Home Workers Get More Done

Last week it was reported that staff who work from home clock up the equivalent of an extra month a year behind their desk.

New research from UCi2i reveals that those logging in from home work 24 more days a year than they would if    they were in the office every day. The extra flexibility may allow employees to do the school run or water the hanging baskets, but also enables them to work when they would normally be commuting; and being at home is more likely to lead to voluntary overtime.

The business case for home working is further strengthened by the 94 per cent of those surveyed who said they produce better quality work from home than in the office. Respondents cited factors ranging from the peace and quiet, to avoiding the stress of the commute and generally being more content having found a better work/life balance.

The findings might come as a surprise to the one in four office-based personnel that think those who work from home are ‘cheating the system’. Indeed, we highlighted in a previous post that for many business leaders, home working means not working – but the vast majority of people want to do great work and feel proud that they’ve made progress during a day. This new research proves that if you give employees the opportunity to work on their own without interruption, they will achieve more and make better use of the time that they are in the office.

Employees see that working two or three days a week from home improves their family life and well-being, which in turn helps businesses that offer home working attract and retain talent. It also means companies can appoint someone based on their talent alone and not their geographic location. A two hour commute might be out of the question five days a week, but for a couple of days, it’s possible.

The future of work will undoubtedly be more about working from home – or on the move – and less about offices with expensive rent and business rates. After all, with cloud technology it’s easy to transform a living room into an office, so why expect people to be tied to an office?

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