Telecommuting: Should Your Company Make It Permanent?

What is telecommuting?

Telecommuting generally means that employees work from home, relying on email, video conferencing, messaging apps and the internet to do their jobs. Telecommuting can also represent a mix of in-office and at-home days in a hybrid work arrangement. 

According to WFH Research data from April and May 2023, 25.6 percent of full-time employees — roughly 1 in 4 — work via hybrid arrangements. WFH Research also found that 7.9 percent of full-time employees work entirely from home. That represents a substantial dip from June 2020, when 42% of full-time employees worked from home amid the COVID-19 public health emergency. 

Should you make telecommuting permanent?

Some businesses are unsure if they should continue allowing employees to work from home, mandate a return to in-office work, or adopt flexible and hybrid policies. Your company’s needs, industry and unique characteristics will drive this decision. 

Ask the following questions to determine if you should make telecommuting permanent or shift to another model. 

What do your managers want?

Managing a remote workforce can be challenging. However, managers who already embrace and enjoy dealing with remote teams will smooth the way for a permanent telecommuting policy. 

“You want to know how [your managers] have interacted with their teams [and if they are] setting them up for success working remotely,” said Brie Weiler Reynolds, program coordinator at The Nature Conservancy.

Most importantly, you must determine if your managers handle telecommuting workers effectively. Is remote work productivity high? Are workers successfully contributing to the business’s bottom line? Are telecommuting challenges hampering operations, or is everything running smoothly?

What does your team want?

Your employees’ wants and needs are crucial indicators of whether you should continue to allow telecommuting. As a business owner, you may prefer in-office work. However, if your employees are thriving, enjoying a positive work-life balance and staying productive, consider keeping your remote workforce intact. 

Survey employees to see where they stand on returning to the office or working on a hybrid schedule. Get their feedback about various options. Retaining excellent team members is vital to your business’s success, and mandating an in-office situation may not be worth losing top talent. Work on a solution that meets everyone’s needs.

Does your current workforce have excellent teamwork, productivity and efficiency? 

It’s one thing if your employees are happy with their current telecommuting situation. Ensuring the situation works for your overall business success is another thing entirely. Assess the collaboration, teamwork and efficiency of your in-office (if applicable) and remote teams. If your entire workforce is remote, do they have the right collaboration tools for efficient and effective collaboration? 

If you’ve noticed increased teamwork and efficiency with your remote or hybrid workforce, consider not disrupting that flow with a shift to in-person work.

Additionally, productivity and timeliness are crucial. Training and supervising your employees on these fronts are typically easier in person. However, if your team is hitting its quality marks and deadlines while remote, extra supervision or in-person time isn’t necessary.

Does a remote workforce save your company money? 

Businesses operate to make money, so it’s essential to cut business expenses without losing productivity. Ideally, remote workers save your company money on overhead and office expenses. 

“If you removed the office from your expenses, how big of an impact would it have?” Reynolds said. “For some companies, that could be massive. If that’s the case, where do the funds go?”

What are my business’s hiring needs? 

It’s crucial to consider your hiring needs when you’re assessing the best working model for your company. Specific situations may dictate your options. For example, think about the following: 

• Future job openings at your company that require intimate knowledge of your region might be best suited to in-person or hybrid positions. 
• Upcoming projects involving manual labor at a specified site might require you to fully return to in-person work.
• Jobs that require only a computer and an internet connection might be ideal for remote positions.

What are the pros and cons of telecommuting?

Telecommuting is an excellent solution for many professionals and businesses. However, it has some drawbacks. Weigh the following pros and cons of telecommuting when you’re deciding whether to switch up your operation’s working model.

