In terms of productivity and commuting, virtual office benefits organizations as well as employees to a great extent. Since the onset of the pandemic, work from home has become a new norm and continues to be implemented by various organizations for efficient operations.
After the introduction of cloud-based services, several businesses have adopted latest technologies to streamline their operations and increase profits. Moreover, the pandemic has also led to a surge in remote working making people aware of the benefits of a virtual office.
According to research conducted by Porch, it is confirmed that remote workers or employees working from home are comparatively more satisfied and productive than employees who are attending offices.
How Does a Virtual Office Work?
A virtual office provides businesses with a physical address and phone number along with other office-related services. As a result, overhead of long lease and administrative staff is avoided. Moreover, virtual offices allow people to work remotely from anywhere in the world.
Virtual offices are typically beneficial and ideal for small businesses. They can also serve great importance for large organizations where several employees can work remotely or occasionally from a virtual office space.
How does virtual offices benefit businesses?
Following are the benefits of virtual offices:
1. No Commute Time:
Since remote work allows employees to work from their preferred location, they do not have to spend time and effort commuting to the office every day. This allows employees to spend more time on work thereby increasing productivity and efficiency.
2. Diversity of Talent Acquisition:
Virtual offices provide businesses with more flexibility to hire worldwide talent. There is no limitation for organizations to hire only from a specific region as their employees can work remotely from anywhere in the world. This allows businesses to hire talented staff from across the world and helps organizations to increase their efficiency and profits in the long run.
3. Lower Overhead Costs:
There are various charges involved in a physical location set-up like rent, electricity, furniture, utilities, laborers, equipment, hardware, and many other amenities. Since businesses with virtual offices do not require a physical set-up, all costs related to the set-up and maintenance of an office building are saved. Thus, virtual offices allow businesses to save their client budget and function more effectively by preventing them from miscellaneous expenditure.
4. Less Technological Expenses:
A physical office setting requires a lot of investment and expense on technology. Some of the most common expenses incurred are computers, headsets, software upgradation, hardware maintenance, system update, malware security tools, and others. In case of virtual office, it becomes the responsibility of the employees to arrange and take care of these things. Therefore, these costs and expenses get eliminated enabling organizations to focus more on their operations.
5. Increased Productivity:
A virtual office environment provides employees with more flexibility of work and reduced stress which results in increased productivity. Recent research by Harvard Business Review confirms that virtual office improves employee’s productivity.
Employees working remotely feel comparatively low stressed and can work peacefully while enjoying their privacy. This motivates them to put in extra effort to achieve work targets thereby increasing productivity.
6. Less Unplanned Leave-off:
Virtual office culture reduces the instances of unplanned or unscheduled leaves as employees can adjust their time and situation in accordance to their work schedule. Since employees work remotely, they can manage minor health issues or family commitments without impacting their work schedule.
7. Easy Expansion of Business:
A virtual office allows businesses to easily expand their operations without worrying about various factors such as office space, availability of resources, rent, and many more. However, businesses with physical office setup need to plan keeping all of these factors in mind–making it a tedious and difficult job.
8. Environment-friendly:
Operation of a physical office leads to wastage of resources, disposal of waste, and commute that can cause a lot of damage to the environment. Therefore, setting up a business with virtual offices can reduce and eliminate wastage and depletion of resources contributing to environment-friendly practices.
9. Lower Attrition:
Remote work allows employees with more flexibility and a peaceful work environment leading to increased employee satisfaction. Higher the satisfaction of employees, lower the attrition rate of the organization.
Benefits of Virtual Office for Employees
A virtual office set-up not only benefits business organizations but also its employees. Some of the major benefits of a virtual office for employees are:
1. Improved Work-Life Balance:
Since employees can work remotely, it helps them focus on reducing stress levels by allowing them to work more efficiently and spend quality time with family and friends. Virtual office benefits employees by helping them maintain an optimum level of work-life balance. An appropriate work-life balance helps employees to focus on their daily routine and eating habits making them physically fit.
2. Increased Flexibility:
Virtual offices enable employees with more flexibility of work by motivating them and keeping them focused on their work. People can choose their own workspace and work from anywhere in the world–even while traveling. This flexibility encourages employees to be more satisfied and stress-free, thereby encouraging them to work more efficiently.
3. Mental & Physical Well-Being:
Virtual office benefits the mental and physical well-being of the employees by keeping them away from workplace stress, bullying, and politics. This allows them to work peacefully with an increased focus on work as well as family.
4. Reduction in Expenses:
A virtual office contributes to reduction of extra expenses of employees. Employees will not have to spend for traveling to work, having food in the canteen, etc. Therefore, a virtual office reduces a lot of extra expenses to be handled by the employees.
Stepping in the Digital Era
Virtual office benefits have enabled organizations to focus more on technological advancement and innovation. Various organizations are investing in research and development envisioning the future of virtual offices reducing their unfavourable impact and challenges. One such research titled “The Virtual Office of the Future: Are Centralized Workplaces Obsolete?” has been performed by Microsoft. Virtual office is not just a concept but the latest trend that is being adopted by a lot of business organizations nowadays including start-ups. It also makes it easier for start-ups to establish their business with low investment and capital and help established businesses to increase their profits.
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