I have worked remotely (from home) for several years now. Almost everyone I work with also work remotely.
While companies can save money with smaller offices by allowing working from home the biggest factor imho is you open the potential employee pool to the whole country, if not the content or the world.
You are no longer restricted to the best person you can get within an hour or two commute of an office.
Find someone perfect for the role who lives 5 hours away? It doesn't matter anymore!
You no longer have to convince them to relocate (and put forward cash to cover the relocation as a condition of the contract).
You don't have to throw away the perfect candidate because a decade ago your company decided this is where you office should be but now you can't find local talent.
I hope when my son starts working (if he works in an office) he says to me "Dad, did you seriously have to go to the same place an hour away every day to sit at a desk and do the same work you can do on any computer with an internet connection? That's crazy!"
So much needless commuting could end if more companies embraced remote working. Not being forced to live within commuting distance of an office would mean more people can live further from "the office" easing pressure on housing, roads, public transport systems, save energy (fuel), reduce commuter accidents (vehicular and public transport), reduce pollution and give everyone more time in their day not mindlessly traveling from A to B back to A again every day.
While companies can save money with smaller offices by allowing working from home the biggest factor imho is you open the potential employee pool to the whole country, if not the content or the world.
You are no longer restricted to the best person you can get within an hour or two commute of an office.
Find someone perfect for the role who lives 5 hours away? It doesn't matter anymore!
You no longer have to convince them to relocate (and put forward cash to cover the relocation as a condition of the contract).
You don't have to throw away the perfect candidate because a decade ago your company decided this is where you office should be but now you can't find local talent.
I hope when my son starts working (if he works in an office) he says to me "Dad, did you seriously have to go to the same place an hour away every day to sit at a desk and do the same work you can do on any computer with an internet connection? That's crazy!"
So much needless commuting could end if more companies embraced remote working. Not being forced to live within commuting distance of an office would mean more people can live further from "the office" easing pressure on housing, roads, public transport systems, save energy (fuel), reduce commuter accidents (vehicular and public transport), reduce pollution and give everyone more time in their day not mindlessly traveling from A to B back to A again every day.