2021 had been a roller coaster ride for the whole world which has thrown unseen or unheard challenges across. And one such challenge was for the companies to provide remote work opportunities to its employees.

The trend of remote work opportunities has been prevalent since the last few years especially in the IT sector but due to the current pandemic, work from home has been growing at a faster pace across the globe. And now almost all industry has adopted this trend of remote work.

Advantages of Remote work opportunities

Few advantages of companies providing remote work opportunities to the employees are as follows:

1. Pandemic has resulted in an increase in the unemployment level and also led to the disruption of many companies. Hence, it is essential for companies to provide remote work opportunities to its employees to retain highly experienced & capable employees and conjointly, keep the business operational.

2. Remote work helps companies to recruit employees without any geographic location’s limitations, especially from non-metro cities. A recent survey shows that the majority of the Americans have relocated from metro areas owing to remote work opportunities and this has led to an increase in the job opportunities in New York, and subsequently, the jobs hiring in California, and Washington has also increased etc.

3. Remote work helps in cutting down the daily expenditures borne by the company like utility bills, office stationery supplies, rent, transportation cost, etc.

Ways to retain employees

Companies should take care of the following points to retain its employees by providing remote work opportunities:

1. Provide basic necessity to its employees:

In the current pandemic, keeping the business operational by providing remote work access to its employees has become a necessity, especially for IT companies in places like New York, California, etc. Thus, it becomes mandatory for the company for the employers based out in New York and California to not just provide jobs in New York but also give them the flexibility to work and operate from their residence. It has become crucial to provide the required necessity to its employees for remote work access for efficient business. These necessities include arranging for internet facility, VPNs, monitors, etc.

2. Provide Flexibility to its employees:

Working from home does increase the focus of the employees as there would be no office distractions and this would ultimately enhance productivity.

Moreover, providing flexibility to its employees, trusting that the job would be taken care of help reduces the stress at the employee level and it additionally helps the company create employee loyalty which would last post-pandemic as well.

3. Engaging an Employer of Record:

Companies may rope in an Employer of Record (EOR) to recruit employees on the company’s behalf and also take care of their pay while employees continue to work for the company in varied locations. This is one of the employee retention strategies that can be adopted by the company as EOR would keep a track of the employees. This is one of the major changes in hiring jobs in California strategy that has been seen in the past year considering the pandemic.

To summarize, with advantages of remote work like enhanced productivity, work/life balance, flexibility, etc, companies have welcomed this new normal of remote work with open arms. Retaining employees in such a situation of the pandemic have become crucial in operating business successfully and efficiently.