ICT Management > Making Policies & Best Practice

The Benefits of remote working

By David Sturges

This article considers some of the potential benefits of remote working for organisations and their staff.

Today there is a growing trend for people to work from home, whether whilst setting up a new business or working in an established organisation. There are now over 3.5 million home workers in the UK, so it is increasingly important that they manage to work both effectively and safely. 

As home working is now the norm among companies both large and small, it is no longer necessary to keep this hidden from your clients. You will notice many real benefits by having your staff working from home:

Save expense on your premises 

A lot of small organisations can either delay the need for an office or remove this cost completely. Larger organisations can save on space, especially if they plan to expand quickly. 

BT estimates that every home worker employed saves the Group around £6,000 per annum on overheads, such as property costs, ensuring a more profitable use of facilities. 

Improve quality and performance of staff 

This flexible approach offers a better work-life balance, which helps to both retain existing staff and attract new staff. Home working allows you to recruit from a larger pool of applicants as you can employ people who are unable to work conventional hours.  

Be Green

Reduce your environmental impact.  

Improve productivity.

Recent Statistics from BT raise a great argument for flexible working. 

• Enterprises embracing flexible working enjoy a 20% productivity gain on average
• UK’s smaller businesses recognise that flexible working policies can positively impact their organisation, with 65% citing staff motivation and 50% increased productivity as key reasons to adopt them
• 59% of Directors in small businesses believe they can embrace flexible working just as successfully as large organisations

Other benefits of flexible and remote working include: 

• Within ten years, teleworking and technology is predicted to achieve an 18% reduction in heavy goods vehicle journeys
• By 2010, the benefits to the UK economy in reduced congestion costs could be as much as £1.9 billion
• Increased home working has the potential to cut the worst peak traffic by up to 10% within 5 years – a reduction that would save 14.5 billion miles a year.
• This equates to 17 million cars foregoing a trip from Land’s End to John O’Groats
• Flexible working results in a 7% improvement in job satisfaction – happy people mean happy customers!

But is it right for you?

You need to consider whether home working is appropriate for you as an individual or as an employer.  Are you self motivated and work well without close supervision? As an employer, do you trust your staff to do a good job? Will working from home hinder your employees’ performance if they don’t have access to the correct resources?  Does the employee need close collaboration with you or their colleagues? 

It is very important to have key performance indicators in place before starting to home work. You will probably need to benchmark performance before starting and then have regular reviews. 

If you are at all uncertain, it may be advisable to have a trial period or allow your employee to work one day a week to begin with and then review performance.

You also need to take into account the effect of allowing one member of staff the ability to work at home but not others. This can have a negative effect on staff morale.

As you can see remote/flexible working can open up many benefits to your organisation if operated in the right way. You too could enjoy greater profitability, productivity and best of all Happy Staff.

Good Luck