You don’t have to be a freelancer or gig worker to work from home, as many conventional companies are seeing the benefits of such a setup for both the employee and employer.
As an employee, working from home gives you much more flexibility. Provided you’re productive, it can lead to a lot more free time. It can also help you reduce costs associated with transportation and childcare.
You’re not the only one who benefits from remote work, however, as your employer can, too, especially when it comes to high costs of renting a commercial property.
What stands between you working from home and being asked to remain in the office? Making a convincing argument where you describe how your boss benefits and how you can become a better employee by telecommuting.
Let’s take a look at how you can relay that argument to start working from home soon.
Step 1 – Developing Your Case for Telecommuting
As mentioned, there’s no better time than now to ask for a work-from-home setup. Even though many companies made the temporary move to let their employees work remotely, many have seen the cost-cutting benefits associated with telecommuting. As such, your boss may be more receptive to such a request than they may have been in the past.
Asking your boss to give the okay on working from home could be done casually, but it’s much better done professionally. That means doing research and presenting your arguments in a presentation that’s statistically backed. Luckily, with the Internet at your disposal, this is easier than it sounds.
Some things you may want to include in your presentation could be statistics or evidence on:
- How businesses have benefitted from work-from-home arrangements.
- How employee productivity increases when telecommuting.
- The financial savings companies can enjoy by eliminating office costs through remote work.
- The best policies/procedures for working from home that benefit both the employee and employer.
Gather all of your findings in a PowerPoint presentation, and your boss will have a harder time rejecting your request.
Step 2 – Showing Why You Deserve to Telecommute
An employer isn’t likely to let just any employee work from home, especially if they have a poor track record. An employee who has shown to be trustworthy, dependable, and always on time, however, could be the perfect remote work candidate.
It’s your job to showcase these characteristics by providing specific examples related to your history with the company. Promotions, positive evaluations, and more can provide a solid argument as to why your boss should trust you when working at a distance.
Step 3 – Detailing Your Reasons for Working From Home
Do you know you can be more productive working in your pajamas? Do you feel like you can be a better company asset by eliminating a long, tiring commute every day? Here is where you have to come up with reasons why remote work benefits your boss and makes you even more valuable to the organization.
You can make this part of your argument stronger by presenting a sample schedule of what your typical days would look like. The more detailed visual you can provide of how such a setup would work, the better your chances of being approved as a remote work candidate.
Step 4 – Making Your Request via a Risk-Free Trial Run
You don’t want to pressure your employer into making a long-term commitment. If you do, they may say no.
To alleviate the pressure, ask for a test run so you can see how telecommuting works. If both parties are happy once the trial run is finished, you can move to a more permanent agreement. If not, you can return to regular office work.
Section 8 Assist
