Globalization has affected many aspects of our life and work is one of them. In an interconnected world, traditional work is an obsolete concept. Today there are many teams that work from different places, and even from different countries. Working remotely with a team is a challenge, we will not deny it. But it is possible to do it efficiently and the truth is that you get productivity to work will increase exponentially. Think about the savings in travel, time and the improvement of the quality of life of remote work.

One of the great challenges of working remotely with a team is how to organize. There are many questions that must be answered: what tools to use, how to communicate, how to monitor work, how to manage projects that involve several people ... There are many more resources than you might feel at first sight and in fact There are many companies that have incorporated working online as a partial practice within the day of their workers and the tools in the cloud that allow proper management of such work not to grow. Many companies have been created with several partners working from different places and have achieved large-scale invoices and more and more digital nomads are traveling around the world while doing their work from a computer. The examples are many and disparate but they tell us that working remotely is not only possible but in fact it is much more beneficial for both parties. You earn in quality of life, you save costs and ultimately you win in happiness and efficiency.

Why does remote work make you happier and more efficient?

Maybe if you hear that remote work makes us happier and more efficient, it seems at least a well-meaning assumption. But in reality we can say that we are talking about a proven fact. Take for example this study by a Standford professor and published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. This study took 250 volunteers who worked in the same company, half did it from home and the other half went to the offices. The study was carried out for 9 months and these were the results that were obtained:

• The company CTrip, saved about $ 2000 per year for each employee in working space
• Employees who worked from home were 13.5% more efficient than those who worked from the office
• Workers who performed remote work were more committed to their employment, specifically 9% more than the rest
• Workers who stayed at home became less sick and asked for fewer permits
• The attrition rate was 50% better for workers who had chosen to work from home
• And although happiness is difficult to measure, what we can say is that employees who worked from home reported greater satisfaction with their employment than those who did it from the company's offices

Although it is a concrete study and with a sample that can be considered small, the truth is that everything indicates that work from home allows you to work efficiently. The advantages are clear, and not only for workers but also for the company.

But why does working from home make us happier and more efficient?

Because it avoids distractions and unproductive conversations that are the order of the day in the office. And because it allows us to better reconcile family and work life and saves us expenses and travel time. This study is not the only one, the results of this experiment are very similar to another Gallup study, according to which employees who work from home are much more predisposed (41%) than the rest (30%) to develop engagement with the business.

Of course, not everything was going to be positive, remote work requires a series of characteristics to be productive. The most important thing is to avoid the bed, the fridge and the TV, the three biggest threats we have at home. It is very important to have created a workspace, discipline and communication tools to be able to work in a team. But we will see all this in the advice section in which we will help you with tips so that working from home becomes a dream and not a nightmare.

Why should work from home be a common practice in companies?

Work in an office for 8 hours a day is starting to become obsolete. A worker who performs his work from home saves costs for the company and for himself, while improving his productivity and his quality of life. It seems proven that absenteeism is reduced and employee turnover decreases, something that greatly affects productivity in a company.

Company benefits

• Cost reduction per employee in workspace
• Decrease of sick leave or own affairs
• Greater engagement with the employees' company
• Increased employee productivity
• Workers stay longer in the company, reducing turnover
• More possibilities in the selection of personnel, with remote work distance is no longer a problem
• We can hire the best professionals regardless of whether they live in the city where the company is based or not

Worker benefits

• Important savings in transport costs, clothing and other expenses (so they have a better perception of the salary received)
• Time savings, in large cities, travel can be up to 20% of the effective daily working day
• Better family reconciliation

Some large companies such as Basecamp, Buffer, Zapier or Help Scout operate with 100% of their staff remotely, demonstrating that this model is possible. Other companies such as Dell, Oracle, Adobe or Salesforce have a mixed model, with an important part of their templates working from home. The digital economy is a clearly booming value and more and more companies are welcoming this model of distance work.