For work, there's no place like home
Working from home can benefit employees and employers, but there are a number of challenges to make it succeed in practice. We consider critical factors and look at one organisation that has made a success of homeworking.
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The National Work from Home Day on 18 May 2007 put homeworking in the media spotlight. The event was organised by Work Wise UK (www.workwiseuk.org), a not-for-profit initiative that aims to encourage smarter working practices as part of its five-year programme. The group says homeworking is proving increasingly popular, and that even choosing to work from home one day a week can have a significant impact on work-life balance and productivity.
"Teleworking" covers a broad spectrum of working practices, covering people who spend some or all of their working hours away from their employer's premises and carry out their work duties on a remote basis. "Home-based teleworking" or "homeworking" is when employees who would otherwise be based at the employer's premises are contracted to work from home for all or a significant part of their working week.
Work Wise UK defines homeworkers as "people who work mainly in their own home, or in different places using home as a base". Many people may work an occasional day at home, but this is not the same as having an employment contract that specifies the employee's home, as opposed to the office, as their principal place of work.
A popular practice?
While technological advances and the availability of remote tools such as broadband access, mobile phones and wireless email devices such as the BlackBerry have made homeworking much more achievable, it remains one of the less common forms of flexible working.
The spring 2006 Labour Force Survey (LFS)1, published by the Office for National Statistics, found that just 1% of the 24 million respondents worked mainly from home. It should be borne in mind, however, that this statistic reflects the incidence of homeworking in its narrowest sense - that is, people who work predominantly from home. If the definition is relaxed to include those who work from home on an ad hoc basis, the numbers swell significantly. For example, the LFS also found that around 6% of employees worked from home for at least one day during the week in which the survey was carried out.
Homeworking is on the increase. The 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey (WERS)2, for example, found that homeworking was available for at least some employees in just over a quarter (26%) of workplaces, according to surveyed managers. Employees, meanwhile, reported access to homeworking in 14% of workplaces, up from 12% in the 1998 WERS.
Interestingly, homeworking was slightly more common in workplaces where women were not in the majority (15%, compared with 13%). Further analysis of the panel surveys of "continuing workplaces" (where the same workplaces can be used to compare the 1998 and 2004 WERS results) found a significant increase during this period in the proportion of workplaces allowing some non-managerial employees to work from home (16% to 28%).
A survey of 32 countries by the Cranfield School of Management3 (Cranet) indicates even wider availability of homeworking, despite the UK not performing favourably overall on the availability of flexible working compared with other countries. In 2006, the business school's Cranet survey reported that 32% of UK workplaces offered homeworking arrangements.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has undertaken its own research into teleworking and urges that its incidence be put into perspective4. The report concedes that the phenomenon may be growing, and is likely to grow in the future, but says that advocates of teleworking (including homeworking) "have a long way to go before turning their aim into an everyday reality for the majority of workers". It says that, while there is considerable scope for further expansion of teleworking, the practice is likely to be confined largely to employees engaged in the kinds of managerial and professional occupations that currently have an above-average incidence of teleworking.
Good business sense
The potential business advantages of introducing flexible working - including improved staff retention, higher levels of employee commitment, performance and productivity - are well documented. The context for the rise in flexible working explains why these benefits are realisable. People's attitudes to work have changed markedly in recent years and the more traditional "nine-to-five" does not suit everyone.
There are also significant social, cultural and demographic changes afoot that are prompting a greater desire for flexibility in the ways in which people manage their work and personal lives. This shift in expectations has been accompanied by important legal developments affecting some people's right to request flexible working.
The same organisational benefits realisable from introducing flexible working apply equally to teleworking and/or homeworking. A 2006 survey of teleworking by IRS5 found that no respondent organisation believed that offering telework had had a negative effect on employee productivity. More than three-quarters (78%) believed that this form of flexible working had had a "very positive" or "positive" impact on productivity, while two-thirds (66%) reported that it had improved the quality of work.
