Working from home is a must according to emerging workforce.

Written by Nisha A, Director of Marketing, TrainingFolks

Did you know that employees that are able to work remotely are twice as likely to work over 40 hours per week?^*

Makes a great case for organizations to introduce a work from home policy if not already in place right?

The current reality however, is that many organizations actually don’t see the need and those that are coming around are very slow to implement effective strategies to help with a smooth transition. The first step that we stress to clients here at TrainingFolks, is the importance of ensuring that management understands working remotely and is onboard 100 percent.

This free download provides 10 Tips to Effectively Managing Remote Employees and provides a great way to start answering some key questions to help shape your program.

Remote Is Full Circle

When introducing remote work to your organization, the first thing to keep in mind is that it must be part of the overall culture and not something that is uncomfortable or awkward for the employee to request.   The employee and their team should still be able to function and achieve targets as though everyone was in the office all the time which is something that can only be done when working remotely is incorporated throughout.  And remember, managers must lead by example!

Factors to consider:

• Does the employee have full access to the tools and resources when working remotely as they would at their desk?
• Are employees trained and expected to connect with managers or team members during the day via phone, Skype or internal chat?
• Is it easy for the remote employee to attend meetings via audio and visual conferencing so they don’t miss a beat while working from home?

There are just a few things to that shape a successful remote working policy.  Once successfully implemented and maintained the results can be staggering!  A report from ConnectSolutions showed 30 percent of telecommuters said they actually accomplished more in less time, which was due to the the lack of work place distractions.^**

An Attractive Offer

In addition to higher productivity and overall increases in job satisfaction, offering a robust work from home program can actually help to recruit talent.  Stanford University released a survey that reported that offering remote work options resulted in job attrition rates falling by over 50 percent!  Lower attrition means reduced costs for rehiring lost staff which can account for thousands of dollars, lost productivity and decreasing employee morale.

Remote is the Future

If nothing more, the emerging Millennial workforce itself should be enough to make a case for learning leaders to seriously consider how to develop, implement and enforce a strong work from home policy.  With 75 percent of the workplace being dominated by Millennials by 2025, companies that want to recruit the best talent, ensure productivity from their hired staff and retain this group needs to listen to what potential employees want. 

The majority of Millennials strongly feel that regular office attendance is unnecessary on a regular basis^*** to be successful at their job and 68 percent would consider one employer over another based on their remote working policies. ^****

With over 13.4 million US citizens currently working from home at least once a week already and this number poised for growth each year going forward, ignoring the need to prepare the organization, adequately train managers and enable employees with a strong remote working program could mean big problems in the near future. 

^{*https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/cb/d2/f5/cbd2f5c8416a63392402b27c99274e96.jpg}

^{**https://remote.co/10-stats-about-remote-work/}

^{*** http://www.ryan-jenkins.com/2015/05/21/6-millennial-motivators-a-guide-to-what-motivates-millennials-at-work/}

^{****https://remote.co/10-stats-about-remote-work/}