Companies having employees work from home is a trend that has come to stay in these recent times. Especially with the current pandemic outbreak, having employees that work from home will help office workers to remain in smooth transition even with the lockdown imposed all over the world. Remote employees are not only useful during disease outbreaks but even during natural disasters or extreme weather events. Statistics from studies recently conducted have shown that a fair percentage of remote employees still stay up working even after closing hours.
Also, it is quite economical than having on-site workers as it will help to cut expenses for both employee and employer. As the amount spent on transport to the office will be significantly reduced. The budget the company has for employee transport allowances will be minimized. Another benefit is that it is useful to both small startups and large businesses. Without any background study. It will probably be easier to say this type of setup can only work in a small business where every employee can be adequately monitored.
However, taking the current situation worldwide as an example. Many huge companies (e.g., Microsoft) have been able to adapt to this situation even though many (if not all) of their workers having to stay home. Definitely, these reasons show having remote employees is not such a bad idea after all.
However, there is this widely known fear about employees working from home having a reduced level of dedication and productivity compared to on-site employees. Honestly, this is mostly true, as it is easier to get distracted with all the social media buzz and the perks that come with working from home. This, therefore, makes the need for remote employee monitoring quite important. As an employer, why do you need to go the extra mile to monitor your employees? Let’s pick a few out of the quite numerous reasons:
- It helps to increase the accountability of employees. The fact that the employees know they are being monitored will help to motivate them to work more efficiently to give better results. By doing this, the productivity rate is further increased.
- It could also help with the issue of billing employers when it comes to the case of freelancers and contractors. With the use of good remote employee monitoring software and timesheets, they can show the amount of time and resources they had to use on the job. This will help to justify the amount of payment demanded and also give the employer of sense of satisfaction that the job was executed professionally and efficiently.
- The principle above also applies to large companies and agencies that deal with clientele with different kinds of budgets. By submitting the timesheets and resource activity reports of previous jobs that are similar to the one being awarded along with their proposals. They’ll give the client background information as to what aspects of the job require more time and resources. And also provide the client with the feeling that their company is well capable of dealing with the job as they have done previously. It will also help the company to bill the client appropriately.
- One very major benefit is that it helps to build trust. When the employers see the efficiency and diligence of their remote employees. It will definitely breed a healthy working relationship and help the employer feel more confident in entrusting more complex and time-consuming jobs in their care.
These, among the many reasons, have shown that remote employee monitoring definitely helping to break new grounds in the modern work sphere and helps to breed more healthy work relationships in various establishments.