An in-depth survey of 100 companies by HR outsourcing firm Ceridian6 showed that the most commonly cited benefit of homeworking was higher productivity (cited by 41% of respondents), followed by skills retention, loyalty and commitment (32%); happier, better-motivated staff and good employee relations (29%); and improved work-life balance (29%). However, the report cautions, 86% of the sample were unable to quantify the financial benefits to the business of homeworking because they did not have the systems in place to do so.
To get the most from homeworking, it is important to coordinate teams around the business - from finance, IT and operations as well HR - to set realistic financial objectives, Ceridian says. These metrics need to examine productivity, the cost of replacing staff, reductions in overheads, technological investment and the impact on customers to ensure that business benefits are "real and deliverable".
Homeworking has resulted in a number of tangible benefits to Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, including improved staff morale and greater flexibility (see case study).
For example, the productivity of the council's homeworkers employed in its revenues and benefits service increased by 67% and sickness absence fell by 38%. For ICT, remote support workers' productivity increased by 12% and unauthorised absence dropped to zero.
Telecommunications company BT has 12,000 employees working from home and it says more than £220 million has been saved over the past 10 years in property costs alone. Travel costs for employees have been reduced by £9.7 million a year and research shows that 70% of the company's teleworkers report an increase in their productivity. BT also reports a positive impact on absenteeism, the retention of key skills and the ability to attract talent.
Homeworking brings additional benefits that do not necessarily apply to other types of flexible working. One aspect relates to commuting and its impact on employees, their attendance and the environment. For example, working from home can help reduce the emission of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. In a survey by the CBI7 almost half of surveyed UK employers said commuting problems had caused undue stress for their employees and 41% said transport problems were responsible for making staff late on a regular basis. Almost a quarter (22%) of surveyed employees said they would like to work from home on a full-time basis and more than half (51%) said they would like to do so occasionally.
The potential stress caused by travelling to and from work, evident in the CBI survey findings, helps to explain why offering homeworking is a possible intervention in the Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) survey of employers' stress action plans8. More than four-fifths of surveyed employers had included the offer of homeworking in their action plan or intervention to help prevent stress in their organisation. Given the current focus on health, work and wellbeing and reducing workplace stress, employers could benefit from considering the potential advantages of homeworking within this wider wellbeing context.
Statutory rights
The main legal provisions directly related to homeworking are the flexible working rules, introduced by the Employment Act 2002. The right to request flexible working was first applied to parents of children under the age of six and of disabled children under the age of 18 (Right to request flexible working: an EOR guide).
From 6 April 2007, this right to request was extended to employees who have caring responsibilities for adults (EOR 156). However, employers also need to consider requests to work from home from employees who do not fall into any of these categories in order to avoid a potential discrimination claim.
Aside from an organisation's legal obligations, it is in the interests of good practice and inclusiveness to extend the consideration of flexible working - including homeworking - requests to all posts where this is viable. In a 2006 survey by IRS, several organisations expressed concern that family-friendly legislation caused division in the workplace and resentment among child-free employees9.
If an employer receives a request for homeworking from an eligible employee, it is important that it follows the statutory procedure. Guidance on this, and model forms that can be used for each stage of the process, are available on the new Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (DBERR) website10 and in an Acas advice leaflet11.
The contract of a homeworker will need to be varied to include the change of workplace. It is also important to remember that a homeworker's employment status is identical to that of office-based employees, and they have the same rights and responsibilities. This includes the employer's duty of care in respect of health, safety and welfare.
The HSE has published a guide on homeworking12 to advise employers and employees on their responsibilities in this area, including how to undertake a risk assessment of the proposed place of work. Although it may seem obvious, care must also be taken to extend the same opportunities for career progression and training to home-based teleworkers as are offered to other employees.
A worthwhile investment
Although the cost of setting people up to work from home can be more than offset by the savings in office space, increased productivity and so on, the initial outlay in terms of time and resources should not be underestimated.
The long list of issues that need to be considered under Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council's homeworking policy and home-based working agreement give some idea of the many different matters that must be given serious consideration when introducing homeworking (see case study and box 1). Insurance, hours of work, expenses, confidentiality, equipment and security are just a few of the practical issues that need to be included within a clear homeworking policy and set of guidelines.
The HR officer at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council cites investment in technology as one of the critical success factors of the organisation's homeworking initiative.
