by Linda Parker

Does your company allow you to work from home? Do you have the flexibility of picking working hours of your own choice? Are you a night owl stuck working the day shift? Well the advents in tech are changing all the things we dread about the office faster than you can imagine.

Working remotely using a virtual workspace is not a farfetched idea but it has been around for a while now and in the UK alone, the numbers of employees working remotely have increased five-fold from 2006 to 2016 to a whopping 1.5 million. According to a recent study, by the year 2020, 50% of the workforce in the UK will be working remotely.

Whether it’s the ability to work at a time when you can naturally be most productive, or picking a time that best suits your family life, there are several benefits to having flexible working hours.

How to know when to switch?

If you are concerned about whether or not to switch to a virtual workplace work for employers, one thing to consider is that you can save big on expenses. Working remotely brings more employee satisfaction and also makes employees feel more loyal towards their companies. If employees are allowed to work remotely it would improve staff retention and save huge sums that companies spend on job portals and hiring consultants. If the employees of a company are working remotely, they’d either not need an office anymore or would need a way smaller facility, reducing the office expenses significantly.

In addition to the financial perks, employers can also take advantage of the virtual workspace option to widen their talent pool. With a physical office, employers are limited by geographic constraints to look for talent whereas, virtual workspaces allow them to hire talent from anywhere around the world. This allows employers to expand their horizons and find talent that can potentially be cost-effective and give the round the clock advantage due to time-zone differences.

The question that first comes to the minds of both employees and employers is whether we are at a place in time when technology is able to ensure a virtual workspace that is as efficient as working in a conventional office space. The concerns of employers or managers revolve around the two challenges, namely lack of visibility and the risk of time-theft. Well, you would be happy to learn that using just a handful of cloud collaboration tools can help achieve an effective virtual workspace.

Read more to learn about these software applications, their needs, their advantages, and how they can bridge the gap the geographic distance among remote teams.

Infographic by McGowan Transcription UK

Header Photo by Square (Unsplash)