Managing a Remote Team – Part 1: The Why

For many companies, managing a remote team has been a new experiment brought about by circumstances beyond their control. However, here at Staff Shop, we founded our company using a remote model. For us it was a conscious choice right from our inception, as we believe the benefits outweigh the drawbacks.

If after 11 months you’re still not sure you’ve got this whole remote working thing down pat yet, let us share with you why we think this is the best way to work. If you embrace the benefits, then the how – which we will tackle in Part 2 in March – will be much simpler.

 

Why Having a Remote Team is Beneficial

 

1.  The Best of the Best

One of the major benefits of having a remote team long-term is the talent you can attract. Once you remove barriers like long commutes and traditional office dynamics, you can find some of the best people to work for you who might not have even applied if they lived too far away from the central workplace. 

This means you can cast a wider net and end up with a dream team, as you will have access to a more diverse set of candidates. 

 

2.  Work/Life Integration

When you ask some people what they don’t like about their jobs, quite often the issues aren’t actually related to the role itself, but rather how it impacts their personal life. Long commutes and inflexible hours don’t work for everyone and can really affect morale. In a 2019 survey conducted by FlexJobs, 73% of participants said work/life balance was a deciding factor when accepting work, along with salary.

When your team members are tired, grumpy and missing their home life, it affects their work. Working remotely means no commuting, which equals more sleep, more time with family and friends and more flexible schedules.

Many parents have to make sacrifices for work and miss a lot of milestones. Working remotely means more family time and one on one time with your kids. Afterall, kids have had to work remotely lately, too, which is challenging. We believe it is important to integrate your professional identity with your personal one, and we practice work-life integration, which is much easier to do when your “work life” and your “home life” are not two completely separate entities! You are only one person, after all. Be engaged with your work and recognize the yin and yang of personal you, and work you!

 

3.  The Environmental Impact

Probably one of the best arguments for a remote working situation is the environmental impact. There are fewer cars on the road, as there are fewer commuters driving to and from the office each day, and the carbon footprint caused by powering an office is reduced significantly. According to Global Workplace Analytics,

“Half-time telecommuting could reduce carbon emissions by over 51 million metric tons a year – the equivalent of taking all of New York’s commuters off the road.”

Offices need lights, security, printers, heat, air conditioning, maintenance and more. All of this on a large scale can be very bad for the environment. When everyone works at home, you only have to have the lights on in the room you’re working in, you can control your own heating and cooling and so forth. 

 

4.  The Financial Benefit

When you own a company, renting office space can be costly. This can take a huge bite out of your monthly operating budget. When you don’t have to have a monthly lease, you can dedicate those funds towards other projects that will help you grow the business.

Many companies are now reevaluating the value of the office tower. If you’ve made it all these months without it, is it really needed long-term? 

When in-person meetings are needed in the future, there are plenty of dynamic shared workspaces that can be rented short-term, which is much more economical than having a traditional office.

 

Looking at the above, it’s easy to see why Staff Shop chose this business model from the get-go. It’s allowed us to adjust to pandemic life much more seamlessly and it’s allowed us to attract and retain an all-star team.

 

Hire us or join us today and enjoy the flexibility and versatility that’s possible here at Staff Shop. Email info@staffshop.ca. 

 

Stay tuned for our March 2021 blog on How to manage a remote team.