The same view is expressed by Dave Gartenberg, HR director for Microsoft: "Organisations that seek to encourage flexible working need to provide the appropriate tools and support for their staff. At Microsoft, many employees use the rich features built into Office 2007's Outlook program to help better manage their time and work. Additionally, through Windows Mobile technology, that same information is synchronised (wirelessly) to their smartphones, which gives people 'anywhere, anytime' access to their calendar, tasks, contacts and mail, providing a single place to manage their work from."
Ongoing support and management
It is revealing that the Ceridian survey mentioned earlier found that just 3% of surveyed HR practitioners agree with the proposition that homeworkers are "easier to manage". This is not surprising, given that few organisations in the sample had developed formal policies for managing staff when they are not in the office. The study notes that "nearly half of our respondents were not actively monitoring their homeworkers' views, meaning potential for disengagement and 'out of sight, out of mind' attitudes."
According to Amanda Gartshore, a business psychologist with Chromis Consulting, effective management of homeworking is one of the key challenges of migrating staff to this type of working arrangement. She comments: "There are a lot of issues to consider, such as trust and moving to a management style that is based on outcomes rather than process. It is critical that managers are trained and supported in the different techniques involved in managing a virtual team."
At BT too the emphasis is on good management skills when introducing homeworking. When home-based teleworking was introduced, managers were concerned about the lack of face-to-face contact with employees and how they could keep track of them on a day-to-day basis. Now the technology is able to bridge that gap, according to BT, but managers still have to work harder to create a team environment and be able to build teams remotely using technology. Managers also need to manage by output, setting clear objectives for each individual and measuring outcomes against a benchmark.
Homeworking is an important part of Microsoft's flexible working package. According to Gartenberg, how managers manage homeworking is critical.
He says: "We've been investing heavily in our manager community to increase their capability to both drive the business and to increase the employee experience. One of the issues we've focused on is eradicating the antiquated belief that one must see [one's] employees to know they are productive.
"How managers handle flexible working is key to its success. So our performance management system reflects our approach to flexible working and is similar to what most people would call 'management by objectives'. It's not about 'face time' or activity, it's about impact. As long as an employee manages their interdependencies, they have whatever flexibility they need to achieve their commitments."
The CIPD's guidance on teleworking and homeworking13 says that clear and effective communication channels are vital in order to keep in touch with colleagues and avoid isolation. It suggests the following methods for managers to communicate with their teams:
- regular (sometimes daily) contacts by telephone and/or email;
Test run
One possible approach is to have a pilot homeworking initiative to test its effectiveness before rolling out this type of flexible working arrangement more widely; this was the approach taken by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. Once an organisation has introduced homeworking, it is also important that the arrangements are kept under regular review. Microsoft monitors its homeworking policy to ensure that it continues to deliver for the business and for employees.
"We constantly reflect on the success of our home and flexible working policies to see what additional advice and support staff need to make it work," Gartenberg comments. "Our people have a number of avenues through which they can feed back on how our flexible approach works for them. For instance, the flexible working portal offers valuable advice to all staff about what is expected and how staff should approach this way of working."
Making it work
There is no doubt that homeworking, where it is appropriate to the role and employee, can bring about organisational benefits such as increased motivation, reduced attrition and higher performance. But the reverse can just as easily happen if the migration to homeworking is poorly managed. According to Gartshore of Chronis Consulting, there are a number of "people" challenges to consider when introducing homeworking. She says: "It's important to consider how to maintain the company culture when the workforce is dissipated; this is particularly important when integrating new people into the organisation. Homeworking is also suited to some people more than others - for example, according to factors such as personality and domestic arrangements - and so whether home-based teleworking is imposed or a choice makes a difference."
Gartshore says it is important to involve people affected by any homeworking initiative from the outset, both to get their buy-in for the new working arrangement and to pick up on any issues they may have. In her view, it is even more essential to deliver a robust induction programme for new staff who will be working primarily from home. "And don't overestimate employees' level of knowledge - for example, their confidence using IT systems - when they are suddenly alone and don't have a colleague to refer any queries to on an informal basis," Gartshore says. "Finally, small practical issues such as a laptop crashing can become problematic if an employee is based at home, so problem-solving approaches need to be established early on."
