New Ways For Employers To Take Advantage of Remote Work Trends

Working remotely out of my home in Albuquerque, New Mexico was an experiment for me and the company I worked for 30 years ago. My fax machine, a phone, and dialing in twice a day via modem, were my primary connections into the home office in New Jersey. Needless to say, remote work was the exception, not the rule back then.

Fortunately, technology has enabled remote workers to thrive and, after the pandemic, the preference for remote work is booming among employees. Pre-pandemic only 6% of the workforce worked remotely. By the end of 2021 26.7% of employees were fully remote (25 Trending Remote Workforce Statistics.) Remote positions more than tripled compared to pre-COVID and they continue to climb (Lightcast.)

Companies are being forced into remote work arrangements, but why not embrace it? There are financial savings on both sides of the fence. According to Global Workforce Analytics, “a typical employer can save about $11,000 a year for every person who works remotely half of the time” between fewer absences, reduced turnover, and increased productivity. Workers can bank between $2,500 and $4,000 a year working remotely half of the year.

Employees freely describe the joys of working remotely. 75% of employees believe they have a better work-life balance working remotely as well as reduced stress (57%), reduced absences (56%), and improved morale (54%.) A happy employee is a retained employee. Of course, remote work is not for everyone but, with these benefits, it’s not surprising that 52% would leave a co-located company for a remote role. (Git Hub Remote Work Report.)

The benefits to employers go well beyond financial and have been documented by many sources over the last couple of years, including increased productivity, better diversity, and an improved carbon footprint.

https://about.gitlab.com/resources/downloads/remote-work-report-2021.pdf

Remote work enables companies to do more than simply attract and retain talented full time people. It also opens up a different way of thinking about how to get your work done and where to look for talent. While the bulk of the 11 million job openings aren’t professional “white collar” jobs, remote work is opening up jobs to non-degree populations as well.

Employers can, and should, look at remote work as a vehicle to build a new talent plan and leverage an untapped workforce.

1. Look beyond roles to specific work within a role. It’s possible an entire job can be done remotely. It’s also possible that only some parts of any given job can be done remotely. The more companies unpack the work to be done within a role, the more they can redesign roles/work to take advantage of different people in different locations. Certain roles could be combined with new roles created that are designed from the outset to be done remotely. Companies can be deliberate about crafting remote roles from the beginning, rather than trying to make current roles work remotely if it’s not a great fit.
2. New talent pools- students. A whopping 97% of students say being able to do remote work is one of the top three reasons why they sign up for Work Simplr, an on-demand workforce powered by students. Students have the skills and desire to work, but having to show up in a physical location at a specified time doesn’t work for most of them. Tapping into this demographic can be key to building the talent pipeline of the future, as well as help companies get entry level work done. It’s not about hiring students in full time roles, rather it’s about engaging them with smaller chunks of work which can be done remotely to support your current full-time employees. And you get a peek into their work before considering them for full time roles. Don’t just think about internships (which are still primarily location driven), think about using this remote student workforce to power the day to day of your existing business. Companies will also be in a better position to leverage this workforce when they graduate, considering that 84% of millennials prefer to work remotely according to Axios.
3. New talent pools- retirees. Remote work doesn’t just enable companies to open up their workforce to students, but also to retirees. By 2030, all baby boomers will be 65+, and by 2034, older adults will outnumber children for the first time in US history (Lightcast- Demographic Drought). The boomer cohort will largely be retired, out of the labor force, and out of the working age population. This results in more people leaving the labor force than entering it. Not all of these people will want to go back to full time roles, but they could be leveraged if they could do the work in a remote, flexible way.
4. Embrace the disappearing line between gig and remote full time work. Gig work has always been synonymous with remote work. Companies should look to see if there is an opportunity to convert more full-time positions to gig-style work. Of course there are implications around culture, compensation, health care, and retention to name a few. However, if a company is already embracing remote work for full time employees, there are ways to think about current roles that might provide for even more flexibility in hiring.
5. Audition people. At a minimum, companies can use remote work to try out talent for future full-time roles. Companies don’t have to commit to people in full-time roles out of the box. Try them out. See how they handle working remotely by assigning them smaller pieces of work. Audition people to see how they do with remote work and either transition them to full-time remote roles, full-time in house roles, or remote fractional/freelance roles. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) says, on average, it costs $30,000- $40,000 to replace an employee who makes $60,000 a year. Remote workers can be a pool of people who might fill these roles cheaper and faster, all while getting your work done while the position is open!

There are ways for remote work to contribute to the growth of your company as well as diversify your talent pool. This trend, which isn’t going away, can be a win-win for everyone.