The nine to five grind is becoming a thing of the past.  Not only are companies realizing that an employee sitting at their desk for eight hours is not productive all of that time, but keeping them there might not be taking full advantage of the technology of the day.  A company doesn't have to completely revamp themselves to take advantage of a remote workplace.  They also don't have to purchase a lot of new equipment.  With some forethought, it can be simple to make a remote workplace successful.

How much of your employee's work could be done from home?  Could their work be emailed in once they finish it?  Do you have a network they already sign into, but at work?  What changes would there be if they were to work from home?  If the answer is “not many,” then implementing a remote workplace program could be a simple endeavor.  It could even improve the bottom line.

For example, what if you offered a day each week for each employee to do their work from home?  They would save on gas and morale would go up.  What if you had all of your employees do their work from on the same day?  How much would your overhead go down?

Communication might be your most pressing concern, but with conference calls, web conferencing, and video conferencing, you can not only stay in touch, but keep a sense of togetherness, even when everyone is not in the same building.   If everyone is using these conferencing tools, then all conversations are recorded for future reference and training.  These can be archived and stored online for use when in the office, or somewhere else in the world.

Morale was mentioned above, but it is a very important point.  Your employees have work to do, but if they can get it done in the comfort of their homes, think of how much more they will be relaxed when they come back to work.  They will also be grateful that they don't have to spend any money on gas one day a week.  These are just two reasons they will be happy to work for you.