While the President of the United States might prefer not to mention it, the majority of world leaders (and pretty much all the scientists) are agreed that climate change is probably the biggest challenge facing the world right now. If the melting ice caps weren’t enough to convince you, then take a look at the screaming heat map that captured the recent soaring temperatures in France. If that isn’t a clear metaphor, we don’t know what is.
But climate change isn’t the only issue that the world is facing. This year we marked 50 years since the police raided the Stonewall Inn, the single most important event in the fight for LGBT rights. And #metoo taught us that the gender pay gap is the very least that women have to deal with in their working lives.
Which all sounds really depressing. And we’re not here to depress you (you can binge-watch Chernobyl if that’s what you’re after). We’re here to offer you a ray of hope. Because yes, there are some serious problems in the world today, but we have a simple solution that can help make the world a better place. It’s remote work.
Lowering Pollution
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the fastest-growing contributor to climate emissions is transport. There are plenty of solutions to this problem of course; there’s a growing movement to avoid unnecessary air travel for example. On a personal level, we can choose to use mass transport to get to places and upgrade to a hybrid or electric car.
But what about if we could cut out the daily commute altogether? If our daily commute was walking into a home office and sitting down at a desk. Now think bigger. What if everyone in your team did that? What if it became the norm?
By hiring remote, you can cut global pollution significantly. Traffic pollution led to 7 million deaths worldwide last year. But cutting out the commute isn’t just going to help with pollution. The average commute time in the US is around 26 minutes. That’s almost an hour a day stuck in the car, and that leads to health problems like:
- Increased blood pressure.
- Higher cortisol levels (‘the stress hormone’)
- More sedentary time leading to weight gain
- Back pain
- Decline in a healthy lifestyle due to lack of time
- Increased risk of heart attack and stroke (compared to a physical commute such as walking)
- Lower satisfaction with life
The really great news is that lowering those health issues isn’t just good news for your staff. There are plenty of reasons why you should care, and that includes one of remote work’s biggest benefits; increased productivity.
Increased Diversity
Whether it’s Trump’s America, Brexit Britain, or the rise of radical politics around the world there’s no doubt that intolerance is on the rise. One thing that can really help promote tolerance is exposure to different ways of life. That’s why representation is so important, seeing different cultures, faiths, sexualities, and ways of life represented in media helps us all to understand each other.
Remote work is a great way to increase the diversity of your team. Think about it, if you’re hiring only the people who live locally to you, you’re likely to be hiring people who are pretty much alike. Spread your net a little further, and it will include a more diverse population.
We connect companies and candidates across continents. You can bring in team members who have different time zones, cultures, and beliefs. You can hire people who find it difficult to get into the office because of their life commitments or health issues.
If the altruistic idea of improving tolerance isn’t enough for you, diversity has many proven benefits for business including reduced staff turnover, improved decision making, and faster problem-solving.
Rural Redevelopment
If you listened to our recent podcast interview with Jo Palmer, you’ll have heard how her virtual company, Pointer Remote, is helping rural Australians to find work from home. Rates of poverty in rural areas in America was recently declared an emergency; the reason being that all the well-paid jobs tend to be focused around cities.
And it isn’t just within a given country that economic inequality is an issue. Look at the worldwide picture, how money is focused in certain countries while others still have relative poverty. Take a guess about one way you can help spread the cash around? You got it, remote working.
Remote workers can operate anywhere there is a stable internet connection. Anywhere. While the stereotype might be a digital nomad perched on the side of a volcano sipping a latte, the reality is that remote workers are in those rural communities. That’s a very direct way of helping to channel wealth away from the central hubs and out to those communities that can really use the cash injection.
Convergence
Technological Convergence is a tendency for ideas that were initially unrelated to start to come together as they develop and advance. The many benefits of remote working mean that there’s currently a lot of investment in tools that help people to connect over distance. What started with the telephone has advanced through the internet and today we have a whole range of tools to help us communicate, share information and collaborate over distance.
Now we are entering a time of virtual reality, where meetings will be held in a VR environment and we’ll interact with avatars rather than individuals. Remote working is driving technological advancements that will help in all sorts of fields. The future is a more connected world that will give an equal platform for communicating ideas, no matter who you are, where you are, or what your life is like.
Be a Hero
Have we convinced you? If you believe that remote work is going to help save the world then you can be a part of the team that makes that happen. Are you ready to step up and become a remote work hero?
If you are, then we can help. Finding the very best remote talent to work with companies like yours is our superpower. We pre-vet every CV we send you, so you’ll get a shortlist of qualified, remote-ready candidates who will slip right into your team in around two weeks. Sound good? Get in touch today.
