The benefits of working from home

Developments in communication and technology have made mobile working easier than ever, and the number of home-based workers in the UK is on the increase. According to analysis published by the TUC, 1 in 16 (6.1% of the workforce) worked from home in 2017¹.

There are some real perks to working from home for employees; it can cut out that long commute, give them more time to spend with the family and help improve work-life balance. It can also have benefits for employers; from increased productivity to employee retention. However, remote working does also come with its own set of challenges for both employers and employees.

What are the benefits of working from home?

There are a number of advantages to working from home, for both you and your team. 

1. Productivity. One of the most frequently discussed benefits of working from home is that it increases employees’ productivity. According to a study by Canada Life Group, home-workers ranked their productivity at 7.7 out of 10, compared to a score of 6.5 out of 10 given by those who worked in open-plan offices².
2. No commute. According to Totaljobs, the average UK worker will spend 400 days of their life commuting³. Commuting can be one of the most stressful parts of an employee’s day, particularly if they regularly get stuck in traffic or face train delays. Having the option to work from home eliminates the stresses that are associated with commuting, even if it’s just for one day a week.
3. Employee retention. Employee retention can also be an advantage of home-based working. Some members of your team may struggle to balance childcare and full time work, which could result in them having to leave their job. Offering the option to work from home can allow parents to take their children to school and still be back at home in time for a full day’s work. 
4. Recruitment. Remote working can also benefit your business’s recruitment efforts. Not only can it act as an incentive for candidates who may be looking for flexible working, but it also widens your talent pool as you aren’t restricted to the candidates that live in your local area. 
5. Technology. It’s now becoming easier than ever for people to work remotely with all of the technology and digital tools that are available. From shared drives and folders to allow your team to work collaboratively on projects regardless of their physical location, to instant messaging and video conferencing so your team can communicate.
6. Lower costs. As your team wouldn’t need an office space and other facilities typically associated with working in an office environment, you could also lower your costs by having your workforce work remotely. This is particularly the case for businesses based in London. According to research by Savills, work stations in London cost businesses an average of £15,000 per employee in rents, rates and service charges⁴.
7. Avoid office politics. Whether it’s the temperature that the office heating is set to, or the music that is being played on the sound system, being able to work in their own home allows your team to avoid the office politics and create a work environment that is perfect for them.

What are the challenges of working from home?

Alongside the benefits that come with offering your team the option of working from home, there can also be challenges for both you and your people.

• Work/life balance: One of the main reasons people choose to work from home is to improve their work-life balance. It can be difficult to juggle life admin with a busy job, so working from home can help with balancing work life and family life. However, research from AXA Business Insurance revealed that work can start to bleed into personal time if boundaries aren’t put in place. Over half of home-workers surveyed found that making sure that they had a clear divide between home and work was a real hurdle that they had to overcome⁵.
• Workspace: Finding the right space to work from in the home is important to a productive business. While AXA’s research revealed that a third of those surveyed had a dedicated office, others may use bedrooms, reception rooms or even the garden shed⁵. Workspace can have a big impact on productivity levels, so it’s important for regular home workers to establish an office area where they’re able to work productively, free from distractions.
• Support: Home-based workers are also at risk of feeling unsupported, unappreciated and disengaged. Remote working can make people feel threatened, like everyone else is progressing in their role and getting noticed by management. It can also become more difficult for employers to identify problems within their team and pick up on health and wellbeing issues when they don’t see their people everyday. They may be well connected with mobile phones and email, but this virtual communication cannot always substitute the regular face to face interaction.
• Distractions. While open-plan offices can be distracting for different reasons, home workers can also find distractions looming round the corner. Whether that’s their family and friends asking for favours as they know they are at home, or the household chores that need finishing. Sometimes these everyday distractions can become too tempting for home-based workers, so it’s important for them to clearly define when the working day begins.

Private health cover

We provide business healthcare cover for 1 to 249 employees. Our plans are built around the needs of you and your business.

GET A QUOTE TODAY

How can you support your home-based workers?

If you do offer the option of home based working to your employees, there are a number of things you can do to ensure that they’re fully set up and comfortable with their working environment. This is particularly important for those team members who may be new to remote working, and may therefore require a bit more support from you.

Help get them set up in their home

Visit your team and make sure that they have a good working space, with a desk and chair set up to ensure they’re sitting comfortably and their posture is correct. You should also ensure that they have easy access to resources such as technology, IT support and HR.

Keep up the communication

To help identify wellbeing issues and offer the appropriate support to home-workers, there must be sufficient lines of communication in place. Make sure that you book in those face-to-face meetings that virtual meetings can’t always replace. Identify good work that they’re doing and highlight it to others; recognition is a positive motivation. For employees that can feel isolated and miss the social interaction, you could set up an instant messaging service which would support real-time communication with others in the business.

You could also organise team building days. This would give your workforce the opportunity to meet each other and socialise, making home-workers feel part of the team and giving them the opportunity to increase camaraderie with their colleagues.

It’s important to get the balance of communication right; enough that employees feel connected but not so much that they feel watched. Remember though, some people need more communication than others, so the communication balance should be tailored for each person.

Offer the appropriate training

Working at home comes with its own stresses, so offer employees training on how to handle these. This could include online training on issues such as ‘how to balance work and family when your work is your home’. Offering a regular training schedule to remote workers can also help to make them feel more valued as they are continuing to develop their knowledge and progress in their roles.

Set up an Employee Assistance Programme

Give your home-based workers easy access to support by setting up an Employee Assistance Programme. It can be trickier to identify issues and know when to step in with support when your team works remotely, but an effectively run EAP can help you with this and provide ways of enabling these employees to deal more effectively with the pressures in their lives.

How we can help

When a member of your team has something on their mind, whether that’s work stress, money worries or family problems, they can find it difficult to concentrate on anything else. Your employees bring so much more to work over and above themselves and the skills you employed them for. And, while some things they can manage, others might seem too much to cope with.

With an Employee Assistance Programme in place, your team can get help with the things that are affecting them right from the start. Before their everyday stresses begin to influence their wellbeing and productivity. You can rest assured that, no matter what they’re struggling with, your team will have someone to speak to confidentially, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Find out more about our Employee Assistance Programme.

Find out more about our small business health insurance, including what is and isn’t covered, and get a quote today.

Sources and references

¹TUC, 2018. Growth in Homeworking has Stalled.

²Autotime. Homeworkers More Productive than Office Based Staff.

³Totaljobs. UK Workers will Spend over a Year of their Lives Commuting.

⁴The Guardian, Rising London Property Prices Could Lead to Firms Relocating.

⁵AXA Business Insurance ‘The Home Business Insight Report’, March 2014 - based on research among nearly 800 home-based businesses.