Is the cost of doing business weighing you down? Are your operating expenses crippling to the point where you need to look for ways to reduce them?
As energy costs continue to rise, many firms are looking into alternative solutions, one of which is a digital office. There are numerous advantages to utilising remote workplaces, from saving money on real estate and furnishings to addressing the lack of storage space in major urban areas.
Shifting operations to a virtual office can also bring significant human resources savings, as you have the ability to hire talent from all over the world, in addition to optimising labour costs that are directly linked to maintaining physical office space.
So, if you’re wondering how to reduce operating costs by switching to a digital workplace, stick around till the end of this article, where we tell you everything you need to know about the benefits of a virtual office.
Cost-Effective Ways a Digital Office Can Help Your Business Save Money
Reduce or Completely Eliminate Office Lease Expenditure
Renting and furnishing an office space is one of the most significant expenditures any business might incur.
According to statistics, office leases in prime locations in London may cost up to 1,500 EUR or 1,300 GBP per square metre per year. In contrast, in other cities such as Paris, Stockholm, or Luxembourg, it can range between 600 EUR and 900 EUR (or 500 GBP and 760 GBP, respectively). In addition, you are required to pay for the utilities, liability insurance and compliance certificates and routine checks. These overheads can quickly add up and be hard to keep up with, especially if your business does not have regular income streams.
Digital office solutions, on the other hand, can bring significant savings on this front. Businesses that embrace remote work fully might benefit from the virtual setup of a regular office equipped with conference rooms, workstations, reception, and employee recreation facilities at a fraction of the cost.
For instance, My Digital Office offers a complete online workspace with desks, rooms, and even an office phone. You can customise your office in line with your business requirements or start with one of the standard templates.
Save Money on Technology and Hardware
Working in a physical office means supplying your staff with the tools to do their jobs. Anything from printers to telephones must be bought, regularly maintained or replaced when they break.
If you have employees who work from home for some portion of their time, you must also ensure they have access to remote collaborative software with appropriate licences. A survey by Gartner indicates that 80% of workers use team productivity and collaboration tools in their day-to-day work, a 44% increase since the pandemic began. But, what does that mean for organisations?
On the one hand, with many more businesses adopting the work-from-home culture, keeping up with technology is challenging and costly. You need multiple tools to support diverse tasks, such as video conferencing software for meetings, a shared drive for files and documents, and so on.
Equally, as a manager, you might be concerned about the worker’s productivity and engagement – how do you know if they are actually online? Standalone tools are insufficient to support these employees while costing your company money.
Metaverse for work solutions, such as My Digital Office, already have robust video conferencing and file-sharing capabilities, so you only need to purchase one tool for all your needs.
Remove the Need for Costly Maintenance Staff
Running an office means you need people to maintain it, which translates into paying salaries for additional staff. For example, you need to hire cleaners to keep the office tidy, or whenever something breaks, you must call maintenance staff to fix the problem.
Let’s also not forget about having to employ IT personnel to manage on-premise servers and provide on-demand support. Besides the cost of payroll, benefits, and onboarding, IT specialists need continuous training and certificates to keep up with the latest technologies and regulations. But moving to a virtual office eliminates the reliance on maintenance staff – you simply subscribe to the solution and let the provider take care of everything.
Take Advantage of International Talent
Labour costs can account for up to 70% of total business spending, including employee salaries, benefits, sick pay, and other related taxes. So, as a business, you want to ensure that you attract the right talent who will stick around.
However, suppose your company is headquartered in a particular place and works from a physical office. In that case, you will only have access to a minimal pool of candidates, i.e. those who live nearby. Thus, you may have to recruit someone from another city or even a foreign country for highly technical roles, which could mean footing their relocation bill.
Working in a digital office allows you to hire employees from all over the world, taking advantage of the unique skills they can bring to the organisation while extending your working hours.
Imagine you operate a business that must have 24/7 customer support. How can you provide that if you don’t have people working around the clock? Tapping into international candidates can solve this puzzle for you, so you don’t have to rely on local employees and pay them overtime or a night rate.
Conclusions
Now that you’ve discovered all the benefits of a virtual office, why not try My Digital Office to see how these advantages can materialise in your business.
With our free trial, you can test out a vast array of features, including audio-video skeuomorphic spaces, standard floor plans, screen share, chat, custom avatar images, Zoom integration, conference mode, and much more.
The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll see how having a digital office can bring significant cost savings while keeping your employees happy, engaged, and productive.
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