Remote Work Is the Future—Here’s Why

A version of this article previously appeared on PowerToFly.

Study after study shows that millennials balk at the traditional 9-5 punch-in job that requires them to be in an office all day. Technology is on their side, enabling them to work remotely for a company who values output (no matter where it originates) over sitting in an office chair.

According to a study by FreshBooks, a cloud-based accounting company, the number of freelance and remote workers is set to triple by the year 2020.

Clearly it’s time to embrace the remote hiring movement if you are looking to hire the future workforce. And if you’re trying to convince your boss that it’s time for you to go remote, here’s some reasons why remote work is the future to bolster your argument.

1. Working from home increases productivity.

A Harvard Business School study found that people who work from home are more productive than they are in an office setting. This isn’t across the board—not everyone is cut out for working from home—but the key here is to give people the option. People who are a fit will self-select the option, or apply to remote positions at companies that are entirely remote.

2. Hiring a remote team will lower turnover.

Employers and business owners—take note. A study from the Center for American Progress found that turnover across all different salary levels cost a company 21 percent of that employee’s annual salary, on average. It’s even higher for highly skilled employees. Work-from-home jobs give people a sense of control over their work-life balance; a key benefit younger employees seek when applying for a job. According to the State of Remote Work report done by OwlLab, companies who encourage working remotely experienced a 25 percent lower turnover than companies who did not support remote work—likely because remote workers value the flexible work that comes with working remotely. Take, for example, Buffer, a fully remote company that boasts a 91 percent retention rate.

If you’re an employee trying to go remote, tying your reasons for wanting to your company’s bottom line is a critical step in your negotiation. Put this cost of attrition right in front of your boss so they know that letting the team go remote is simply good business sense.

3. Remote hiring increases your candidate pool exponentially.

Ditching the location requirement allows you to tap into underrepresented people across all different industries. By not allowing geography and timezone to dictate your hiring process, you’re opening up your candidate search to include more people and drill down on the things that matter, like skills, work ethic and ambition. These are the key components to growing your business.

Nicholas Bloom, who conducted the Harvard Business School Study about productivity, points to JetBlue’s policy of allowing employees to work up to three hours away from headquarters. He says “When I asked the people at JetBlue about this policy, they said it helped them gain access to educated, high-ability mothers who wanted flexibility in their jobs. The airline believes this policy has improved the quality of its workforce.”

Remote work is good for employers and employees alike—it brings higher productivity, happier workers less likely to leave, and a more diverse workplace. It’s a no-brainer.

A version of this article previously appeared on PowerToFly.