By: Chelsey Grasso of Remote.com

Working from home isn’t something you’re limited to doing only when the latest nor'easter hits or your boss is out of town. With today’s technology, ever-growing app market, and forward-thinking leaders, remote working is becoming the norm.

As of last year, 3.9 million U.S. employees worked from home at least half of the time, which is a 115% increase from the 1.8 million in 2005. If remote working continues to grow at this rate, it won’t be long before a majority of Americans are working from home on a regular basis.

Exciting stuff, right? So what exactly is driving this surge towards remote working as we push forward into the twenty-first century? We’ve got a few thoughts on the matter.

Millennials Want Flexibility

We’re not living in the 1900s anymore, and the idea that the workplace must be a windowless cubicle where workers clock-in at nine and clock-out at five just isn’t the way modern employees are thinking. Millennials, in particular, are shaking up American work culture as we know it — and it’s marvelous. The fact of the matter is simple. Workers new to the job force want flexibility. And why shouldn’t they have it? After all, research shows that remote workers are more productive than in-office workers.

Specifically, a majority of millennials (64%) are interested in finding jobs that allow them to work from home. As for employee retention? 82% of millennials say they would remain more loyal to their employers if they had this kind of remote flexibility. The times, they are a-changin’.

Accessibility for Clients

There are quite a few perks to being a remote worker, but don’t think the advantages go one way. Attaining services from a remote company is something that is becoming popular for clientele. Why? One word: accessibility.

With a remote team, a company often has employees working around the clock. Thanks to having different team members in different time zones, access to customer service becomes much more attainable for clientele. Long gone are the days of having to hire locally. Clients no longer have to be reliant on whatever company is located in their thirty-minute radius, but can instead find the best and the most accessible company for their needs anywhere around the globe.

Technology & App Growth

When it comes to technology, if you blink, you’ll miss something. It’s growing, and it’s growing fast. Work applications are a huge part of that growth, and for remote workers, the list of productivity tools just keeps getting longer. Along with classics like Slack, Trello, GroupMe, and Evernote, dozens of other work-related apps are being released weekly. And the best part of it all? Many of them are free!

As technology continues to expand and the possibilities of remote team communication continue to flourish, more and more employers are looking to remote teams as a viable option. Thanks to free and reasonably priced apps, maintaining a remote team is often more affordable than managing an in-office team, which also becomes a huge part of the equation for new business owners and those wanting to cut costs.

Top-Tier Recruiting

Face it: if you want the best of the best, you’re going to have to look beyond your city limits. The standout employees in any field won’t be found in one, distinct city. Rather, you’ll find the top employees scattered across the world. Thanks to remote working, companies can employ these talented workers no matter where their headquarters is located.

Clients want to work with the best, which is another reason why remote teams have a tendency to draw in so many top clients. While there’s talent to be found in San Francisco, Hong Kong, Berlin, and elsewhere, imagine what would happen if you had it all in one digital space? Well, that’s the power of remote working.

Remote working isn’t simply a trend; it’s the way of the future. Need any more convincing on why you should be hiring remote? Check out these five huge benefits of hiring remote workers. And if you’re thinking of becoming a remote employee, you’ll want to take a look at these big name companies that are already hiring remote workers. Go ahead, take the plunge.

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