Globally, remote work brought a shift in energy use, a rise in air quality and a reduction in waste. It allowed company leaders to rethink their operational setup and allowed employees to build a way of working that suited them better. Let’s dive deeper into these long-term benefits:
Reduced footprint
Across industries, remote working created a seismic shift in the efficiencies of building space. No longer requiring 100% of the team at the office meant savings gained from reductions in energy, waste and water usage. Furniture and hardware needs were also reduced as the office footprint shrank to that of a much smaller company.
Energy savings
Beyond the energy costs of running offices, remote work also brings efficiencies in hiring home workers. Where companies were previously limited to their local talent pool for employee choice, the limitless pool of remote workers allows companies to find employees with an exact skillset and quickly adapt if the company needs change. Having employees across time zones also provides for continuity of operations with somebody always online and available to resolve issues.
Mental well-being = better productivity
After two years of gathering research about these new ways of working, we know that remote and hybrid workers are more productive and work longer hours, with the remote worker clocking in almost an hour more than hybrid or office working colleagues.3
One theory is that by removing an arduous commute, employees are happier to spend time achieving their work goals. Another is that having smaller teams physically together to achieve collective goals and remote teams working on focused tasks brings a level of productivity that the open-plan office struggled to balance.
Attract and retain
Empowering employees with the tools needed to work efficiently no longer means mandating their return to the office and, in turn, can improve attraction and retention rates. Data shows that employees want to work from home 2.5 days a week on average, and 40% would start looking for another job or resign immediately if ordered to return to the office full time4