Gartenberg of Microsoft is clear that an effective employment relationship is the key to making homeworking work in practice: "At Microsoft we provide the most up-to-date technology for employees, and these tools are important in making flexible working a reality for our people. But it's not just about providing the best technology - that's a given. It's also about building understanding and confidence between staff. Flexible working is about trust between the manager and the employee, and having the confidence that both will deliver, in terms of results and in terms of appropriate recognition for the work being done."
CASE STUDY: ROTHERHAM METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL
Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council won a Guardian Public Services Award in 2005 for its homeworking pilot scheme in its revenues and benefits service. Launched in September 2004, the pilot - which is now a permanent arrangement - came out of a £30 million, 12-year strategic partnership with BT.
The partnership, known as RBT Connect, was set up to improve technology and working practices across the council: the goal is to use efficiency savings to enhance front-line services, while at the same time improving work-life balance opportunities for staff. The homeworking scheme in the revenues and benefits service was part of a much wider flexible working project, following the council's successful bid for funding from the European Social Fund.
According to Theresa Caswell, HR officer, the council's homeworking policy makes it clear that the criteria for assessing if a role is suitable for becoming a home-based one depends on the nature of the job, and is subject to line management agreement. Initially, 10 volunteers came forward from the revenues and benefits service to trial homeworking, although this number has since increased in revenues and benefits to around 20. All these employees perform back-office-type roles that do not involve contact with clients.
Since the first successful pilot, members of the remote ICT support team have also opted to work from home, as have a team of childcare solicitors and highways inspectors, as well as other individual employees. However, with the ageing portfolio of council buildings and the impending move to new premises with less space, Caswell says that homeworking will become even more widespread across the council in the future.
Positive findings
Caswell attributes the overwhelming success of the original three-month homeworking pilot in revenues and benefits to the fact that it was a controlled pilot and actively managed and supported by HR, ICT and line managers. The ongoing support mechanisms that were put in place mean that this form of flexible working continues to be effective, for both employees and the organisation.
According to Caswell, homeworking has resulted in a number of tangible benefits to the council, including improved staff morale and greater flexibility within the service.
For example, the productivity of the revenues and benefits homeworkers increased by 67% and sickness absence fell by 38%, while for ICT remote-support workers' productivity increased by 12% (despite the service carrying a vacancy) and unauthorised absence dropped to zero. For employees, there is the time and money saved on commuting, a quieter working environment, less stress and a better balance between work and personal lives.
The early revenues and benefits homeworking pilot was independently evaluated by Nottingham Trent, Newcastle and Sheffield Universities14. The evaluation report showed many positive views expressed by line managers, colleagues and the homeworkers themselves.
The latter group, for example, enjoyed the independence and autonomy that homeworking provided, felt more relaxed and confident about their ability to do the job well, and welcomed the absence of stress from "office politics".
There were also important learning points from the study. For example, it notes that the technical and technological aspects of homeworking need to be invested in and sustained. The "emotional-cultural" issues also need to be monitored to ensure that social relationships are not destabilised through the introduction of homeworking.
And team leaders and managers need to remain aware of the impact of flexibility on the overall cultural cohesion of their units and departments: homeworking can be achieved only through the deployment of effective systems and sustained through the goodwill of all staff affected, the report cautions.
The evaluation report made some useful recommendations to enhance the management of homeworking, and the council has taken these on board. For example, the report emphasises the importance of training in handling technology and systems, that clear communication protocols should be established and that there should be regular opportunities to communicate face-to-face and in teams. On management and systems control, the study notes that flexible forms of work have the potential to create additional burdens for some members of staff such as team leaders and colleagues. As well as the need to implement appropriate systems for attendance and office cover, a culture of trust should be established based on an understanding of performance as the achievement of tasks and targets, and not as visibility or "bureaucratic adherence" to office hours.
