Cutting IT Cost by Adopting Home Office Employees
Attention CFO’s,
As you know, IT costs are a significant portion of any organization’s budget, often second only to employee expenses. In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever for companies to find ways to reduce these costs while maintaining productivity.
Here are a few ways in which remote work can help companies save money:
1.Reduced overhead costs: When employees work remotely, they are not usingcompany resources such as office space, utilities, and office supplies. This can lead to significant cost savings for the company.
2.Increased productivity: Studies have shown that remote employees are often more productive than their in-office counterparts, and have an improved employee lifecycle. This is because they are able to work in an environment that is more conducive to their productivity, such as a quiet home office or a coworking space. These employees are also often concerned that if the corporation they are employed by doesn’t see productivity gains by using the “work from home” strategy, they could be asked to return to the traditional corporate office setting or they could be terminated. Therefore, many of the employees working from their homes are much more productive than ever.
3.Attract top talent: Companies that offer the option to work remotely can attract top talent from anywhere in the world. This means that they are not limited to hiring only from their local area, which can save them money on relocation expenses.
4.Decreased absenteeism: Remote work can lead to decreased absenteeism because employees are not required to commute to the office. This can save companies money on lost productivity due to absenteeism. The estimated three hours of time it takes an average employee in the U>S. to dress and groom for work and commute is being used to start their workdays earlier at home. Conversely, everyone knows that working from home also entices the employees to work longer hours, thus increasing the productivity of each employee and thus decreasing the number of employees it may take to complete tasks in that particular task pool.
5.Increased retention: Remote work can lead to increased retention because it allows employees to have a better work-life balance. Employees working from their homes now have the flexibility to be more involved with their families. They can more easily schedule necessary medical visits, attend school functions and activities of their children without giving up any time they dedicate to their employer. This can save companies money on the cost of hiring and training new employees.
Google will be our posterchild for the example…. In March of 2020 Google sent nearly all of their employees home to work from their residences. Google started their revenues that quarter at $39B per quarter. By the end of 2021 Google finished at $64B in revenue. Then they made a horrible mistake…..On April 4, 2022, Google CEO Sundar Pichai ordered all work from home employees to report to the office. In the following days of this edict, over 30% of the employees resigned for various reasons; the flexibility of working from home and lack of expensive childcare being cited as two of the biggest reasons. In August 2022, Pichai solicited ideas from 174,000 of the same employees (minus a few who had resigned), on how they can become more efficient. This initiative was called “Simplicity Sprint”.
Why was Pichai in need of these ideas? Because stakeholders were not pleased with the returns, they had received during the previous two years. Huh? Yes, the “Simplistic” answer to what Pichai was seeking was obvious. Go back to having employees work from home. There are several reasons why this was fruitful for Google but could have been even more fruitful had Google, a publicly traded stock. This initiative would not have been necessary had Google just stuck with what was working. Why disrupt 39% growth over two years? Further, how would Google be able to continue the growth at that pace without 30% of its’ best employees? Employees that other companies who were struggling to find qualified talent gladly absorbed.
Even though Google grew in revenues tremendously, they could have increased net profits during that same time. Once Google executives started to see extraordinary gains in revenues during the worst pandemic on record could have and should have started closing down office buildings or terminating leases on offices to save on real estate costs. In one HomeWerx (www.homewerx.io) study, real estate costs in the relatively small market of Louisville, Kentucky costs upwards of $30,000 annually per employee. This covered every cost of an employee going into an office. Square footage for seating, insurance, parking, green related costs, HR claim expenses that occur more frequently than home based office workers and workers compensation to name a few. Google could have implemented a service such as this during the two-year hiatus they took from their offices during the pandemic. Not only would they have achieved tremendous revenue growth of 39% but also achieved greater net profits without all the additional costs.
So, what have we learned from Google? What has Google learned from Google? When things aren’t broken, you leave them alone. I can’t help to think that had Pichai not demanded the employees return to the office, there would likely be no need for him to reach out to the very same employees and ask for suggestions to improve productivity and appease stockholders. Undoubtedly, Wall Street and other investors in the stock are questioning the decision to create an upheaval with any company’s biggest asset. Google could have implemented a solution that provides home based corporate employees with everything needed to complete their daily tasks, securely, professionally while cutting costs drastically. There is a company that does just that. HomeWerx is the world’s only “Office as a Service”.
HomeWerx is a patent pending service offering all the computing power and components of a traditional office including software and tools such as Microsoft Office 365, etc., all the home office desk furniture from Herman Miller and 24-hour technical help. This is a subscription-based service that offers both PC based computing ($ 219/Mo) and Notebooks ($279/Mo) to its subscribers and comports to 26 U.S. Code § 162 – Trade or business expenses, which means the service becomes an immediate expense item. Estimating a 25% deduction each month reduces each of the aforementioned monthly fees significantly. This is not a benefit corporations can take advantage of if they are purchasing or leasing their compute power. Services like HomeWerx also provides all the technical help needed at the desktop level also known as tier one support, thus eliminating the need for corporations to provide those resources in-house.
Today’s workforce is dictating the terms by which they work. Most all employees today that are highly qualified sought-after talent prefer to work from home. This is a good thing. If they are indeed talented and highly qualified, there is no need to monitor them every hour of the day. Allow them the flexibility to perform and they will do just that and cut cost for your organization. This is a culture change for most everyone but one that should be without ego. Leaders today should focus more on production than building the kingdom with mass employees. It is well understood that a “work from home” workforce is more productive and cost effective than employees that work in a traditional office setting. If you are responsible for cutting cost in your organization, as all employees are, consider the “Office as a Service” HomeWerx offers.
If you are interested in exploring the possibilities of cutting significant cost out of your IT budget while providing top notch service that is more secure than any solution in the industry while providing tools to your at home employees that protect the professionalism and of your organization using HomeWerx’s noise cancelling technology, reach out to HomeWerx by dialing 877-843-9379 (877-THE-WERX) or going to www.homewerx.io and request a demo.
