A playbook to help small businesses implement remote working with advice from the likes of Ireland's newest Unicorn, Flipdish, has been launched.
The Remote Playbook for SMEs from social enterprise Grow Remote gives SMEs the tools required to improve productivity while working remotely and attract and retain talent at a time of intense competition.
"Remote working has been proven to help small and medium-sized businesses to be profitable, attract top talent, retain staff, increase productivity and deepen employee engagement - but it needs to be implemented in an intentional and structured way,” Joanne Mangan, Grow Remote employers lead said.
“The unique feature of the Playbook and its greatest strength as a practical resource is that it contains the experiences, insights and expertise of Ireland’s leading remote employers -- Flipdish, NearForm, Axonista, Glofox, Zyte and Boundless -- and is supported by Chambers Ireland and Western Development Commission.”
She added: "We always say: remote working is good for people, for profit and for planet: the research on remote working backs that up. However, implementing a remote working strategy can be challenging. The Playbook is an end-to-end guide, full of real-world advice, examples and tools for any business, whether a start-up or a long established company.
In Association with
Grow Remote is a community development organisation aimed at driving remote work for the purposes of local and regional development and making job opportunities available to workers regardless of location.
The group partners with companies that are already fully remote and with those that want to make the transition, and it now has more than 140 chapters nationwide, led by volunteers who help remote workers locally or assist workers in finding remote jobs.
It also offers fully-funded training programmes for job seekers, employees and managers of remote teams.
Mangan highlighted that there is strong government support for remote working and claimed that 90% of employees aged 35-44 who can work remotely would like to post-pandemic, while 63% of employees considering a change of jobs this year are seeking flexibility.
"Remote work is not just ‘working from home’. It removes location as a barrier to employment: allowing employers to future-proof their businesses, play their part in transforming rural and regional communities and gain access to an incredible pool of talent," Mangan said.
"In the best remote companies, it is underpinned by a carefully structured remote working policy: this is what the Remote Playbook for SMEs has been designed to support."
(Pic: Getty Images)
