Friday 18th May has been dubbed ëNational Work From Home Dayí by Work Wise UK in order to demonstrate to businesses the benefits of home working, but how many employees are actually able to reap those benefits? Despite the need for business to become more flexible in their approach to home working as workforces become more disparate and staff seek a better work-life balance, just 11% of UK employees have the option to work from home.
Alistair McKinnon, Senior Product Manager, ntl: Telewest Business says: ìHome working isnít a new concept, and whilst European companies have embraced it, British organisations still seem reluctant to go the whole hog and make it widely available. Part of the problem is that home working still has a stigma attached to it ñ employers fear that staff will watch daytime TV rather than crack on with their work. This is a misconception and the fact is that the home generally offers a more productive working environment, free from the distractions of the office.î
A key issue for home workers is communication. If youíre a home worker it can sometimes be frustrating as you play email tennis with colleagues and feel isolated because you arenít interacting with colleagues as much as you would in the office. There also needs to be a balance between being contactable at home, and being ëalways on.í. Whilst itís important that employees can work from home and keep in touch with whatís happening in the office, the use of blackberries and other mobile devices can sometimes make people feel like they are on call 24/7, making a greater work/life balance seem further away than ever before.
ìStaff should be encouraged to work a regular day when they work from home, and the vast changes in communications technology in recent years means that it is perfectly feasible to do so. Businesses should be taking advantages of converged environments that bring together applications such as IM, VoIP and web and video conferencing to ensure that home workers are connected during the working day, but equally can switch off their machine when they are finished. We believe that National Working from Home day is an excellent initiative and hopefully as a result more businesses will see how home working can benefit both their organisation and their staff,î concluded McKinnon.
For further information or to speak with ntl:Telewest Business please call 020 7494 6570.
Overworked Brits have hopes for National Work From Home Day
Friday 18th May has been dubbed ëNational Work From Home Dayí by Work Wise UK in order to demonstrate to businesses the benefits of home working, but how many employees are actually able to reap those benefits?
