Working from home
Nuno Soares
Business Adviser for Tech Business Owners | Coach | Mentor | NED | Author | Speaker | LifeShifter Coach Expert | Get your OnePage LifeShifter Plan
Is it good or bad for your business?
Firstly, let’s define the meaning of ‘working from home’. Basically, it means performing office or work tasks in the home environment. People who work from home can be employees who previously worked in an office and have changed to remote working, or they can be freelancers and self-employed individuals.
There are clear benefits to people being able to choose to work from home. But similarly, there are drawbacks for both businesses and individuals opting to do it. Getting the balance right for employers and workers is going to be a challenge.
Benefits of working from home:
The hope here is that fewer distractions and more opportunities to take little breaks will contribute to better performance. Less chatting with colleagues and decreased office equipment noise (like phones ringing) should help with focusing on a task. Taking proper rest or energising bits of exercise are also easier to do in private.
A 2020 study by Stanford University of 16,000 workers, found that working from home increased productivity by 13%
Without a doubt, working more autonomously boosts confidence and ownership. As long as you can remain motivated and sort out a routine that suits your work style, being independent of a workplace can definitely make you more productive.
When your time is not ruled by official working hours you can build your workflow to suit your needs. Use your most productive hours effectively, wear what you’re most comfortable in and schedule domestic tasks around your day.
Essential communication tools such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom and project management collaboration apps like Trello are the bedrock of organisations offering working-from-home options. Improving skills on these and other platforms is a clear benefit for workers choosing to work remotely.
Reduced fatigue from commuting and less stress from being in the office environment directly impact a decrease in sick days. The increased flexibility to carry out domestic chores, such as deliveries and attending parents’ sessions at children’s schools, also decreases the time taken away from work.
For a lot of people who work from home, the combined benefits of reduced stress, increased productivity and independent decision-making create a clear sense of job satisfaction. Of course, this helps with even better productivity but, importantly, improves overall well-being.
‘Provided that it is a choice, not imposition.’ – this is what respondents to a Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) survey said about qualifying their higher levels of job satisfaction over the long term when working from home compared to being office-based.
Less time spent travelling from workplace to home is a great way to reduce stress levels and also costs. It may even reduce childcare bills if the commute had previously been a long one. Fewer expensive outfits for the office or in-person meetings create some savings. As do expenses related to corporate entertaining.
Organisations that have multiple branches or divisions can actually be brought operationally closer together through people working from home. The telecommuting tools available make it easy to function efficiently, especially if clear processes are in place. And for people who would traditionally find it tough to work from some office settings, such as wheelchair users, working from home opens up diverse, previously unavailable opportunities.
But working from home is not for everyone. While many people love the flexibility that remote work brings, for others the loss of an office environment and the social contact it provides can be a significant blow.
Common drawbacks to working from home:
Working from home simply may not suit some people’s personalities. If you love routine, structure and lots of interaction with people, it could leave you feeling very unhappy. If you have young children at home all day, that could be hugely distracting and might mean you have very little physical space to use for work. And if you are just learning the ropes on a job, you may need a lot more input from managers and colleagues than working from home can provide.
A sense of ‘disconnect’ is frequently reported as a problem with working from home. Communicating regularly using online meeting rooms and chats helps, as do frequent social meetups.
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Monitoring people’s activities and outputs can be tougher if they work from home rather than in an office. Technology can help with this, but well-being checks are a bit harder to perform. And there are just some tasks that do not work as well – simply can’t be done - at home.
A lack of focus can be a problem for people who work from home in an environment where there is too much else going on. Unless there is a dedicated quiet workspace it could be as disruptive as a busy office.
Leaving the house to go to the office and vice-versa brings a clear physical distinction between home and work. Without it, people might find it hard to switch off from work and risk ‘burning out’ from too much stress.
In a Statista study for 2022, 25% of respondents stated that their biggest struggle when working remotely is not being able to ‘unplug’.
Most workers will need to be set up with training and equipment to enable them to work efficiently and safely at home. Laptops and phones will need to be provided, and even desk furniture and chairs will have to be assessed for health and safety standards and replaced if deemed inadequate.
Training, promotion opportunities and communication may all stall if successful communication falls by the wayside. Talent-spotting and seeing people’s weaknesses becomes harder if your team works remotely.
Information security becomes harder to manage across multiple physical locations. More effort must be made to protect company data and encrypt or remote-wipe data.
Feelings of isolation and lack of routine can negatively impact people’s team spirit and mental health. As does stress due to a lack of clear boundaries between work and home life. Support and advice for personal well-being may be needed for staff working from home.
According to a May 2021 study by the American Psychiatric Association, nearly two-thirds of people who spend at least some time working from home say they’ve felt isolated or lonely from time to time. For 17% that’s a constant feeling.
It’s still a truth that not everywhere in the UK has sufficient broadband speeds to support working from home.
Working from home - getting the balance right?
As organisations and workers grapple with new ideas and opportunities around flexible working and working from home, there is clearly a wealth of issues to consider. Accelerated by the pandemic, the need for new systems and policies around flexible work patterns has sped up. People and companies are finding out if it does actually suit them. Everyone is weighing up the pros and cons of flexible work options.
One thing is true: businesses can’t keep everyone happy.
They will have to analyse their operations carefully before deciding how to move forward with offering people the option to work from home. And if people are given the choice, clear and regular opportunities for communication and socialising will have to be provided.
If the biggest problem people report facing when working from home is not being able to properly switch off, organisations may well have to start being innovative around educating staff in stress management and how to set clear boundaries.
Surely, if people are taking their work home, then ‘work’ has a duty of care to look after them well?
At the heart of any decision regarding working from home, there will have to be a commitment to consistent communication, review, and feedback. Being agile and keeping up with the pace of change and the developments in people’s attitudes to their workplaces will be key. Truly understanding people’s needs and being in a position to offer leadership on the issue will also separate those organisations who win from those who lose out.
It's going to be very interesting indeed to see what long-term impact the changes brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic have on the number of people successfully working from their home environment...