Pros & Cons of flexible working
As our team is developing we're finding more and more candidates want to work from home – full-time. It's clear that the world of work has changed dramatically over the past few years.
People even live in one country and work for a company based in another. At the opposite end of that scale are the people who live walking distance from their employer's premises, but still prefer to work from home. There's even an acronym now – WFH.
Of course. There are advantages and disadvantages on both sides of this equation. Clearly there are some roles that can't be carried out remotely, like retail staff and any business where customers and clients walk through the front door, but there's an argument that working from home is actually good news for employers as well as employees.
The technology is there too – Zoom, Teams, VoIP phone systems and email anywhere.
The case for employees
Working from home offers some real advantages:
- More time with family with no long commutes
- Flexibility to get involved with school runs and events
- More flexible hours to allow work to be organised around family
- No expensive travel costs
- More focused conversations with colleagues (people chat less on Zoom than wandering around the office).
There are downsides too though:
- No social atmosphere and, potentially, a feeling of isolation
- Work can take over your life with no finite end to the working day
- Sitting at the kitchen table to work* all day is likely to result in back pain
*Legally your employer should ensure you have the appropriate equipment and workspace, even if you are working from home – including a suitable chair, table and equipment.
The case for employers
Undoubtedly there are advantages to having people work from home:
- Less expensive office accommodation is required as even with a hybrid arrangement hot-desking is an effective use of space. (Some companies have actually relocated to a base in a less-expensive area without requiring all their staff to move their lives to a new place or have to start afresh with another employer.)
- People who are committed team members often work during hours when they would have been travelling to work, so potentially work slightly longer hours
- Fewer days lost when parents with school-age children have childcare crises during school holidays or sick days
- Recruitment and retention of staff who are unable to work full-time in an office environment, but can flex around childcare needs at home.
It doesn't work for every company though. If you're running a 9-5 business where clients expect to be able to get in touch with team members during normal office hours, a flexible schedule for employees doesn't work.
New recruits need to spend their initial weeks in the office getting to know the systems, their colleagues and the expectations that their employer has. If someone is not experienced in working from home it can be all too easy for the day to vanish with little work getting done. This requires learning how to schedule their work and home time and avoid distractions. Self-discipline is essential.
There are challenges for managers with some or all their team members working remotely. Managing remote workers is a very different set of skills to those needed when everyone is in the same building. During lockdown some managers struggled with this and there were an infinite number of scenarios from demands to hourly updates to employees not hearing from their boss for weeks! There need to be ground rules – whether employees are full or part-time working from home.
At the end of the day the employer will need to be the one making the decision as to whether they can offer contracts that include working from home. There's no right or wrong decision – just what works for your business.