Offering remote and flexible working is a perk of many industries now. But for digital marketing and digital agencies, it’s almost a necessity. The candidates and digital marketers we speak to expect hybrid working at least, and many (but not all) would prefer even more flexibility in their work.

But if “by popular demand” isn’t a big enough reason to have you considering the benefits of remote working, we’ve put together a list of 10 reasons why you, as an employer, should be offering remote work at your digital agency.

10 Reasons You Should Offer Remote Working

Making the shift to offering remote working to your employees brings its own host of logistical problems. But the benefits it can bring for your digital agency and for your employees are numerous.

While switching to remote working is a huge operational and business decision, there are plants of reasons you should consider making the move:

1. The Salary You’re Offering Can be a Lot More Attractive and Competitive
2. You Now Have Access to a Much Larger Talent Pool
3. You Become a More Attractive Agency to Work For
4. The People You Hire Are Often a Higher Quality
5. You Will Save Time and Money on Recruitment
6. Having No Office (Or a Smaller Office) Saves You Money on Overhead Costs
7. It Reduces the Amount of Sick Days and Holidays Your Team Takes
8. Your Employees Are More Productive
9. It increases Employee Satisfaction
10. And it Decreases Attrition Rates and Your Recruitment Costs

1. The Salary You’re Offering Can be a Lot More Attractive and Competitive

If your company offers job-based pay instead of location-based pay and maintains salaries despite the employees locations, you may be able to attract more candidates based on the salary alone. 

If you’re a digital agency in a high cost-of-living area, and offer a salary in line with that, then you will be able to out-price businesses for employees in low cost-of-living areas.

Alternatively, you can offer lower salaries for these employees in lower cost-of-living areas and still remain competitive to the businesses that are near them.

And people who are offered completely remote work, are often willing to accept a lower salary to compensate for this increased flexibility. A study by NBER and Nicholas Bloom, shows that working from home is equivalent to a wage increase of between 4% – 8%.

Meaning you can either out-price your competition and acquire the best talent, or offer a still competitive salary, and save money. A win-win for you!

2. You Now Have Access to a Much Larger Talent Pool

This point is perhaps the most obvious. When your job role isn’t tied to a specific location, your accessible talent pool becomes much larger. And given how competitive the digital marketing job market is in the UK right now, this is no small advantage. 

It can be a huge struggle to find the right person for your agency: someone who has the right skills, has worked in the right markets, and is looking for what your company is offering. 

If your agency or business is in one of the UK’s bigger cities like London, Birmingham, Manchester etc. then you can have a bit of an advantage when it comes to hiring. 

But in these locations, your agency is in competition with many other, attractive agencies. Sometimes all you need to find the right person for your agency is to look further afield…

3. You Become a More Attractive Agency to Work For

Many of the Digital Marketers we work with here at Herd want more flexible, hybrid and remote working. And if you don’t believe us, the results from our recent LinkedIn poll speak for themselves:

But the benefits for you aren’t just a wider talent pool: it’s that you become more attractive overall. Your employees know that you have the trust in them to get the work done and that you don’t rely on having people in the office to manage effectively.

And the best people in the industry know that they and their skill sets are in high demand. And they’re going to choose the businesses that offer flexibility, and have the trust in them to be an effective part of the team, regardless of where they work from.

4. The People You Hire Are Often a Higher Quality

And when everyone wants to work for you and you have access to a wider talent pool, you can be much more selective with who you hire. You can hire people who have more experience, or who have the skills that your business needs.

Because the best person for your job may not necessarily live near your business, or be looking to up and move their life. Location is one of (if not the) biggest factors that affects recruitment, and is something that 61% of people look for first, when looking at a job advert.

Removing this massive barrier from your recruitment efforts, can give you access to a whole new talent pool of better qualified and stronger digital marketers.

5. You Will Save Time and Money on Recruitment

Recruitment is expensive: It costs money, resources and time. And when it comes to interviews and deliberating, it can cost the time of some of the more senior people within your business.

When you have more potential candidates to choose from who are applying to your job advertisements and contacting your agency directly, you have to spend less time going out and finding candidates yourself. 

And all of these factors, mean you won’t just save time and money on hiring the people you need: You’ll avoid having to turn down opportunities for new business and new clients because your team is already too busy. 

Are you at the position where you’re turning down new business because your team is already working at capacity? If this is you, then you might consider (if you aren’t already), about the advantages of working with a recruitment agency, to work alongside and support your recruitment efforts.

6. Having No Office (Or a Smaller Office) Saves You Money on Overhead Costs

Not only does it save you money on recruitment, it can have a significant and positive impact on your overhead costs.

If your business works fully remotely, then you can have little to no need for a working office. However, many businesses still feel the need for an office for people to occasionally work from for team meetings and for social aspects. And completely giving up a physical location can be difficult, as it can be part of a businesses identity or culture.

But one thing we’ve noticed with some of our clients here at Herd Digital, is having a smaller or reduced capacity office. This allows for those who prefer going into the office the opportunity, while ensuring that people don’t feel forced into it: as their entire team wouldn’t fit in there anyway!

7. It Reduces the Amount of Sick Days and Holidays Your Team Takes

Offering remote work opportunities can even have knock-on effects that you wouldn’t have considered: Like actually reducing the amount of sick days and holiday days that your team takes.

Studies have shown that when your team works from home, they have the flexibility in their work day that means they can go to dentist or doctors appointments, without needing to take the day off and miss an entire day’s work.

8. Your Employees Are More Productive

Many employers worry that when their team works remotely, that they won’t put in the same amount of effort. That people will slack off if a manager isn’t there to supervise them.

We consider this thinking antiquated at best. With new softwares and technologies becoming more mainstream and commonplace since the pandemic, it’s never been easier to collaborate and manage a team while working remotely. 

And Digital Marketing is one of the few industries that is adaptable to remote working. Working towards easily trackable KPIs, and with clients around the country, digital marketing lends itself to remote working.

Studies have also shown that over 70% of managers felt that remote and flexible working increased the productivity of their team, or made no difference. With over two thirds of managers feeling that remote working was a boost to productivity (or having no effect on it), it seems logical that if properly implemented, it can have the same, positive effect on your team.

9. It Increases Employee Satisfaction

Offering remote working can also have a significant and positive impact on employee overall job satisfaction, according to a 2021 study from Owl Labs.

And unsurprisingly, a happier team is a more productive team: Meaning even greater boosts for productivity. In fact, they’re exactly 13% more productive, according to a study from Oxford University and BT. 

So not only does it make employees happier, offering remote work is the financially smart decision.

10. And it Decreases Attrition Rates and Your Recruitment Costs

And lastly, as job satisfaction increases, attrition rates naturally decrease: The happier your team is, the less likely they are to leave! On average, employees who are happy and have satisfaction in their role, stay 7 times longer!

In fact, work-from-home can reduce attrition rates by an average of 33%, which would in turn, lead to a massive reduction in recruitment costs to replace these employees, and allow further recruitment to be focused purely on growth.

Which is to say nothing about the difference in productivity between a tenured employee of the business, and a new replacement hire!

So, are the Benefits of Offering Remote Working Worth it?

Digital marketing is an industry that has enjoyed the continuing shift to hybrid and remote working. But offering completely remote working is a step that not all employers feel comfortable taking: And we don’t blame them. It’s a huge step that can completely change the future of a business.

However, the list of benefits is only becoming more established as more studies explore the long-term positive effects. 

If you’re interested in hiring for your team (remotely or otherwise), we can help support your businesses’ own recruitment efforts. Click here, for more information on just how we can help you find the digital marketer that’s the perfect fit for your business.