When you first start looking into remote working it’s easy to get caught up in, or turned-off by, the evangelical zeal that accompanies the topic.
So, I thought I’d share with you the main reasons given to me for starting remote work.
Office Space issues
- You’re running out of space in the office for new/growing teams.
- You’re refurbishing the office and don’t have enough space while that’s happening.
- You want to save money on the cost of office space/rent.
- You’re working on an moon-shot project and want to protect the project team from interruptions.
Access to skilled workers
- You want to hire skilled workers from the rest of the world.
- You want to hire someone with specialist skills that are either scarce or in high demand.
Employee benefits
- A valued employee has had a lifestyle change such as their spouse’s job has changed, or they’ve had a child and you don’t want to loose them.
- You want to give your team flexibility over when/how they work.
As you can see the reasons for choosing remote working are mostly utilitarian or mundane, they are definitely not making a statement about the future of work.
However, by choosing remote working they were able to solve a problem, and enjoy a slew of other benefits such as increased productivity and increase staff loyalty.
Matthew Goddard 