There are two types of employees in the world; those who work best in the quiet of their own home and those who work best with the social interaction offered through an office. Enter the hybrid remote work model where jobs are offered as in-house or remote at the discretion of the job candidate. Some companies, like Coalition Technologies already offer this option, letting Los Angeles employees work in an office, while also considering remote workers. This opens positions up to a national or in some cases a global talent pool letting fast moving companies get the best talent to get the job done and letting workers choose the work environment which works best for them.
But offering some positions remote also provides additional stability for a company. During the Covid-19 pandemic, many companies had to scramble to set up the infrastructure, security and policies necessary for employees to work from home. While those already offering remote positions had those policies and procedures in place and simply had to expand them. And companies which were fully remote didn’t have to do anything. They enjoyed the luxury of maintaining business as usual. A remote workforce is not just a safeguard against Covid-19. It distributes company assets and workers across a wide territory reducing the risk of IP theft. It also protects against events which could shutdown an entire office like a fire, power outage or internet outage.
Having at least a portion of your workforce remote has these benefits for employers:
- It safeguards companies against adversity caused by events like Covid-19.
- It reduces overhead as employees provide their own office space and electricity.
- It expands your recruitment reach offering a larger talent pool.
- It provides increased productivity for the right type of worker.
- Offering the option of remote work provides increased employee satisfaction.
But not all employees do their best work remotely. And at the end of the day, getting the most out of each employee is what makes a company successful. A hybrid remote/in-house model offers this dynamic. Let the extroverts who thrive on human interaction continue to have an office to work in. While the introverts who are more task oriented avoid the distractions and anxiety caused by an office environment work from home.
And let employees shift back and forth. For instance offering work from home opportunities will allow companies to retain talent that may otherwise resign. For instance many people resign each year to care for children, care for a sick loved one, manage a chronic health condition or to move to a new location. Companies could retain all of that talent with a hybrid remote/in-house employment model.
About the author: William Ellerman is representing Werkington.com – a platform to help connect remote companies with work from home talent, to help workers find remote jobs with one another and learn how to find a remote job. He has 15 years of professional experience and has worked both in house and remotely, most notably as Sr. eCommerce Analyst for AutoZone and Sr. Marketing Manager for Business.com. He has a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from Elizabethtown College with a minor in Professional Writing. He is certified in web development from San Diego Continuing Education and in AdWords and Analytics from Google.
