Remote workers are Retirement Plan Participants who are making a difference. Companies are now working through challenges for traditional workers and for remote workers as well. As Retirement Plan sponsors measure investments over the last quarter, Senior Management is now keeping a watchful eye on performance results for new remote workers. The top priority for many firms has become the need to consider the havoc the current pandemic has wreaked on the economies of most countries. The pandemic has forced significant change in how employees perform their jobs and from where they are delivering their services or products. The structure and scheduling of a remote workforce is new to most who are now using it. In many cases a company’s newly sanctioned remote workforce has been created to help them survive.
There may be more reasons than survival alone for a company to consider the remote worker to be a strong contributor in the future. According to a study published in Business News Daily, working remotely may actually increase worker productivity. The study found that remote employees work 1.4 more days per month than their office-based counterparts. When one computes that statistic, the remote worker gives the company more than three additional weeks of work per year! And the argument for remote workers does not stop there. The study also indicated that remote workers function in an environment that permits them to take more-frequent short breaks.
This is all on top of a 2019 survey by Airtasker, which was recently updated March 31, 2020. The study included 505 people who worked remotely. The study uncovered that working from home is not just a benefit for employees. Eliminating daily commutes also increases productivity and leads to healthier lifestyles for the employees. Compared to office employees, remote workers were able to save an annual average of $4,523 on fuel. This equated to an extra 408 hours, of free time each year – where no time was consumed by the mundane task of getting from their home to an office and back.
The study found that working from home not only benefits employees by eliminating their daily commutes, it also increases productivity and leads to healthier lifestyles. It’s a win-win situation that workers appreciate for its flexibility and reduced out-of-pocket costs.
