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.

 

As a small business owner, you may find that many of your suppliers work from home based offices, ranging from web designers through to computer programmers through to light assembly and manufacturing staff.

 

From a collaborative viewpoint it is important that these remote workers feel part of the organisation to ensure they are productive, efficient and happy.

 

 

 

By allowing staff to work from home you can save the most immediate expense of leasing, buying or licensing premises for the business. The burden of business rates and premises upkeep can take a significant part of a small businesses monthly budget.

 

Home working can also 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 around your small business.

 

 

 

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 may decide that an instant messaging solution will help your home workers stay in touch. This bridges the gap between email and the telephone and gives you presence in formation so you can see if people are available.

 

Both email and instant messaging solutions can be installed easily by the small business, especially if you use hosted email services that do not require complex server installations. Neither of these systems would cost much to install, the email solution may need a small annual subscription dependent on the service you decide to use. There are many free email services available.

 

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 you 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.