7 Reasons to Embrace Workshifting
With the advent of the Internet, the workplace started to subtly shift. The Telework Research Network study shows that about 40% of American workers can do their work outside of the office at least part of the time, and with laptops, Wi-Fi connections, and Smarphones, more and more Americans are doing just that.
While some employers are resistant to this new practice of working from just about anywhere, called workshifting, the truth is that allowing employees to work from home, a coffee shop, a hotel, or anywhere else is better for the bottom line of your company. Here are just seven quick reasons that you should consider embracing workshifting:
1. Saves the Employer Money
The bottom line is that workshifting is good for a company’s bottom line. The Telework Research Network estimates that workshifting practices can save employers up to $20,000 per employee per year. Why is this? Read the following six reasons to embrace workshifting, and you’ll see!
2. Saves Employees Money
While saving your employees money isn’t your top priority, necessarily, you can make them happier by making it cheaper for them to work for you. Since workshifters don’t have to own as many business suits or drive all the way to the office as often, they can save an average of $4,000 to $21,000 per year in work-related costs. Plus, allowing your employees to work part-time from home or a location closer to home can green up your business by cutting back on the amount of gas your employees use in a year!
3. Helps Recruit More Talented Employees
A younger generation of employees is technology savvy and ready to embrace the ideas of workshifting. After all, they wrote term papers from the comfort of their favorite coffee shop, so why not do the same with white papers and work reports? Companies who are able to offer workplace flexibility as a perk are more likely to attract talented employees. In fact, some employees will embrace a lower-paying job that offers this flexibility over a higher-paying job that requires forty hours a week of in-office work!
4. Boosts Employee Satisfaction
Good managers and business owners know that one of the best ways to get more from employees is to make them happier. In general, workshifting can boost employee satisfaction, which means that your employees will be more likely to give their best work all the time. The same Telework study showed that workshifters are about 55% more engaged than non-workshifters and that companies see about a 25% decrease in employee attrition when workshifting is allowed.
5. Boost Productivity
These days, workers are interested in finding balance for their busy lives, and workshifting allows them to do just that. More balance, in the end, equals more productivity in the time when they are actually working. It’s estimated that workshifting practices increase employee productivity by almost 30%! That’s definitely good for the business’s bottom line.
6. Decreases Unexpected Turnover Rate
One of the biggest costs for businesses who don’t have satisfied employees is the cost of hiring and training new employees when the ones you have unexpectedly quit. Because workshifting leads to higher employee satisfaction, though, it decreases turnover rate. In fact, the Telework Research Network study showed that employees who don’t have workplace flexibility are about twice as likely to unexpectedly quit than those who do!
As you can see, workshifting practices can lead to a definite boost in your business’s bottom line! It’s not even that difficult to implement workshifting practices. Rather than tracking employee performance by days that employees show up at the office, just implement some performance tracking procedures that involve looking at the actual work employees finish in a work week or month!
Whether you’re a small business or a large one, workshifting practices can help your business by giving your more satisfied and productive employees.
About The Author: Daniela Baker is a social media advocate with the credit card comparison website, CreditDonkey. She says, another thing that can help your business is a solid business credit card that has perks tailored to your business. Such a card can be a great way to take care of some of the up-front costs of implementing workshifting, which might involve calling in an outside consultant to increase productivity and give your business a better handle on employee performance as it relates to workshifting.
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