Working from home

Working from home has benefits for workers, employers and the environment – and there are some aspects of just about all office-based jobs that can be done from home with a good computer and reliable email access.

While there are issues that need to be carefully managed, work-from-home arrangements can improve productivity and save money. For small to medium sized businesses, the flexibility of allowing some employees to work from home is well worth exploring.

This article will help you consider the pros and cons of work-from-home arrangements and give you practical strategies to minimise the risks.

Benefits to your business

Money

Save the overheads of setting up an additional workstation or even having an office space at all.

Talent

Being a flexible employer could be a key factor in helping you to attract and retain talented people, giving you the edge over your competitors in the race to find the best talent.

Health and productivity

 People working from home are in a comfortable environment, avoid traffic and are closer to their loved ones. With stress levels a major cause of today’s health problems, you could argue that working from home saves the country – and your business – health and productivity costs.

Benefits to your people

Balance

Work-life balance is one of the critical satisfaction factors for people nowadays and working arrangements that help individuals to achieve this, help your business to attract and retain good people. Young workers, especially, are choosing happiness over career advancement.

Time and money

Employees love the time and money they save on travelling to and from work. It also means they are close to loved ones for emergency calls and can easily do personal jobs in their break times.

When is it appropriate?

Good roles to consider for a work-from-home arrangement:

• Work that can be done without access to office-based systems, databases or procedures
• Project work
• Work with a long lead time
• Writing and report creation 
• Research work
• Work that doesn’t require face-to-face client or customer contact.

When is it not appropriate?

If you answer YES to the following questions then work-from-home may not be appropriate for your people:

• Are there tools or systems that are critical to the role that can’t be accessed from home or over the internet?
• Does the person need to be present to perform the role?
• Are there health and safety aspects to the job that require special equipment or monitoring?
• Are there issues with monitoring their progress or performance if they work from home?

How to make it work

Before agreeing with a team member to work-from-home, write down a formal agreement to guide the arrangement. Make it clear that working from home is conditional upon the conditions of the agreement being met, and that the agreement can change if the needs of the business change. Include the following elements:

• A safe place of work – you are still obliged to ensure your employee has a safe working environment. Make it a condition of working from home that they conduct regular risk assessments and rectify a situation if an unacceptable risk is found. Risk assessments can be performed using a simple checklist. Make sure you document the results of the assessment and any actions to be taken.
• A clear performance framework – this is important for all employees but is critical when you don't have regular face-to-face contact. Make sure you have a Position Description and have agreed clear expectations that include measurable performance targets. Be sure to regularly review how the employee is progressing against their targets and take swift action to rectify performance issues.
• A communication framework – agree in advance how the person will communicate with you, your customers and their colleagues. Include in the plan response times and guidelines to ensure phone calls made on behalf of your business are handled professionally.
• Manage distractions  – discuss with your employee the distractions that come with working at home and ask how they plan to manage them, for example family members wanting help with jobs, chatty neighbours or noisy dogs.
• Keep childcare separate – make it clear that while you understand there will be times when life and work intersect (this is one of the benefits of working from home after all) there must be a clear distinction between time spent working and time spent looking after family. I know from running my own business, sometimes from home, with four children, that it isn't fair on the business or the children to juggle both.
• Avoid isolation – Despite the many benefits, working from home can be isolating. Make sure you have a plan to keep your employee part of the team by scheduling regular “face time” either via computer (say with Skype) or by having them to come to the office once a month. Include them in office social events and engage them in any online chats or forums you have running.

Working from home is not for every person or every job. But for people who are self-motivated and focused it can be rewarding and lead to greater productivity. And it could help your business find the talent it’s been missing.

For further great HR ideas call +61 2 8006 1280, email gethelp@hrhelp.com.au or go online at www.hrhelp.com.au