4 Ways Design Studios Can Benefit From Work From Home Employees

The age of working from an office is still very much alive. Especially for design studios. Meetings can be more productive when conducted face-to-face, and creativity and engagement seem to thrive when you’re working alongside people you can collaborate with. However, there are plenty of benefits of letting some, or even all, of your design studio employees work from home — at least sometimes.

And that’s the great thing about allowing employees to work from home. You can test out the idea, maybe offering the opportunity to some of the more experienced workers, telling them they can work from home one day of the week. If it proves successful, and you start seeing some of the benefits, you can move forward with a more permanent work-from-home solution.

And that’s the great thing about allowing employees to work remotely. You can test out the idea, maybe offering the opportunity to some of the more experienced workers, telling them they can work from home one day of the week. If it proves successful, and you start seeing some of the benefits, you can move forward with a more permanent WFH solution. If that’s the route you’re aiming for, make sure you have a time tracker that’s easily accessible either online, or on mobile, and can provide you with all of the insights you need.

Yes, the office still has a place in this world, but what many companies are finding is that you typically don’t need to spend money on a full-time office space. Working at home often yields better results, and you can rent coworking spaces or even go to coffee houses, libraries, or restaurants to hold meetings. Capital One and State Farm even have coffee and office locations where you can use presentation equipment and reserve conference rooms.

Overall, working from home has quite a few advantages for design studios and all businesses alike. See the benefits for yourself below!

1. Your Employees Become More Productive

Studies show that people who work from home are typically more productive than they are when in an office. This has been documented at companies like Best Buy, Compaq, and AT&T, where the telecommuting workers are known to work longer hours since they don’t necessarily feel like they’re working, and there is more freedom for them to take breaks, then come back to work feeling refreshed.

It’s also true that unscheduled absences tend to decrease, since it’s easier for people to return to work following a sickness, death in the family, or even too much stress. Workers have trouble running errands and scheduling appointments when working in an office, since it often means they have to skip a full or half day. However, when working from home, employees typically feel more comfortable working late in order to complete those errands, and it’s easier to run out and come back quickly.

2. Your Employees Will Be Happier

This one’s almost a no-brainer. When the conversation of careers comes up, everyone is jealous of the person working from home. Not only that, but your company benefits since the workers are less likely to leave, they don’t take as much vacation, and even the owners get a better work-life balance.

3. Your Costs Decrease Significantly

There are many costs involved with running a design studio, and many of them can be decreased or eliminated by letting your employees work from home. To start, you’ll find that your employees will be much happier. Therefore, you’ll be able to retain these designers for longer into their careers. Since losing a valued employee and going through the hiring process can cost anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000, you’re able to cut down on that huge chunk of money by keeping around the people who drive your business.

There’s also the fact that you potentially don’t have to pay for office space. This won’t be the case if you don’t let all of your designers work from home at all times, but you may be able to decrease the size of your office since fewer people will be coming in every day.

You also have to consider some of the random items that cost you throughout the year. This includes office supplies, snacks, coffee, and presentation equipment. At-home workers typically have no problem getting their own office supplies, and they wouldn’t expect you to deliver coffee and food to their homes.

4. You Have a Better Chance at Hiring the Best Designers

This is one of the biggest advantages to letting your design employees work from home. Many designers are scattered all over the globe. You might have an office in Maine but want to hire someone from California. There’s a chance that she completely uproots and makes the move to Maine, but you’re also competing with all of the design firms in her home state.

Offering a telecommuting job also gives you extreme leverage over your competition. Many people dream about working from home and try to push their companies to let them telecommute for one or two days per week. If you’re able to offer this type of benefit during the interview process, you’re bound to bring in some of the best talent from around the world.

Consider Work From Home Design Employees and Reap the Benefits

As we mentioned before, you don’t have to go all-in right away. Every business is different and every person can have a different remote working experience, so sometimes it works better to have a transition period and see how workers respond to the change.

However, the benefits are quite clear, seeing as how you can cut costs for your design studio, make your employees happier, increase productivity, and find the best talent.