7 ways to convince your boss to let you work remotely

7 ways to convince your boss to let you work remotely

There may be lots of reasons why remote working makes sense for you. But if you’re going to have a fighting chance of successfully convincing your boss to give you more freedom, you need to make a strong business case. Your boss won’t care as much about the personal benefits of remote working as you do, so focus on spending time researching how flexible working will improve business. We’ve pulled together seven tips to help you get started.

#1 Productivity will increase
Business leaders often fear losing control of their workforce if they can’t see their team at their desks during office hours, but just because they can see you, doesn’t mean you’re working as productively as you can. You need to persuade your boss that working away from the office minimises the daily distractions and disruption we all suffer when we’re in the office. Think about the amount of time you waste preparing to go to the office when you don’t necessarily need to – the hours you’re not spending commuting could be used working instead. What’s more, point out that life outside the office can inspire you to be more creative too.

#2 You’ll strengthen your green credentials
Being green isn’t just the trendy thing to do; it can save your company money in commuting costs and hours of lost productivity. Remind your boss about the times you’ve been late to work thanks to transport delays and bad weather – if you don’t always need to travel to the office, you can get on with your work from home without any delays. And when it comes to the environment, your company could contribute to reducing the UK’s carbon footprint – according to Carbon Trust, homeworking could result in annual savings of 3 million tonnes of carbon a year and cut costs by £3 billion.

#3 Overhead costs will reduce
Office space doesn’t come cheap (especially in cities), so reducing the number of full time office-based employees could significantly shrink the overhead costs associated with running a company. For example, a company of 50 can operate efficiently in an office sized for a core team of 10 individuals. Cutting down on the cost of electricity, heating and desk space will provide a strong incentive for most managers to consider your request.

#4 Office politicking will diminish
Office politics can hurt company culture and create unhappy, unproductive employees. It’s hard to share office gossip from home, and even though there are online spaces to participate in chitchat, it’s not the same. Even if you’re not one to get involved in office politics or gossip at work, those that do are in your space and can affect your attitude and even your work. Stepping away from the office to work can provide that much-needed filter from the undesirable aspects of a shared working environment.

#5 The company will gain competitive edge
The sooner your company offers flexible working models, the sooner it will attract incredibly talented people it might not have otherwise attracted before. And a business made up of a gifted individuals working flexibly can be more agile and responsive – pushing out the competition.

#6 Employee retention will go through the roof
For those with longer commutes or family commitments, being given the freedom to work flexibly makes them feel valued and trusted as an employee, resulting in higher employee loyalty. Telecommuting, at least part-time, can reduce work-related stress that often leads to staff leaving organisations. If you can link flexibility with retaining the best employees, your boss will see remote working as a positive thing for their business.

#7 Communications and relationships will improve
When everyone’s not together, more effort has to go into communicating clearly. Working remotely can often heighten your need to know what’s going on in your company as you have less distractions and more time to take a helicopter view of the conversations happening internally and project statuses. When it comes to relationships between employers and their employees, staff can feel a sense of liberation if their boss isn’t constantly looking over their shoulder, while leaders are freed up to focus on bigger business issues.

Have you got any tips you’d like to share that helped you successfully secure remote working?

Paul Cash - Author of 'Humanizing B2B'

Founder at Rooster Punk. Challenging B2B leaders to think differently about the interplay between brand, marketing & sales.

9y

And lets not forget as an employer (from June 2014) almost all employees with at least 26 weeks’ service have the right to ask for flexible working. Time to get on the case and accept THIS IS PART OF THE FUTURE Of WORK.

Frank Smits

Head of Public Cloud Platform (Azure) @ ABN AMRO Bank ☁️

9y

Absolutely brilliant. I'd like to have a PDF on this one :-)

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I can confirm all of these, being a boss that got convinced some time ago. Specially #6 I find important, but should also explicitly be positioned as a recognition and/or demonstration of trust and commitment. Also, SW tools that enable remote collaboration actually often allow better supervision of accomplished work.

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