The Benefits Of Hiring Remote Workers

Before the pandemic, remote and hybrid working was gradually increasing in the UK, however, the majority of employers were yet to fully understand and recognise the benefits of hiring remote workers.

In 2019, 12% of the UK workforce worked from home at least one day per week, and 5% worked largely from home every week. Whereas, in September 2022 post-lockdown, 22% of the UK workforce reported that they were still working from home at least one day per week, and 13% said they were fully remote.

Hybrid and fully remote working is becoming more widely accepted, and an increasing number of candidates are actively seeking it out. Experts from Financial-world analysed Google Trends data to reveal that searches using the phrase ‘hybrid roles’ are at a five-year high in the UK. Financial-world estimates there were 72,000 searches per month at the start of 2023 for the phrase ‘work from home jobs’.

Some big names and business titans like Elon Musk and Lord Sugar have publicly balked at the idea of the UK workforce remaining working from home.

“Of course it bloody matters (where you work from)… There’s all this bullsh** about working from home – what difference does it make if the job gets done. Well, it don’t bloody get done, it’s as simple as that.” – Lord Sugar, speaking to the Radio Times.

The Benefits of Hiring Remote Workers

Recent survey results suggest that the majority of UK managers do not agree with the likes of Lord Sugar. The Guardian recently reported that 75% of UK managers believe that working from home increases productivity, whilst 62.5% think that it boosts motivation.

I’ve been working in the recruitment industry for 10+  years, so I have knowledge of how employers regarded working from home before Covid reared its ugly head, and how viewpoints have evolved in our post-pandemic world. So if you’re wondering why to hire remote workers over office-based employees, read on to find out the main benfits of hiring remote workers.

• Access to a larger pool of IT talent

When you require employees to work from your office, all or part of the time, you are restricting the pool of talent available to you. By choosing to hire a remote team, you will no longer be limited by geography. You are opening yourself to a world of talent – especially when many employees will not consider roles that do not offer at least some flexibility.

• Reduction of overheads

Weekly London office occupancy in March 2022 was 31%, compared to 63% before the pandemic. For businesses who do not need a permanent base, remote workers are the perfect way to save on expensive commodities like office rent.

One of the major benefits of hiring remote workers is that they will use their own resources like their office/desk, internet, water, and electricity during the working day. You are not obligated or even expected to contribute. Data from Global  Workplace Analytics suggested that companies can save $11,000 (approximately £9,000) per year on average for every hybrid employee – imagine how much you could save with a team of fully remote workers!

• Reduction of cost of workers

Choosing to hire remote workers means you have the option to recruit talent from countries where salaries are more cost-effective. Yes, this technically means you could hire the same number of skilled individuals for less than their UK equivalent, but I believe you should see it as an opportunity. A chance to secure the best talent on the market. You can attract the very best talent from these countries, with highly competitive salaries and benefits packages which they wouldn’t normally have access to in their location. Seeing the advantages of hiring remote workers from this perspective could result in you scaling your business quicker.

You might decide to hire a remote team from your own country, in order to limit any communication or time zone-related issues from occurring. However, you will still find benefits from hiring remote workers. People who need flexibility because of children, family or other personal circumstances, are often willing to take a slight pay reduction in order to secure remote working arrangements.

• More efficiency and better productivity

Ergotron polled 1,000 remote and hybrid employees in the US on productivity. Their results were overwhelmingly in support of remote working encouraging productivity.

Remote workers work longer hours

Of the 1,000 empoyees who took part in Ergotron’s survey, 40% said they worked longer hours at home than when in the office.  Additionally,  data from the National Bureau of Economic Research suggests that remote workers work, on average, 48.5 minutes longer per day than their office equivalent. That could equal up to 193 extra working hours per year for full-time employees.

Working remotely is less stressful

For many people, traditional office environments can cause stress and anxiety. Some workers find the mix of chatter, ringing phones and the hustle and bustle of a standard office to cause sensory overload.

There are less distractions for remote workers

An Airtasker report suggested that 70% of workers rank work social relationships as just as important as performing their role.

So one of the core benefits of hiring remote workers is the minimisation of ‘water cooler chat’. By no means am I saying that you should expect or want to hire a remote team that are not friendly and do not converse – a bit of chit chat every now and again is healthy. In fact, I would suggest you organise virtual coffee breaks between new and existing remote team members in order to encourage team bonding. It will aid collaboration and communication for work tasks further down the line. However, I would say that remote working certainly reduces unnecessary distractions that can impact day-to-day productivity.

• More green for the environment

One of the main advantages of hiring remote workers is that they no longer need to commute. This is highly attractive to many workers who would prefer to use the extra time to sleep, exercise, spend time with their family etc. However, the lack of commuting and the resulting decline in your consumption of utilities is also highly beneficial to you as a business. With more businesses requiring their suppliers and partners to make active steps towards offsetting their carbon footprints, hiring a remote team can allow you to feel green and impress your clients at the same time!

The advantages of hiring remote workers I mentioned above are just a brief overview. There are a multitude of reasons why you might choose to hire remote employees. If you are considering hiring a remote team of employees, or you are looking for support in justifying to your colleagues why to hire remote workers over office-based employees, please get in touch.