Top tips for home working

12 January 2010

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The words 'home working' may strike fear into many a boss's heart, but there are substantial benefits to managing workers from home, especially in times of crisis. In this article, we show you the steps you need to take to enable employees to work from a home office.

Collaborating with people that work from home is probably easier now than it has ever been. Advances in internet technology and personal computers, plus the near universal availability of higher capacity networking to people's homes has made home working an attractive and economically viable choice for those working in small businesses.

The benefits of home working

Home working can enable your team to have a more flexible approach to work so that tasks are completed to time, irrespective of the fact that the person was not at their computer or desk from 9am through to 5pm. By supporting home workers you are able to tap into an increased talent pool of those people unable to work conventional hours due to, for example, childcare requirements. Happier, more comfortable workers can lead to increased productivity and commitment from those in your business.

An established home working system can also help to support your business during a crisis situation, for example, if your employees cannot get to work or access to your premises is restricted.

Collaborative and supporting technology

As well as the typical infrastructure in support of the home office there are some other tools that can help encourage collaborative working with your team.

Communication is key with home workers. Putting in place an email system is vital as this enables the sharing of documents and regular communication. You could also use an online instant messaging solution to help your home workers stay in touch with you. This bridges the gap between email and the telephone and can allow you to monitor whether your workers are present and available.

Both email and instant messaging solutions can be installed easily by small businesses, especially if you use hosted email services that do not require complex server installations. Neither of these systems cost much to install. The email solution may need a small annual subscription dependent on the service you decide to use, but there are many free email services available. If you cannot set up a complex email system at your workers home, make sure that you have their personal email address so that you can stay in contact or send them work to do.

For more advanced sharing and collaboration of documents you may wish to buy a piece of software that allows document collaboration and sharing, such as Microsoft's SharePoint or Groove, or IBM's WorkPlace.

These products are especially useful as home workers can "check in" their documents so that they can be backed up in a central location. This also protects your organisation's intellectual rights to materials being produced. These solutions do need more advanced setup and configuration so this will need to be considered when planning your solution.

Some may take a few hours to install and configure other many days, working with an experienced consultant. The cost of these solutions can subsequently vary from a few tens of pounds to a few thousand, depending on how customised you need the solution to be.

You may also wish to consider video conferencing solutions that run on home based computers. These enable the team to see each other and maintain the all important social contact often missing when working remotely. Webcams can cost between £20 - £150 depending on the specification you require and only take an hour or so to setup.

Health and safety

It is also worth bearing in mind that if someone works for you from home, you still have a duty of care as an employer to inspect their home working environment for health and safety hazards. For more information you can download a PDF on home working from the Health and Safety Executive.

About the author

This article was first published as Managing home workers in the Business IT Guide, part of e-skills, the Sector Skills Council for IT and telecoms. The Business IT Guide has been developed in collaboration with industry experts to help small businesses find the right IT solutions for the issues that affect them.

Top tips for home working

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