The end of January saw extreme wind chills and temperatures that haven’t been seen in 25 years in the Midwest. As a result, many professionals chose to work from home during this Polar Vortex. In order to help you accommodate a distributed workforce, here are some things to know about working remotely.

First, the pros of the employee include flexible schedule, no commute, independence, autonomy, and the many comforts of home.

Benefits aren’t solely for the employee either. Without geography, companies are able to access a larger talent pool, employee retention increases because companies are more likely able to retain an employee who has to move or leave for personal reasons, and remote workers are often less costly because they don’t require a workspace.

Beyond these common sense benefits, the research behind remote working quickly gets murky. Now, here at BOS, we thrive on providing you with the workspace you need so that you love coming to work. However, we also want you to be successful when you work. So, since there are some obvious benefits to distributed workforces, we did some extensive research on the pros and cons of remote working and found some conflicting information.

Take for example, Attrition, or the measure of how often employees leave your company. Some studies say that remote workers are more likely to stay at your company and other studies claim the exact opposite.

Next up, Productivity. Google recently tested the performance of remote versus in-office workers, and found no difference. Yet, you can easily find reports online claiming remote workers are more productive. At the same time, you can find many reports claiming that in-office workers are more productive.

These similar conflicting reports are found on collaboration, motivation, connectivity, hours worked, loyalty, and work culture. In order to get to the bottom of this, we have to look at the trends:

The amount of employees working remotely in any capacity are at an all-time high. Research out of Silicon Valley predicts that by 2025, remote workers will rival those working in fixed office locations. Yet, at the same time, top companies are investing massive amounts of money in mega campuses and destination workspaces in the hopes that top talent will want to come to work there.

Based on our research and experience in this industry, we believe your best chance at attracting and retaining top talent, as well as fostering and promoting a strong work culture, is to bring people together in an enriching environment. Build in flexibility and leverage technology, but remember that space is, and will continue to be a very powerful tool.