Remote Working: Is it Good for a Startup?

There has been a widespread increase in Internet usage in 2017.

A Digital Report: 2018 says that the number of Internet users across the whole world has crossed the mark of 4 billion. Today, more than half of the world population is using the internet. The usage of latest technologies like mobile devices and video conferencing is also increasing. All these have majorly promoted the idea of Remote Working. State of Remote Work Report has revealed that 52% of employees work remotely at least once per week. The other key finding of this report is: The sales department hires remote employees 66% more often than other departments. The study also revealed that on an average 20% of employees are hired remotely.

According to a report by FLexJobs, many companies are now integrating the remote work model in their business. Remote work is associated with certain options. These options include various levels of remote work like hundred percent remote work, occasional remote work and partial remote work. To get the top 100 companies of these type, click here.

The sectors in which remote work is prevailing the most are as follows:

• Sales
• Medical and health
• Customer service
• Computer and IT
• Account management
• Software development
• Education and training

Startups, as they are in a growing stage can easily adapt to any new culture. In fact, remote working has now become a necessity rather than a trend for any startup.

Some of the reasons why any startup should go for the remote working model are:

1. To expand and improve the talent pool of the company:

Recruiting the best employees is very important for any organization. Each and every one must add value to human resource of the startup. One of the effective ways to do this is to remove the barrier of geographic location. It becomes much easier to find people with different skills remotely. State of Remote Work Report found out that fully distributed companies hire 33% faster than other organizations.

2. To obtain the diversity of thought:

When there are people from different geographic locations, the ideas that flow in the problem-solving procedure are very varied. The development of the new product is more likely to occur if the teams are culturally diverse. Therefore, hiring a remote team will be beneficial to the organization as they will bring in different experiences which otherwise would not be possible to get.

3. Work of an employee builds trust:

For every organization, it is very important that employees believe in each other. This task is simplified if the team-mates are working together. But when it comes to a remote working team, trust gets built up when the work of an employee is seen. Once this trust is built up, a remote working team finds their members more trustworthy than an ordinary team does. Work efficiency also increases.

4. Promotes flexible work culture:

Employees in a startup are used to working for long hours. Providing them with the flexibility of work location will support them to maintain work-life balance. This type of work-culture will keep the employees happy and they will work even harder. State of Remote Work Report shows that 51% of employees work remotely to improve work-life balance.

5. Easy to adopt the new culture:

If an organization is very large and established for years then it will be difficult for them to adopt any new culture. But for startups, the work culture is yet to be established. Hence, they can easily mould themselves as per the requirement of the time. Remote work culture will prepare employees to communicate with each other timely and precisely.

6. Cuts down the fixed cost:

For any startup, smart investments are very important. Hiring remote employees can help them bring down their office costs. Though at times it does not make any substantial difference, it can certainly work as a benefit to the organization.

7. Retains employees:

Employees are happier when they are able to manage their work-life balance and remote work is one of the methods for some employees. Hence employee retention rate increases. State of Remote Work Report says that companies that support remote work have 25% lower employee turnover compared to the companies that don’t.

Though remote working can prove to be beneficial to organizations, it is not always true. If the work does not have any clearly defined goals, coming to office will be more beneficial. Also, when the work is creative and tasks are interdependent, working remotely cannot help. Typically, if the conditions exist, it is better to call employees at the workplace. It builds up a sense of community at a workplace.

But when employees are not required to come to the office, remote work does work.

Thus, the driver of the effectiveness of remote work is the structure of work. If individuals can work independently and their productivity can be measured, then it is advisable to give them an option of remote work. A research statistics (State of Remote Work Report) says that individual contributors work from home 38% more often than management. Also, managerial concerns are associated with the work culture. One of the major issues is measuring job performance. If a manager is comfortable enough to understand the work of a remote employee then remote work option can be perfect for some employees. The report also shows that today managers see equal performance between their onsite and remote employees.

Source: owllabs.com

But if the situations are not favorable, the traditional model has to be implemented.