We have all had days where traveling to work for an hour seems more tiring than working a full day at office. I mean who would be happy spending their precious morning hours dealing with crazy traffic and irritated fellow travelers right?
This is where work from home can save the day. Sadly, most employers fear that their employees wouldn’t be as productive at their home compared to office.
Most studies however, have shown results contrary to this assumption so far. The most cited study by Bloom says that people who worked from home worked almost one full day a week extra compared to the people who worked at office.
This may make you question, “Why working from home is more productive?”. That’s due to the numerous benefits employees receive. Working from home has a huge list of advantages for employees that inspire them to contribute more towards their work.
Advantages of Working From Home
Cost Effective
Renting an office space in the city is costly and gets pricier the day. Not to forget the electricity bills, furniture and maintenance cost of the office.
Companies can greatly decrease these costs with a work from home option. Amazon.com is a perfect example of this. Instead of renting a huge office space you can choose a smaller and cheaper office space with work from home option for your employees.
Lower Attrition rate
Bloom’s study also found a lower attrition rate to work from home.
A lot of times we have responsibilities at home that need our attention and with work from home people can take care of their loved ones and work at the same time.
No social distractions
A lot of times at work places there is a lot of social distraction. It could be a colleague hanging out near your desk or an open office environment where you can hear everyone. It could also be a noisy meeting which started just when you were in the zone to work.
These things can effect productivity big time. Hence work from home can really help provided it has lesser distraction than office.
Save time from traffic
On an average a person spends around 30-45 minutes in traffic.
It’s not just the loss of time but loss of valuable energy and patience that could be used for work instead. A lot of us love work but hate going to work because of how much the traffic can drain us. Work from home can be a huge relief for employees who hate commuting in traffic. I for one, stand by this.
Why companies ditch the work from home idea?
On the flip side, does all this advantage of working from home mean the end of 9 to 5 offices? Not really. Though it’s great to boost productivity working from home, it’s not without it’s downsides.
Many jobs even today require us to be physically present at our work place. If your job isn’t suitable for work from home that it can do more harm than good to your work.
Always choosing to work from home can decrease the chance of collaboration and effective communication between employees and bosses.
Many a time, out of sight translates as out of mind and it’s not the best thing for a someone looking to move up to a promotion.
If the employers makes sure that innovation, collaboration and communication’s effectiveness are smoothed out however; working from home can really be a great option!. Albeit, provided the type of work doesn’t require your physical presence in the first place.
Related: Effective and proven ways to stay disciplined at work
Featured Image courtesy: iStock
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