Remote Work: The Global Shift and How to Prepare your Business

The impact of the COVID 19 pandemic changed the world, not just for families, but for businesses and even entire industries. Many office-based companies had to make major shifts in day-to-day operations in order to survive. The most common of these changes was transitioning to a higher percentage of a remote workforce.

Currently, 15% of the total available jobs in the US are remote. This is a big increase from the 4% it sat at prior to the pandemic. Experts seem to think that this number will continue to grow, and with good reason.

From the massive influx of remote work throughout the pandemic, our sample size of data to look at increased as well. So what have we learned?

 

 

Reasons for the uptick in Remote Work

Better Productivity

In a survey of 4,000 people, 95% found that their work from home setup was as productive or better than working in the office. This assertion is backed up by a separate study that finds that office workers average 37 minutes lost due to distractions daily versus the average of 27 minutes that remote workers face. This same study also found that although remote workers tend to take more frequent breaks, it typically leads to higher rates of productivity.

In addition to better productivity, a separate study found that remote workers work 10% more hours than their office worker counterparts. This equates to about an extra 16 hours of work per month, and an extra 192 hours over the course of a year.

 

 

Employee Loyalty & Happiness

Employees are also seemingly more likely to show loyalty to their employer if offered flexible remote-work arrangements. In one study 79% of participants claimed they would be more loyal to their company if they were offered a more flexible setup.

In addition to increased loyalty, many survey participants also conveyed that they are happier, with 74% saying that they feel happier when working remotely . So happy that many employees have even said they would be willing to take a pay cut in order to remain working from home.

 

 

Savings on Expenditures

Commuting to work everyday creates additional costs for the average employee. Paying for gas, parking, food and drinks on a day-to-day basis ends up becoming significant expenses when added up over extended periods of time. On average, employees working remote only half the time end up saving between $600 and $6,000 annually. Due to this fact, along with other benefits, many employees are willing to take a pay cut. In the “State of Remote Work” study from Owl Labs, they found that almost 50% of U.S. based workers would be willing to take a 5% pay cut in order to continue working from home part-time. For business, pay cuts combined with savings on rent and utilities from less on-site work can lead to savings of $11,000 per year on average by switching to a hybrid model.

 

 

How to switch to Remote or Hybrid work model

With employees and employers alike being more aware of all the benefits of remote work, it seems clear that businesses will continue to evolve into hybrid work setups and maybe even go fully remote.

There are however obstacles in the way for companies looking to make this transition. The logistics alone in assembly, packaging and shipping of individual “office in a box” computer kits could be enough to turn many businesses away from the idea of remote work. But the good news is, there is an affordable and reliable computer hardware provider who has over 15 years of experience in offering these services.

The solution? Blair Tech.

Blair Tech helps its partners by providing fast fulfillment and deployment of high quality computer hardware all over the United States.

As an example of Blair Tech’s scale and expertise, take a look at some of the details from a recent deployment effort made on behalf of one of our partners…

In a single 30 day period, utilizing it’s two fulfillment centers, Blair Tech:
✔  Shipped over 2,000 custom computer kits direct to agents all across the U.S.
✔  Sent out 500 shipments in a single day
✔  Shipped each order within 2 days of receiving order

The 2,000 shipments consisted of:
✔  3 different hardware configurations
✔  2 different custom Operating System images
✔  3 different shipping methods (Ground, 2-Day, Overnight)

Deployments of both this magnitude and complexity are key differentiators that set Blair Tech apart from the rest. With services ranging from custom Quick Setup Guide inserts, to custom Operating System images, to including necessary accessories like headsets and webcams, Blair Tech makes sure your work from home employees are able to get up and running quickly and easily.

For businesses in need of starting or rebuilding their remote work processes, they ought to look no further than Blair Tech. Click here to connect with one of our expert Business Consultants to learn more.