Weighing the benefits of a virtual workforce
Benefits of a virtual workforce
In a changing world, company owners have more options available to make their operations productive and profitable. One way that managers and owners can run more efficient businesses is by considering whether a virtual workforce is right for their company.
Is Hiring A Virtual Workforce Right For You?
There's no doubt that the expenses for maintaining an office space can get pretty expensive. When you add in additional costs for electricity, office furniture, internet access, equipment,and miscellaneous expenses to the monthly rent or mortgage payment, the total cost adds up quickly.
When you work with a virtual workforce,there is little need for large, expensive offices. Since your virtual team completes their work from their location, there's no need for big office spaces.
These days, many savvy business owners are choosing co-working spaces and virtual offices instead of traditional offices for their workspace. This office environment offers flexible terms and includes office basics like desks, chairs, electric, telephony, and access to audio/visual equipment, saving business owners a great deal of money on business setup.
Further, many of these virtual office spaces offer concierge services such as a corresponding business address and mail collection. For additional fees, a virtual office or co-working space could offer other convenient amenities.
Larger Talent Pools
For employers who have limited access to qualified talent in their physical location, a distributed workforce offers away to access bigger talent pools. A flexible hiring option, virtual team members, are useful for filling 'hard to place' positions or adding support to your existing team.
Instead of having to settle for a semi-qualified applicant and hoping for the best, you can tap into a broader group of talent who can fulfill the duties that your business or organization requires. Further, since virtual employees work from their current location,you don't have to worry about adding desks to accommodate for new team members.
Managed Labor Costs
For companies who are working within a tight budget for Payroll and other associated employee expenses, hiring virtual workers offer a way to manage your overall labor costs. Since they are not considered to be traditional employees and work on a 1099 basis, employers are not responsible for withholding taxes or paying for benefits such as health insurance.
Depending on your needs, you can hire remote workers on an hourly or fixed-price basis to complete the tasks and work your company needs help to finish. These payment options are pretty straightforward.
When you work with Independent Contractors on an hourly basis, you pay them for each hour they work and log.The more hours remote team members work, the higher the costs for their weekly work.
When working with a contractor on a fixed-price basis, the contractor agrees to do work for a set price, regardless of the number of hours the contractors work.
Lighter Carbon Footprint
For employers who are concerned about the carbon footprint their company has on the world, hiring a remote workforce can keep this impact on the globe to a minimum. Fewer people drive to an office when they work remotely. Instead, remote employees work at their preferred workspace, whether that is at their home, the library, an internet cafe, or their favorite wi-fi hot spot.
Advanced technology such as web conference software, reduces the need for long, expensive flights for meetings,interviews, and conferences.
Your team can come together for status update meetings, information sharing meetings, problem-solving meetings, decision-making sessions, innovation meetings, and team building meetings - without the expensive and lengthy travel.
As you can imagine, the ability to collaborate and meet with team members in real time empowers your company to operate more smoothly.
Higher Productivity Levels
Remote work offers employers the benefit of increased productivity. Since remote work is more flexible than a lot of traditional jobs, and workers don't have to hassle with traveling anywhere to work, they work more efficiently.
The use of Project Management Software and Customer Relationship Management tools help keep all team members, wherever they are at, abreast of updates to projects or records.
Customer Relationship Management is helpful for sales and support teams to communicate more efficiently about leads, customers, and prospects. Using this platform, sales team members can track activities and schedule follow up tasks including emails and phone calls, take notes, and add new contacts and leads.
Grow Every Business Department
Every business reaps benefits from having additional salespeople on their business team. When you hire remotely, you can work with sales professionals who live in locations across the United States and beyond.
Since there is no need to open additional office space or take on the expense of added locations, this helps you to keep your employee expenses relatively low. As you can imagine, this helps maximize your brand reach and sales opportunities.
Further, by having many employees in locations that are separate from your own, you can help assure that someone is available to work on your projects around the clock. You can easily have customer service representatives, technical support specialists, and other personnel on staff to monitor and help out clients all hours of the day.
For businesses that focus on projects such as web development, working with remote programmers and other essential design staff helps to expedite the development process. With one or more remote workers who keep different hours, a well-developed team of internet specialists can work while you sleep. They offer a way to provide value-added services to your product and service line, satisfying clients.
Build Your Business From The Ground Up
Use a Distributed workforce to get help with:
Mobile design
Search Engine Optimization
Web design
Mobile apps
Copy writing services
Customer support
If there's something you could use help with, there's most certainly a remote worker who can assist.