When it comes to business, it’s all about numbers. Even in making the decision to hire a remote team, it’s best to have a good look at the industry before making a move. This is why it’s important to know some critical statistics about hiring remote workers.
If you want the gist of it, here are the best reasons why you need to hire a virtual assistant, remote worker, or home-based VA.
Now, let’s take a deep dive into the numbers to show you the state of remote work and its possible impact on your business.
Important Statistics You Should Know About Remote Work
These numbers will give you an idea of how the state of remote work was in 2021.
99% of employees want to work remotely.
Mention remote work to anybody, and you’ll most likely hear them say, “Yeah, I wanna do that too!”
The truth is, the commute to work alone can leave you tired and defeated – before you even get started with work! The freedom to spend more time with family and friends also makes remote work an appealing option to many.
This makes it even more evident that remote work isn’t just one of those passing trends. It’s a working setup that’s here to stay.
It’s also interesting to know that 99% of remote employees, virtual assistants, remote workers, or home-based VAs encourage their peers to look into remote work as well. This means that despite the few challenges that come with remote work, the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages.
40% work remotely because of schedule flexibility.
Remote employees, virtual assistants, remote workers, or home-based VAs, in a way, become their own bosses in terms of schedule.
Just imagine. If you live in a place where the traffic is so bad, you spend hours on travel alone. Working remotely means you get all these hours back. That’s extra time to stay in bed, take a quick morning run, or meet up with friends regardless of the time.
In a survey, remote employees, virtual assistants, remote workers, or home-based VAs say that these are the reasons why they love working remotely:
- 40% say they love the flexible schedule
- 30% say they love having the ability to work anywhere
- 14% say they enjoy the extra time with family
- 13% say they just love working from their own home
- 3% stated other reasons why they love remote work
The ability to travel anytime, anywhere. The option to work wearing your PJs. The chance to finally attend the kids’ school activities, family reunions, and brunches with friends. All these become possible with remote work.
This is great information to have when you want to hire remote workers. At least you’ll understand what potential perks you can throw to your employees when you hire them.
22% say they struggle to unplug when working remotely.
Remote work may be awesome, but it’s not always a perfect setup. Unplugging, for example, has become a struggle for a lot of remote workers.
When you work in the office, it’s easier to keep track of time. The moment your colleagues start to leave at the end of the day, you’re gonna have to pack up and start leaving as well. You have to go home too, after all.
But in a remote setting, there’s no need to pack up and travel home because, well, you’re ALREADY HOME.
This is why employers also need to play a role in helping their employees log off and unplug at the end of the day. A few reminders about the time, as well as being mindful about the tasks you give and what time you give these tasks, could be helpful.
Other than unplugging, these are the other issues remote workers struggle with:
- 19% struggle with loneliness
- 17% struggle with communication
- 10% struggle with distractions at home
- 8% struggle to stay motivated
- 8% struggle with being in a different time zone from their teammates
- 7% struggle with their vacation time
- 3% struggle with their internet connection
- 4% have other issues
Again, these are all valid and understandable. Make sure you keep the lines of communication open to make sure that you are aware of potential issues and could help your remote employee, virtual assistant, remote worker, or home-based VA find solutions.
32% say that they have unlimited vacation time.
If I ask you to show me someone who doesn’t dream of getting unlimited vacation time, it will probably be one of the toughest challenges of your life. That’s because everyone loves vacations – especially if you can have them all the time.
That’s one of the perks of working remotely. The truth is, for as long as you have internet access wherever you’re going, you can work AND be on vacation at the same time.
But of course, you would also want your remote employees, virtual assistants, remote workers, or home-based VAs to have time off so that they can recharge and relax. This helps them become more productive.
To give you an idea of how much vacation time employers often give their remote workers every year, here’s what the survey says:
- 32% have unlimited vacation time
- 19% have 4 weeks’ worth of vacation
- 15% are given 3 weeks of vacation
- 10% are given 5 weeks
- 9% have 2 weeks of vacation time
- 8% have no clear amount of vacation time
- 4% have 6 weeks
- 2% have over 6 weeks
- 1% are given 1 week
- 0.5% have less than a week
Of course, those who have an unlimited amount of vacation time didn’t just up and leave the entire year. 44% of them said that they took around 2 to 3 weeks of vacation, while 13% took a week or less. 3.2% even said that despite the generous offer, they did not take any time off at all.
84% of remote workers choose to stay at home to work.
You’d think that with the freedom to choose where to work, remote workers would be lounging around cafés and beaches with their laptops in tow. But nothing beats working from home.
