When stay-at-home orders ended, businesses had to face a new dilemma. Should they require employees who have been working from home to come back to the office?
Before making firm decisions, executives should look at productivity and retention data of work-from-home vs. in-office employees. How it affects your business may have you considering new ways of managing your team.
Surprising Productivity
Opponents of the work-from-home movement argued that it would negatively affect productivity. They were wrong, in fact, remote workers’ productivity increased.
Remote workers also worked longer hours, largely because they now devote more time toward work that used to go toward commuting to their jobs.
Cost Savings
Reduced square footage will cost less and provide a cascade of related savings. Lower utility bills, reduced expenditures for office supplies (including coffee and snacks), and even savings on cleaning services may result from having a large percentage of your workforce clocking in at home.
Recruiting, Retention, and Burnout
Offering fully remote work allows an employer to recruit the best talent nationally or even globally. While there may be issues with synching meetings and team projects due to different time zones, the remote option makes it possible to recruit, hire, and train employees from far-flung locations. This expands the candidate pool and allows employers to seek workers with top skill sets, regardless of their location.
Remote workers put in longer hours than in-office workers and hey get more work done in less time. . While this boosts productivity, it can lead to burnout. Therefore, employers should take action if employees submit work late at night.
In order to reduce burn out and increase retention, employers should ensure that employees take advantage of paid time off and add new mental health benefits.
New Executive Skills
Recognizing how remote vs. in-office work affects your business has forward-thinking organizations seeking executives with the skills to recruit, retain, and manage a remote workforce. The New York Times recently reported the emergence of creative executive job titles to describe leaders who can manage a remote workforce, noting that LinkedIn experienced a 304 percent increase in titles referring to “hybrid work” since the pandemic began.
These radical changes in work environments provide little data on the skill sets necessary to evaluate executives when filling remote positions. Choosing an executive search firm that can dig deep to find candidates with the skills and profile needed to lead your organization and its vital operational areas to success is extremely important. Battalia Winston’s research and industry knowledge can do that for you. Let us partner with you to identify executive talent that will drive success in a remote and hybrid work world.
