Sydney, spectacularly draped around its glorious harbour and beaches, has a visual wow factor like few other cities. Scratch the surface and it only gets better. Sydney is Australia’s largest city and port, the location of choice for many of the world's leading brands as one of Asia’s most important financial centres. The ability to experience a flawless work-life balance is only challenged by one thing...traffic.
Sydney is a city of people who like to drive, like LA (although not as bad) this results in long traffic queues and long commutes to work. Even if you don’t drive Sydney doesn’t have the public transport infrastructure to provide efficient and reliable public transport services, and if it rains..well forget about it! The average commute time for Sydneysiders is 71 minutes, meaning that on average they’re spending 5.9 hours per week commuting.
According to the HILDA Survey, long-distance commuters are more likely to be unsatisfied with their working hours, work-life balance and even pay when compared to those who spend less than an hour commuting each day. From an employers perspective, this means that if your team is commuting long distances their job satisfaction is lower before they even get to work. Long-distance commuters are more likely to quit or lose their jobs within a year, and therefore costing organisations hundreds of thousands in lost IP, training and HR costs.
These results from the HILDA Survey align well with the findings of the RMIT research that suggests longer commutes not only impose physical and mental strains on workers but may also affect their work participation, engagement and productivity.
These negative impacts go far beyond the workplace. A growing number of studies have found that long commutes can reduce the time a person has for other activities. Reduced physical exercise, time with family, social activities and so on, can have a huge impact on the individuals’ psychological well-being, and often results in burn-out. So the solution to this is simple, give people more time to enjoy their lives so they’re happier when they’re at work. If your employees are happier than they’ll produce better work and probably give more in the time they spend at work. The virtual office is the perfect solution to this problem.
By switching to a virtual office in Sydney you’re giving back your employee’s 6 hours a week. That’s like giving someone 100k per year a $14’000 per year pay rise, except it’s better because it’s something they can’t earn back, time. With that time you’re giving your employees back, it not only allows them more time for physical exercise, time with family, social activities and so on it also allows them to move to somewhere further away from the city. This means they’re more likely to be able to afford to buy a property and enjoy a more relaxed lifestyle. Thanks to COVID-19 most organisations are used to holding meetings online and tools like Slack and Asana allow teams to be easily managed remotely.
In the time that you’re giving back to your staff, or yourself it means that school drop off you can’t do because you need to get into the office, well now you can. That winter surf that you can’t do because you need to get the bus at 7 am, well with that time back now you can. In summer if you’re lucky enough to finish regular work hours at 530pm you have 2.5 hours of sunlight to make the most of your day! It is all of these hidden little benefits that will give you and your employees a far improved work-life balance.
Not only will you give your employees more work-life balance, but you’ll also save huge amounts of money on the overheads of having a brick and mortar office space. Surprisingly, running a virtual office scales well too, so even once you’ve grown you won’t need to stress about making a huge adjustment. The obvious financial benefits aside, it’s also a great way for your organisation to go green and attract the strongest candidates. The benefits are proven too as so many small businesses, startups and more commonly established corporations shifting towards a virtual workplace. It also allows your candidate pool to expand around the world and for your business to settle into the digital era.
The concern that we hear most commonly from business owners is that if I’m not in the office with my team then nothing gets done! This is a myth. If you think that your staff are going to do nothing at home, then they’re probably not doing a lot in the office either and is a reflection of your hiring strategy not the general work ethic of good people. Research from Wharton has found that remote working does not result in productivity declining. It improves productivity for most as the remote environment has made employees more productive because they're better able to create a working environment that works well for them. These freedoms extend to things like choice of what to wear, having your pets around and an ability to set up a workspace that you feel most comfortable in.
This comfortable setting allows employees to focus on their work and not be worried about what they’re wearing, commute time, running late etc. This increase to productivity was boosted further for those without children as they’re simply less disrupted as they would ordinarily be in the office environment, finally, that meeting that could just be an email, actually is! So as hard as it is to let go of control and let your employees just get on with it, they’re more productive without you looking over their shoulder.
To get started with a virtual office check out our Sydney Virtual Office Packages. We are here to support your business to adopt a modern way of working. Whether you’re working remotely, have an e-commerce business, have started an online side hustle, or seeking a prestige business address our virtual services have something for everyone. It’s the office you have when you don’t have an office, projecting a professional business image without the cost. As leaders in the virtual office market, we offer arguably the best value Virtual Office Packages with a receptionist, corporate address, and landline phone number included. We’re located in Crows Nest, North Sydney.