 2020. Globally, the shortfall of workers is projected to expand significantly and reach a shortage of 85 million workers by 2030. For the roughly 6 million unemployed American workers, there are 9.8 million job openings. Similar things are happening across the globe, such as in Singapore, where there are 163 job openings for every 100 unemployed people. Hybrid and remote companies are growing their headcount twice as fast as fully in-office companies. There are more jobs and fewer employees either qualified for or attracted to these openings. Workers, especially younger ones, are maintaining strength in the job market. From a data perspective, forcing unpopular RTO policies puts your company at risk of losing staff and seeing a drain of institutional knowledge and skilled labor. On the whole, not providing flexibility is a threat to your top and bottom lines. Subscribe to the Hubstaff blog No handwaving this away In my discussions about remote work with leaders and managers, tech is brought up regularly. Many nimble tech startups are embracing remote options because it enables them to hire top talent while avoiding many traditional overhead expenditures. That means utility costs and office space are handled by employees — they pay for their own electricity and work-from-home spaces. Other fringe costs like office lunches are also handled by employees, meaning that these startups save on more than just rent. At the same time, tech companies boom and bust. They also grab negative headlines. Major layoffs have often started in the tech sector. All of this makes the tech market an easy scapegoat for pointing to the explosive growth and so-called dramatic death of remote. But, the data show that’s not the true story. According to a new report, every sector and company size grouping are seeing the same increased demand and faster hiring rate for remote and hybrid compared to fully in-office. Even if you completely remove tech jobs from its consideration, in-office firms are growing at half the rate of others. Don’t neglect existing staff If you’re hiring right now — or simply want to retain your existing staff — another important thing to know is that only 11% of jobs on LinkedIn are remote. However, they’re attracting 50% of job applications and are closing faster. Think about this, as well: your existing in-office teams might be some of those people applying to those remote jobs. Our final set of important stats comes from a recent McLean presentation on HR trends. It notes that fully or mostly onsite organizations have a 1.5x higher turnover rate than partially- and fully- remote companies. These onsite organizations also spend the most HR time, money, and effort on recruitment, which takes away from work HR can do for existing employees. You already know that a strong employee experience translates into a strong customer experience. Your people determine your outcomes. What’s next is a clear opportunity, or threat, based on how you respond to employee needs and requests. Which valuable member of your team might you lose tomorrow if you’re not taking their remote work requests seriously? Category: Remote Most popular Time Tracking 8 Reasons Why Time Tracking is Important for Businesses and Employees Many employees think time tracking exists so managers and leaders can watch their team’s every move, but this is far from the tr... Product A Practical Guide to Effectively Tracking Remote Employee Productivity Unfortunately, many companies are calling their teams back to the office, citing remote employee productivity issues. While it’s... Workforce Management Absent for a Decade: Unraveling the Reason for the 10-Year High in Absenteeism In recent reports, absenteeism is at its highest point in ten years. This rise has encouraged businesses to look for causes and so... Remote Onboarding Remote Employees for Future Success: Strategies and Advice The rise of remote work has changed how businesses operate and work with team members — especially during crucial processes like... Limit time — not creativity Set limits, turn tracked time into automated timesheets, and send invoices with Hubstaff. Learn more
Time Tracking 8 Reasons Why Time Tracking is Important for Businesses and Employees Many employees think time tracking exists so managers and leaders can watch their team’s every move, but this is far from the tr...
Product A Practical Guide to Effectively Tracking Remote Employee Productivity Unfortunately, many companies are calling their teams back to the office, citing remote employee productivity issues. While it’s...
Workforce Management Absent for a Decade: Unraveling the Reason for the 10-Year High in Absenteeism In recent reports, absenteeism is at its highest point in ten years. This rise has encouraged businesses to look for causes and so...
Remote Onboarding Remote Employees for Future Success: Strategies and Advice The rise of remote work has changed how businesses operate and work with team members — especially during crucial processes like...
Management 8 Tips on How to Become a Master in Managing from a Distance American Express saves $10-$15 million annually in real estate costs while greatly improving employee productivity with its flexible workplace strategy called BlueWork. This f...
Culture How a 100% remote team feels about employee monitoring software Subscribe to the Hubstaff blog The question: Do you think employee monitoring software is invasive? A lot of people would be annoyed if their employers asked them to use a time tra...
Remote Secrets for Interviewing Remote Workers: Qualities to Look For, Questions to Ask, and How to Evaluate Hiring a remote worker is quite a bit different than hiring someone to work in an office environment. Below we’ve outlined our favorite techniques for evaluating remote worke...
Employee Productivity What, Why, and How to Measure Work From Home Productivity How do you know your remote employees are working? If you’re worried about how much your remote team is getting done, you’re not alone. A lot of managers are concerned that wor...