Working from Home: A badly needed option or an excuse to do nothing?

With the emergence of a new generation of business leaders and entrepreneurs, the traditional working day of a long frustrating commute followed by eight hours of work from 9-5 is being rewritten and re-evaluated. Many companies within the UK are beginning to change and update their working practices in order to appeal to and attract the best and brightest employees in a limited talent pool. Traditionally businesses in the UK have seen the 9-5 working environment almost as sacrosanct and viewed any deviation from the accepted norm with suspicion. However, with changing attitudes, difficult and expensive commutes, workers being priced out of living in cities close to their office and a poor public transport infrastructure, the change in the employment landscape could become a necessity that companies in the UK will have to adapt to and offer if they are to remain attractive and relevant in today’s workforce.

Past expectations

In the UK, the number of people working from home has increased steeply over the last decade to almost one in seven as companies change and evolve to meet workers’ expectations. Currently nearly 10% of commuters spend 90 minutes or more travelling each way to get to work — with “extreme commuters” now reaching 1,840,000 in the UK. Reasons for long commutes include issues such as family ties, expense of moving or the lack of opportunities closer to where they live. In decades past it was fairly common practice to accept the long commute as part of the job as employees had little other option other than to put in the extra hours and expense expected in order to do their job and promote their career.

The future is now

With the rise of the world wide web, mobile phones, remote video group chats and secure network access, what exactly is stopping people from effectively working from home in 2017? In the UK someone wishing to work from home is often still seen as “slacking-off” and not really doing any work. This belief is counter to reports that working from home actually results in the employee working more hours for less money. “Rather than enhancing true flexibility in when and where employees work”, write the authors of a new study, “the capacity to work from home mostly extends the workday and encroaches into what was formerly home and family time.” Despite the technological advances over the last 10 years or so, it seems that when an employee is working from home, they can have trouble identifying the boundaries between personal and work life. The process of getting up, getting dressed and travelling to a place of work is engrained on all of us from the very earliest age when we were sent to attend school. If you remove the traditional process of arriving in the morning and leaving in the evening, people lack the psychological “on/off-switch” that comes with it, resulting in further work satisfaction issues.

Working from home, but with a twist

One option that has gained popularity in the UK is the “shedworking” sub-culture. The benefits of this approach are that it gives the employee a psychological separation between home and work, but still has the benefits of removing the long commute, while also taking away some of the more negative home working issues, such as distractions including (but not limited to) TV, children, partners and pets. An entirely separate home working environment is more relevant for the self-employed than an average employee who would benefit from occasional home-work for one or two days a week. But lessons can be learned from the shed-working culture moving forward and gives employers and employees valuable examples of creative working from home solutions, that could eventually lead to the standard practice of people spending a portion of their working week operating out of a distraction free home-work environment.

Can the UK change?

However, of all Western countries that could potentially embrace this kind of flexible work solution, the UK has to rank somewhere towards the bottom of the list in terms of accepting and promoting modern working practices. The UK is slow to act in issues regarding workers’ rights and benefits. In comparison to our neighbours, the UK, for example, has the fewest  bank-holidays in Europe, showing how slow and resistant the UK Government is to change. UK businesses have long been a slave to the class structure and while they may have been somewhat modernised, businesses in the UK and Europe are still largely subject to antiquated and rigid working practices such as outdated productivity practices. The traditional 9-5 workday and 5-day working week were established as the norm during the 19th century but are still in use today, largely unchained and unchallenged despite the massive leaps made in remote connectivity and living standards.

Presenteeism

Another extension of these outdated work practices is presenteeism,- the act of showing up for work without being productive. While some employers might view employees coming into work despite being ill or working long hours, including evenings and weekends as a positive and showing dedication to their job, in reality it means that employees are likely to be more ineffective, suffering from impaired judgement, performance and burnout caused by a physical, psychological and emotional inability to rest. There is mounting evidence to support the notion that the cost of presenteeism in the workplace actually accounts for one-and-a-half times the cost of sick leave, also leading to higher levels of employee sick leave in the long term. In combination with other traditional working methods, it can be seen that there is a strong need for a re-evaluation of UK working practices.