When you think about it, a home office really offers everything an employee can ask for. You have the option to furnish and decorate your small corner as you wish. You can wear anything you want and just throw on a decent top (and still wear pajama bottoms) in the event of a video call. You can even continue to enjoy home-cooked meals without many costs.
There are days when you’d want to break from the monotony and choose to find another spot to work. But at the end of the day, the home is still the practical and more convenient choice.
Aside from the 84% who prefer working from home, here’s what the rest have to say:
- 8% prefer going to coworking spaces
- 4% love working in coffee shops and cafés
- 0.5% find themselves more comfortable in libraries
- 3% have other places they go to for work
Some are also forced to work outside their home if they have technical issues, like an unreliable internet provider, for example.
40% of business owners have both remote and office-based teams.
Just because you’re interested in hiring a remote team doesn’t mean that you should go all in. Especially if you already have an existing office space with seats to fill, it’s possible to have the best of both worlds.
In fact, 40% of business owners manage both remote and office-based teams. As for 31%, everyone in their team works remotely, while 16% have a physical office but allow their employees to work from home as needed.
There are many reasons why some business owners still choose to maintain a physical office. If, for example, there are physical goods to deal with, then a store or a warehouse is required.
In most cases, business owners choose to maintain a physical office because they haven’t gotten a hold of how a remote team should be managed just yet. Having a working remote team aside from an in-office team, however, is definitely better than not trying it out at all.
With 91% of business owners (who may or may not have a remote team just yet) admitting that they support the idea of having a remote team, it won’t be long now before every single business in the world has remote workers of their own.
There is a 25% lower employee turnover in companies allowing remote work.
If employee retention is proving to be an issue in your company, having your employees work remotely could be one of the best solutions you can explore.
Comparing businesses that employ remote workers versus the ones that don’t, employees tend to stay longer when they are allowed to work remotely. Evidently, this is because of the more favorable working conditions remote employees get to enjoy.
Insufficient pay tops the reason why people resign from work, closely followed by the lack of work-life balance. Both of these problems can be solved by remote work.
For one thing, an employee’s salary may seem insufficient if the employee also has a number of expenses related to work. Their commuting costs, for example, could be considered especially for those in locations where traffic is horrible, and gas prices are high. The same thing can be said about the cost of food.
When allowed to work from home, those commuting costs disappear. This means that there is less impact on the salary they get as well. This is, of course, provided that most employees also have the internet at home.
Work-life balance is also something that remote work greatly promotes. Because of the extra time at home, you also get to spend more time with family and friends. There is also less physical stress from traveling, which means a remote employee, virtual assistant, remote worker, or home-based VA has more energy for other social activities.
Remote workers are 24% more likely to be productive and happy.
Did you know that 24% of remote employees prove to be happier and more productive than office-based workers? This fact remains true even for employees who are only allowed to work remotely once a month.
It’s ironic, therefore, that a lot of business owners who are apprehensive about hiring remote workers believe that remote employees are less productive. It’s actually the complete opposite!
Why are employees happier and more productive when they’re given a chance to work remotely?
For one thing, they enjoy flexibility in terms of their work setup. They can choose to work on the couch, on their own desk, or even on their own bed. They can lie on the floor and type away on their laptop at the same time. Nobody would care. It’s far from the usual stiffer environment inside the office.
It also makes them feel more trusted.
When there’s a supervisor physically hovering around, employees often feel tenser and pressured. In a remote setting, however, employees have all the space they need to become more creative. Besides, monitoring them won’t be an issue on your end – there are a ton of tools for that, tools that are not as intrusive as having a supervisor peeking over their shoulders all the time.
Cap that off with the fact that they can be around friends and family all the time, and it won’t be surprising for anyone to know that they’re much happier working from home.
79% of employees are more loyal to companies that offer them flexibility.
Again, this statistic shows that if you’re concerned about your employees’ happiness, remote work is the way to go.
This number is mostly due to three main demographics whose lifestyles and preferences fit remote work more than anything.
Mothers, of course, are among these three. Especially after a woman has a child, working from home where they can be closer to their family becomes a top priority. In a lot of cases, women leave work because they are not allowed to have this kind of flexibility.
Older employees are also among those who prefer remote work. Because they are often not as active as they were when they were younger, they would rather stay at home to work than endure the travel and the long hours somewhere else.
Of course, the biggest contributor to this demographic would be the millennial workforce. In fact, 85% of them prefer telecommuting than working in the office 100% of the time. They are, after all, highly active and enjoy traveling and socializing. Remote work allows remote employees, virtual assistants, remote workers, or home-based VAs to be productive at work while maintaining the same lifestyle they have.
