In recent years, the topic of home working is one that’s been bridged time and time again here in the UK.
Trade Union leaders have continually pushed for more flexible working on behalf of their members, arguing that their work and standard of life will benefit from less time spent in the office. Rather than leading to unproductive staff and a decline in the quality of work, their suggestion is that working from home can benefit both employer and employee alike.
These calls have largely been met with cynicism, but with government cuts running deep, Britain’s local councils have increasingly begun to embrace working from home. With new offices needed and coming at a premium price, offering home working to employees has drastically reduced build costs.
So far, there appears to have been no detrimental impact and if anything, productivity appears to be no worse than it was in-house.
Is home working something that should be given more credence in HR circles and is it something that HR managers should be championing? Looking at recent studies and the findings from a range of workplaces, it would certainly appear so.
Brigham Young University in Salt Lake City, Utah, carried out an extensive study on home-working and discovered that it allows employees to clock up an extra couple of work days a week. Examining 24,436 employees of IBM across 75 different countries, on average they found that home working employees could put in 57 hours a week. Conversely, when working from an office, many responded that 38 hours felt like the maximum they could work productively at.
Over and above the productivity benefits, there’s also the potential for increased employee morale and better staff retention. By making work more flexible and offering the option of working from home to those that want or need it, employees can be less likely to jump ship, happy that they’ve been given greater control over their working lives.
Sickness absences can also be reduced, offices often a breeding ground of colds and flu in winter time, whilst cutting out the commute can reduce employee stress. Elsewhere, greater home working can ease up the recruitment strain on HR departments, widening the pool to workers who may struggle to work in or reach an office.
The benefits are clear and with advances in technology making it increasingly easy to work remotely, greater homeworking is something that businesses big or small should seriously consider. My view is biased though, as an ex-freelancer I’m bound to be an advocate. What do you think? Is it something that could work in your businesses and make your HR role easier?
Mark James is a Writer for Crunch, UK based accountants for contractors. He specialises in Business and Finance and lives in Brighton, a small seaside city 60km south of London.
Homeworking? Interesting, in the Colonies/(read states) we call it ‘work from home’. However the same challenges exist, and the same benefits do too.
Unfortunately, there is an innate quality in people that need to be ‘around people’..I believe that will at least stunt the growth and/or level it somwhat..not sure what the %/percentage will be, but it WILL level out eventually.
The good news? Sexual harassment is no longer a factor for these workers (unless you include the spouse!).
HaHa I’m surprised it hasn’t entered American English yet…hear it all the time over here!
Good point though, it can certainly get lonely. Having freelanced and worked solely from home, I know I found it a struggle at times. I guess it depends on the character.
Very true too! No Mad Men-esque bosses to put up with in your own home!