Telecommuting pros

• Telecommuting can save money. According to Moe Vela, a board member for TransparentBusiness, large business owners save about $11,000 per employee annually when they shift to a remote workforce. Although those savings will likely be less for small businesses, there’s still enormous potential to save on office space rent, equipment, furniture, utilities and supplies.
• Telecommuting can boost productivity. Numerous studies say working from home can increase productivity. Morale may be a significant reason for the productivity boost. Low employee morale can drain productivity, thus reducing output and increasing absenteeism. While employee happiness hinges on numerous factors, many of telecommuting’s benefits, including reduced or eliminated commute times, can boost satisfaction, morale and, ultimately, productivity.
• Telecommuting gives you access to a broader talent pool. Attracting and retaining top talent are challenging for any business. However, when you open your talent search beyond a specific geographic region, your pool increases dramatically. You can hire people who live anywhere and can access talented people with disabilities who can’t get to a physical office, single parents juggling families and work, and those with transportation challenges.
• Telecommuting can foster collaboration. Remote work once had the reputation of isolating team members and hindering communication and collaboration. However, tools such as Zoom and Slack have largely eliminated those concerns. Remote business collaboration apps can actually foster brainstorming and trust among team members. For example, in a 2020 survey of remote workers by national staffing company Robert Half, 20 percent of respondents said they built stronger relationships with co-workers by working from home. Compared with people without children, parents working from home were three times more likely to develop deeper relationships with co-workers. 

Telecommuting cons

• The lines between work and home life are blurred. While an improved work-life balance is touted as a telecommuting benefit, this may not be the case for everyone. For some people, telecommuting could blur the line between home and work, leading to an “always-on” mentality and increased stress.
• Telecommuting could harm workplace culture. While tech tools can foster collaboration in a remote workforce, some businesses may suffer from a lack of face-to-face interaction that impedes collaboration and an overall sense of teamwork. Again, every business’s company culture is different. Some professionals and companies thrive in a highly social office environment; others do fine with remote teams.
• Telecommuting can invite productivity-killing distractions. Successful telecommuting requires discipline and structure. For some, home-life distractions can kill productivity. Telecommuting is challenging for professionals who can’t shut out the noise of daily life.
• Some business owners aren’t suited to a remote workforce. Not all business owners are comfortable with the autonomy and trust remote workers need. Giving up control can be challenging. Some business owners like the idea of stopping by an employee’s office to check in on their progress or strolling through the office to ensure work is getting done. While they could install employee monitoring software, that solution can backfire and hurt morale.  

Telecommuting best practices

Any company that decides to make remote work permanent needs a formal telecommuting policy. When you devise your telecommuting policy, consider the following remote work best practices that can set up your organization for success: 

1. Invest in remote collaboration tools.

Any business with a remote workforce needs robust collaboration tools, including a top video conferencing service. Numerous video conferencing services and software exist, including the ubiquitous Zoom. Read our GoTo Connect review to learn about one excellent option with secure file sharing, smart tools and calendar integrations.  

Beyond video conferencing, numerous tech tools, including free remote work tools, can enhance collaboration and communication, including Dropbox, Google Workspace and Dialpad. 

2. Establish a routine.

Ask employees to designate a quiet workspace in their homes. Set meeting times early, and agree on regular working hours to better manage everyone’s productivity. Communicate often to help keep remote workers engaged, check in with them, and ensure everyone remains on task.

3. Stay flexible with your remote work plan.

Working from home presents challenges for everyone. Employees need to find the right rhythm, and employers must adopt a flexible mindset. Be prepared to handle any issues that may arise, including technical difficulties and family emergencies. Talk to employees about expectations, and develop a comprehensive communication plan.

4. Adjust your company’s policies.

Update your company’s various policies and the employee handbook if you plan to make telecommuting a permanent part of your operations. Employees should know what’s expected of them. Hold training sessions to review remote work policies and procedures, and confirm that each staff member understands your expectations.

Telecommuting is not one-size-fits-all

Some teams do better work from the comfort of home, whereas others get results only when sharing physical space. Look at your team’s productivity trends and workplace desires, as well as your own needs, when you’re deciding whether to go (or stay) remote. The answer to whether your business should allow telecommuting permanently lies somewhere between keeping your team happy and furthering your mission statement. You may be able to achieve your vision right from home, with your employees doing the same.

Max Freedman contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.