Countries such as the USA, with their young, new forward-thinking businesses and entrepreneurs seem to be making the biggest strides in developing new working practices, going out of their way to offer employees a much healthier and fairer work/life balance. France and Germany have recently passed laws to prevent employees having to answer work emails outside of work hours.  Following France’s legislations to the “right to disconnect”, British companies are seen to be falling behind and failing to keep pace with the changing work environment. A select few UK companies are following the French initiative in banning out of hours work emails as they see the issue as hurting, rather than improving communication between colleagues, and putting unreasonable demands and stress on British workers. While these policies are easier to introduce for smaller private companies than for big multi-nationals and large public sector organisations, there will always be industries in which the employee will be continually expected to be reachable in order to monitor and respond to any out of hour emergencies as and when they arise or have a need to connect with colleagues working in different time-zones.

Misconception and a bad reputation

While changes in the use of work emails outside of work hours is an issue largely ignored in the UK, working from home remains a more popular issue that many feel needs addressing and amending. The main obstacle holding back the advancement of more flexible working conditions still comes from the management of companies who view working from home with suspicion. Unable to keep a “close-eye” on their staff, many managers are wary about the unchecked responsibility and accountability of home-workers. Interestingly, the opposite may actually be true in terms of employee work commitment. While the well documented benefits for both employee and employer previously mentioned still hold true, along with the possibility of reducing the environmental and travel cost impact, many managers still feel it is not a valid work option.

As the younger generation begin to make their presence known within the workforce, it is worth remembering that most people under 35 grew up in a world of smart phones, apps and remote connectivity. Treating them and exposing them to work conditions and practices that have not really evolved since the 1950s is going to cause worker dissatisfaction and frustration.

What do we want?

A recent survey showed that currently 83% of UK employees want to work from home. The same survey of 1,000 UK workers reveals that only 36.5% currently work from home for some of the time, despite 90% saying they could work effectively from any location outside of the office if they had the right technology. 85% of the workers questioned also stated that flexibility in a work location and hours is important to them, with 83% saying it is not necessary to be in an office to be productive, with 69% believing they had better technology and methods of working at home than they do in work.

With technology advancing as quickly as it is, allowing us to communicate from anywhere in the world, is the traditional long commute and working environment still the best option for employees? As the new generation of workers progresses through the ranks, it is possible that we could see options like working from home becoming more of an expected working practice and everyday option, rather than a rare perk. Businesses will need to change and become more flexible to meet the new working practices and expectations in order to attract the most talented workers.

Reasons why working from home can be both beneficial and detrimental

While it is understandable that employees would want to work from home given the technological and emotional benefits, the actual physical benefits to both the employee and employer must be demonstrated.

According to a recent FlexJobs survey, there are a several reasons why employees think they can get more done if they spend time at home instead of the office:

• Less distracting behaviour and interruptions from colleagues within the office.
• Fewer distractions in general, such as office gossip.
• Meetings that are less frequent, leaving more dedicated work time.
• Less inclined to discuss and promote office politics.
• Less time, expensive and stress due to commuting to the office.
• A more comfortable working environment.
• Ability to focus on the work, rather than watching the clock.
• If an employee is happier in their working environment, they are generally more productive.

But while there are undoubtedly lots of positives to be found, on the flip-side you can also argue that there are plenty of negatives to the working from home experience.

• While peace and quiet can help productivity, working from home can be very isolating at times.
• The separation between staff working from home and their work environment could also lead to less collaboration between staff.
• While most will treat working from home with the respect and attention it deserves, there will be some who could be easily distracted and take advantage of the situation.
• Once you have secured the option to work from home, it is possible that your situation could be taken advantage of by others.

In summary

Ultimately it can be argued that working from home could have both a negative and positive impact on the employee and employer. As with any new element entering the work environment for the first time, it is going to take time, effort and attention to detail in order to properly establish what does and doesn’t work. But with the introduction to the workforce of millennials and the eventual retirement of the baby-boomer generation, new working practices and a fresh approach to the re-evaluated work/life balance needs to be addressed and updated accordingly. With the increasing prevalence of technology in every aspect of our lives, working from home is going to be a work option that is going to be expected and needed moving into the future. But to get to this point, both employers and employees need to establish trust and a method of work that will benefit both parties.

As a background screening company we work closely with several HR companies and see the development of modern working practices as a cornerstone of our business and aim to be at the forefront of new developments and ideas. When developing working from home and other employee working practices, it is important to be able to verify the skills, competency and experience of your employee. Being able to trust your employee is essential should you wish to give them extra responsibility. Complete Background Screening can help you properly screen your staff, helping you avoid any costly mistakes that may arise from false qualifications, work experience and references.

Please contact us on any channel listed below and we will be happy to discuss your organisations needs and how we can help.

www.CBscreeniing.co.uk

Tel: 01443 7999900

Email: Info@CBscreening.co.uk