The rise of the remote worker

New research commissioned by accounting software provider MYOB reveals almost half the country’s SMEs now have employees who work from home or away from the office.

Colmar Brunton conducted a nationally representative survey of 1,047 SMEs. Eighteen percent said their employees worked ‘mainly away from the office’; 28 percent said they worked ‘partly from home and from the office’. 

One key finding was that SMEs whose employees worked mostly from a location other than business premises were 43 percent more likely to have seen a revenue rise in the past year than those without remote workers. They were 21 percent less likely to see a revenue fall. 

The survey also highlighted that while fewer New Zealand businesses have teleworkers than Australian businesses, where 57 percent support the practice, they were more likely to see the financial benefits. Australian businesses with teleworkers were only 24 percent more likely to see revenue rise in the past year.

“The link between teleworking and improved business results is clear in our research,” says MYOB general manager, Business Division, James Scollay. “These trends speak volumes as to why empowering employees to work outside the traditional confines of an office is becoming increasingly prevalent. Businesses are realising the bottom line benefits and rewards from more engaged employees.”

Key benefits experienced by the SMEs whose staff telework include improved employee satisfaction and IT performance, travel savings and increased productivity. 

“Technology is a key enabler of teleworking and nowadays you don’t need to spend much money upfront to get started,” says Scollay. “There are plenty of simple free online technologies and applications available such as Skype, Dropbox and Gmail. And the cloud-enabling of new versions of more fully featured software applications makes for an easy transition for working remotely.”

Respondents whose employees worked away from the office were asked what technologies they used for teleworking. Almost three in four used email; more than three in five used laptops/computers and more than one in two used smartphones. Interestingly, fewer than one in ten used VPN and video conferencing.