The academic evaluation notes that a contributing factor to the success of the pilot was the open and systematic manner in which the HR department worked with the directorate involved in the pilot. This cooperation and collaboration remains a firm feature of the council's approach to flexible working, including homeworking. According to Caswell, managers and employees who consider homeworking as a possibility need to consider the implications in detail before forming their conclusions about whether or not it could work for a certain role, and a key part of her job is to discuss these details carefully with staff.
The right support
From the outset, the council knew that the success of the pilot depended, to a large degree, on the support it provided to the homeworkers. For example, there is a rota to allocate responsibility to a team leader in the department for supporting the revenues and benefits homeworkers. There are regular face-to-face meetings and Caswell says the homeworkers themselves make a firm effort to spend "quality time" together.
The homeworkers are provided with computer equipment that has encrypted connection to the council's systems via modems with broadband connection and mobile telephones. This technology provides a fast and secure connection. As well as telephone and email, ICT homeworkers can now take advantage of instant messaging as part of a pilot to test the effectiveness of this technology. This service also interacts with the homeworker's Outlook calendar and so it is possible for the message sender to know if the individual they want to contact is offline or on holiday.
The council considers the request to work from home on a case-by-case basis, and there is a detailed application form that must be completed. "The manager and HR must be satisfied that the role is suitable for homeworking - for example, a job may not be suitable if there is a lot of client contact, although we can be flexible about that - and that homeworking will suit the individual," Caswell says. "In addition, there must be an effective performance management system in place." The council's current practice is for a risk assessment to be carried out by the prospective homeworker on the suitability of the proposed workstation. This is carefully analysed by the line manager and the council supplies any additional equipment and furniture that is needed.
There is a detailed homeworking policy that covers the following areas:
- home-based working - definition, guidance and employment conditions;
In addition, there are several important forms and documents that have been drawn up for homeworking, including model letters to the homeworker's mortgage lender or landlord and insurer and risk assessment checklists. There is also a "home-based working agreement" (see box 1) that must be completed. It covers key aspects of the new working arrangement, such as:
- patterns of work;
According to Caswell, there are a number of critical success factors to making homeworking an effective form of flexible working. She says: "Home-based working requires a lot of support from line managers and they in turn need a lot of support and advice from HR on how to manage it effectively. Investment in technology is a given but its importance cannot be over-stated, and there needs to be a constant review of that investment. Training in how to use the IT equipment is also crucial, as is good communication."
1. Labour Force Survey, spring 2006, Office for National Statistics, available at: www.statistics.gov.uk.
2. Inside the workplace: Findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations Survey, Routledge, 2006, and information and advice at: www.wers2004.info.
3. The Cranfield Network (Cranet) survey on Comparative Human Resource Management, 2006. More information about the Cranet survey is available at: www.som.cranfield.ac.uk, or tel: 01234 754348.
4. Teleworking: trends and prospects, CIPD, September 2006, www.cipd.co.uk/pressoffice/_featured/Teleworking_060906ART.htm?IsSrchRes=1.
5. "Teleworking: where reality and urban myth collide", Employment Review, 1 December 2006.
6. Business practices and attitudes related to homeworking - a survey of HR professionals in UK business on behalf of Ceridian, 2006, available at www.ceridian.co.uk.
7. "Commuting issues drive stressed-out employees over the edge", Personnel Today, 24 January 2006, www.personneltoday.com.
8. "Managing stress at work: policies and initiatives", Employment Review, 8 September 2006.
9. "Flexible working: HR predicts a riot", Employment Review, 7 July 2006.
10. Guidance and model forms on the right to request flexible working, available at: www.berr.gov.uk/employment/workandfamilies/flexible-working/index.html.
11. Advice leaflet: flexible working, Acas, 2007, available at: www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx?articleid=803.
12. Homeworking: guidance for employers and employees on health and safety (PDF format, 118K) (available on the Health and Safety Executive website).
13. Teleworking, factsheet, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, December 2006, available at: www.cipd.co.uk.
14. S Tietze, G Musson, T Scurry (2004) Homeworking in local authorities: issues and considerations, available at: www.homebasedtelework.co.uk.
This article was written by Rachel Suff, a freelance employment researcher and writer, rmsuff@dsl.pipex.com.
