Partner Article

Home working “improves attendance and slashes costs“

Working from the comfort of your own home could help to improve work attendance and slash office space overheads.

After surveying 10 major employers, Advanced Workplace Associates found that informal working from home reduced sickness and absence, and instilled greater levels of morale and performance among employees.

Managing director of AWA, Andrew Mawson, was encouraged by the results, which show that employers and employees are increasingly in sync with each other.

He comented: said: “Management trust, and clear objectives are critical to making a success of informal homeworking, requiring the right training and a positive approach to measuring performance based on output.

“However organisations going through major change have tended to resist this, resulting in an underlying suspicion among some employers that homeworking in any form is not legitimate working.”

The study suggested that ad-hoc home-working could provide a springboard for some organisations to introduce formal home-based working, but cautioned that communication would be key to avoid staff becoming isolated from colleagues and core values.

Mr Mawson went on to say: “Ultimately, we foresee a future where more than 4 million people, about 10% of the current work-force, will work at home on a formal basis; and where almost all employees will demand some form of flexible working.

He also noted that cost and carbon-reduction were significant drivers for many organisations in adopting these practices.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .