Teleworking has long been a controversial topic, and with business constantly changing, many either embrace it or miss the pivots that can impact the future. At IBB Hotel Collection, teleworking has always been an essential model for our business success and has become even more critical to our successful business operations in today’s new reality.
If nothing good came out of Covid-19, it gave us an even greater opportunity to experiment on remote work and we believe that workplaces will not and should not return to what existed before. At IBB Hotel Collection, teleworking not only changed how our company performs and where employees report from, but it also significantly increased the amount of work and the speed at which our employees work.
Remote work is usually seen as beneficial for employees, and it also has many benefits for the actual company. Among them are higher retention levels, increased brand awareness, better communication, improved employee morale and higher productivity.
A 100% remote work policy for our employees is normal. We want to accomplish our mission, attract high level of talent, retain key performers, and find a competitive customer advantage and therefore employ remote work for many of our central teams, including top executives.
In fact at IBB Hotel Collection, 15% of our support team employees work from home, with half of them being in a managerial role. 75% are females, whilst the rest are males and in terms of countries, the figure is divided into three equal parts with Germany, Poland and Spain each having 33,33% employees working from home.
We have found that remote work enhances team morale and employees feel valued and respected. It is a long sought after employee benefit and we know that our central teams have increased their productivity, have higher engagement and achieved better KPIs.
“Even though I work remotely, I feel very well cared for and therefore make a bigger effort to care for the goals of the company. I feel that I am able to accomplish more work and have been able to merge my life together with my work and as part of my daily routine,” said one of the IBB Hotel Collection central team employee.
From a basic time perspective, when an employee is allowed to convert commute time to production time, both the organisation and the employee themselves become more effective and productive.
Another key benefit that IBB Hotel Collection has found with remote work is the benefit of higher employee retention and engagement and lower employee turnover. When remote work is not allowed or encouraged, many employees cease striving for higher roles in the organization, impacting their professional progress and draining the talent pool for top-level talent.
We think that this reality is essential for leaders and companies to understand and address so that the best talent is not sidelined or sidetracked, especially in underrepresented populations like women, people of color, the LGBTQI+ community and other leaders from minority populations.
When companies strive for diversity and inclusion, they become stronger companies. One of the important principles of IBB Hotel Collection is in fact to improve the team to improve the organization. Having the opportunity to employ without borders increases our ability to hire the most qualified candidates. This improves the quality of our company and gives us the opportunity to employ workers with critical skills who are in high demand.
We have also seen that many companies often give remote work to employees, but they want managers to continue working in the office for accessibility and role-modeling purposes. However, in the digital age, it is crucial that top executives set an example of how to work effectively from a remote location. This role model mode helps us exhibit effective remote communications, the use of electronic systems, leadership in remote meetings, and distance delegating.
Finally, we know that teleworking not only contributes to cost and time savings to the company and the employees, but it also helps the environment. By avoiding commutes to and from the office our employees are saving gallons of fuel, hence also making our bit in protecting the environment, something which are committed to. Infact, 2023 is our most ambitious year to date. Every month throughout the year we are and will be promoting one eco-action, aimed at making the world a better place, be it by advocating for human rights or by reducing the consumption of water, non-renewable energy sources, animal products, plastic, and more. Additionally, throughout the year donations will be made to various charities, and awareness will be raised for a variety of causes. Have a look at the eco-actions we have done so far on our news page.