Tips for Hiring Remote Workers (and Keeping Them Happy)
Let’s say you’re convinced that hiring remote workers is the way to go. How can you be successful in the process of hiring the right people and keeping them happy?
Here are a few tips that could help you out.
Tip #1: Pay them right.
Yes, hiring a remote team could turn out to be highly cost-effective for you, especially when you think about not having to maintain office space for each person you hire. But this doesn’t mean you get to become Scrooge.
Remote workers have to take care of their own utilities that allow them to work from home – internet, electricity, and the like. They also have to maintain their own equipment. And while you may think that it’s their responsibility, it’s also good to consider all these when coming up with a suitable salary for them.
Look at the industry standard (you’ll find that here) and use that as a basis. Rates would often depend on the skills and experience of the person you’re hiring.
If you want to pay less than what you would usually pay an office-based employee, it’s wise to hire a remote employee from a different country where the minimum wage is much lower.
A lot of remote workers, for example, come from the Philippines, where employees are cheaper but are just as skilled as employees in your locality. So even if you offer them much more than the minimum wage they’re used to, you would still be saving a whole lot.
Check here on Why Virtual Assistants from the Philippines Totally Rock
Tip #2: Use the right tools.
Remote work is definitely convenient, but the workload will not be as easy to bear if you make your employees use the wrong tools. You’ll need to do a lot of research, depending on your business setup.
Prioritize the communication and productivity tools you’ll be using as a team. Remember that your team will not be working together in the same physical space. This means that you’ll have to go to the best to make sure everyone is seamlessly coordinated.
Slack is one of the most preferred messaging tools in the market. If you need to do video calls, Whereby and Zoom are also highly recommended.
As for productivity, you can check out tools like Wrike, Trello, Monday, Teamwork, Workzone, and Proofhub. Timekeeping is also a cinch if you use tools like Time Doctor, Toggl, Harvest, and Timeneye.
Make sure you maintain a common tool among workers of the same skill set as well. This eliminates confusion and the incessant need to tweak outputs depending on who’s working on what. Web developers, for example, may prefer different tools for coding. Graphic designers have their own preferences as well.
Tip #3: Maintain a healthy work environment.
You’re choosing the right tools for a reason – you want everyone to be at ease and as productive as they can be. But all this would be such a waste if you create a toxic work environment.
Allow team members to communicate openly. Keep things light as well. It doesn’t have to be work, work, work all the time. It would even be best if you’re the one who opens up some light conversation. Ask everyone how their day is going so far. Ask them about where they’re from and what it’s like there, especially if everyone lives in different parts of the world.
It’s also important to be open to whatever your employees are saying. It can’t be you who’s right all the time. A lot of remote workers have been doing this for a long time. This means that they also have great insights that could contribute greatly to your business.
Make your remote employee, virtual assistant, remote worker, or home-based VA feel like your doors are always open for them. The moment they feel like they can’t talk to you, that’s when they start retreating into their own space. This could have a negative impact on the quality of their work.
Related Topic: 7 Ways To Promote Employee Engagement In Remote Teams
Tip #4: Be clear about each person’s tasks and responsibilities.
Although it’s nice to find a remote worker who can do anything, it’s still important to have different people taking care of different aspects of the business. This ensures that not only is everyone more focused, but you also get to hire actual specialists for each task.
Remember that phrase, “jack of all trades, master of none?” That’s applicable here.
One of the biggest perks of hiring remotely is the fact that you gain access to some of the masters in each field. You can hire an amazing content writer from halfway across the world, for example, then hire a local SEO guy. You miss out on that opportunity if you insist on hiring just one person to take on different roles.
Once you have the right people for the right positions, be clear about what each person is supposed to do. Don’t expect them to know automatically. Every employer is different, and their past roles, while closely related to their current role, may require them to do something different from what you have in mind.
Tip #5: Look for them in the right place.
There are a lot of more popular job sites online, but remote workers usually stick to their own preferred sites. Sites like eVirtualAssistants focus more on providing remote jobs, so if you want a qualified, experienced remote worker to work for you, this is the place where you’ll find one.
The great thing about job-hunting sites like these is that it also allows you to feel more secure compared to if you randomly search for remote employees anywhere else. eVirtualAssistants, for example, has security measures in place that ensures safe transactions.
Ready to get started? Click here to start looking for a remote employee now!
From Where To Hire Virtual Assistants?
Before getting into the topic, let’s learn about some trustworthy platforms from where you can hire a virtual assistant. It can be done either from a VA agency or from a freelancing platform.
Here are some VA agencies to look at:
Some best freelancing platforms to hire a Filipino virtual assistant are:
