Tech Bitch

Despite high demand, the majority of companies are still failing to support home working practices. This amazes me.

Teleworking offers significant benefits to employers, employees, self employed individuals and entrepreneurs, and in developing the local economy. It also presents opportunities to secure wider social benefits - for example by reducing the environmental impact of car and train travel.

Without getting too carried away and letting every employee pack away their desks, the benefits of working from home only accrue from successful teleworking programmes. Indeed, lots of companies have attempted teleworking programmes but subsequently reverted to office-based working having had a negative experience.

The main savings from teleworking are in premises costs, office overheads and labour. Companies adopting teleworking methods achieve significant reductions in total office occupancy. Work can be carried out wherever the appropriate skills are available at the optimum mix of costs and other factors. In some circumstances recruitment costs can also be reduced, as can the costs associated with high staff turnover (attrition) rates. If a company adopts a total ‘flexible working’ strategy, all costs associated with relocation of staff can also be eliminated.

There’s the personal touch too. Productivity increases of 40% have been reported, though a range of 10- to 40% is probably more typical across a large-scale programme. In successful programmes, employees respond well to the signal of trust and confidence indicated by the employer’s adoption of more independent work styles encouraged by teleworking, and employees who might otherwise leave can remain in their jobs, for example when the family moves because of a job change by another family member who works in a non-teleworking company. Employees who take a career break can continue working part time and remain up to date with the business and its methods, and employees who take maternity leave can continue to undertake some tasks and require less retraining when they return to work full time.

It’s not all rosy, though. As with any new technology or technique, teleworking only yields benefits when applied in the right circumstances and in the right way. For instance, home-based teleworking is inappropriate for a lot of people, such as those who have poor personal motivation and are not self starters. These people may need the external discipline provided by set hours and a managed environment. There’s also a case to suggest that young people entering work for the first time may benefit greatly from working in a conventional team setting in their early years. For some people, going to work is an important part of their lives, and the place of work is where they make friends and develop their social skills and contacts.

Nonetheless, a recent survey by remote control software developer by Famatech has revealed that almost one in four employees (22%) would be prepared to take a pay cut to work from home. 6% would be prepared to take a reduction in pay of between 6% and 10% and 2% would be prepared to take a pay cut of between 16% and 20%. With attracting high calibre staff high on the agenda of most organisations this year, 83% of respondents agreed that their decision whether to take a new job would be influenced by the ability to work from home. Despite the popularity of home working, only 14% of respondents stated that they are actively encouraged to work from home and 16% said that home working was not allowed at all at their place of employment.

With these kinds of figures it’s astonishing that so few companies encourage home working despite the numerous competitive, financial and environmental benefits they can be gained from doing so. The quality of the remote access technology that is now available ensures that working from home doesn’t mean the employee will be delivering less value or getting any less work done. But cutting-edge technology does have its problem, and high-profile cases of stolen laptops have meant many organisations are cautious about offering flexible working options for security reasons. But as long as organisations and individuals take the necessary security precautions this needn’t be too much of a concern.

There is actually the argument that using fixed remote access technology (i.e. a dedicated computer) can actually increase security, enabling home workers to access corporate applications, systems and databases securely with no need to store any information on a mobile device. By giving remote workers and IT administrators a more secure system from which to access workstations remotely, companies can reduce the likelihood of data loss caused by complacent employees leaving company equipment in the back of a taxi or at a restaurant.

The provision of home working offers lower operating costs and more flexibility to employers and provides employees with more family time and higher mobility and has environmental benefits due to the reduction in travelling. Beyond the benefits of offering remote working to people who choose it as a working preference, the provision of technology that enables home working can be useful when transport problems, weather, industrial strikes or someone’s personal circumstances make it difficult or even impossible for them to get in to work. It could also be great for personnel morale. What has your company got to lose - except a lot of confidential data if not implemented correctly!