20 Reasons You Want to Make it Easy for Remote Workers to Return Company Owned Equipment

It’s not all that long ago that meetings were held in the office, not over Zoom, and team building events consisted of in-person activities. But the pandemic turned work life on its head and popularized a previously rare type of employee: the remote worker. While only 4% of employees worked remotely pre-COVID, that number has jumped to 26% as of 2022. There are plenty of benefits both for employers and employees, but having a remote workforce also comes with its own challenges. For example, most employees need specific equipment to do their jobs effectively, but getting that equipment back to headquarters can be a hassle. 

Organizations with remote employees often struggle with this process, but software built to return company owned equipment makes it far easier. When returns are easy, everyone is happier. Keep reading for a bevy of reasons why. 

1. Easy returns save you time.

You don’t have time to contact employees to coordinate equipment returns. By putting the power in their hands, you save yourself the hassle of outreach.

2. You get detailed insights into every return.

With product images, customizable resolution options and tracking tools, your team can uniquely identify each return. 

3. You’ll know where your equipment is.

Whether it’s with a current employee or on the way back to headquarters. 

4. Current and former employees don’t need special tools to make returns.

They can just use their phones. That means fewer email queries you have to answer.

5. Your star employees can easily upgrade their equipment. 

Nice equipment is, well, nice to have. Upgraded equipment can be an incentive for employees, and exchanges are quick with easy returns. 

6. New equipment can be a perk of promotions.

With simple exchanges, upgraded equipment can be built into your promotion structure.

7. Field reps’ equipment refreshes are seamless.

If you have employees working out in the field, you know they need to make equipment exchanges regularly. With easy returns, they can continue their work with minimal interruptions.

8. Employees can’t drag their feet on returning company owned equipment.

When you don’t even require employees to ship their equipment in a box, they have no excuses to delay their returns. You can enable no-box dropoffs to UPS Store locations and let the professionals take it from there.  

9. You can schedule home pick-ups if things ended on bad terms.

Just schedule a pick-up at the ex-employee’s location.

10. Former employees look more favorably on your organization.

When offboarding and returning company owned equipment is easy, employees who left for another role are more likely to look favorably upon your organization. 

11. Terminated employees are probably ignoring your calls.

They’re likely disgruntled and don’t want to speak with your team to coordinate a return of company owned equipment.

12. Onboarding goes more smoothly.

If you’re not waiting around for former employees to return their equipment, you can onboard new hires and get them set up for success.

13. Using software means fewer steps.

Manual processes are cumbersome: sourcing boxes, coordinating shipping and tracking packages. With ReadyReturns, it’s automated. 

14. You’ll skip the extra expense reports for boxes, prepaid shipping labels, and packaging materials.

One less burden for your finance department.

15. Broken equipment can be repaired quickly.

A speedier return means a shorter wait between the employee’s location and the repair shop.

16. You can set up an equipment maintenance schedule.

Want to inspect equipment on a regular basis? Have employees return company owned equipment through the portal.

17. Employees can’t get their equipment info wrong on a return form.

Enlist technology instead of paper forms to ensure all the details are correct.

18. Prolonged recovery increases your security risk.

Unless all the data is protected by a VPN, having company owned equipment “out in the wild” poses a cyber security risk. 

19. It saves you from adjusting payroll.

Companies can’t legally withhold a final paycheck from a recently departed employee, but they can deduct the cost of company owned equipment from said paycheck if it isn’t returned on time. Easy returns save your HR team the hassle of adjusting payroll. 

20. You can integrate easy returns into your existing tech stack.

Nobody wants to add and learn yet another tool. ReadyReturns is a seamless extension of your current systems and works beautifully with ecommerce CRM and shipping software.