Working from Home Vs. Working in the Office

With the number of people working from home increasing by a fifth in the last ten years, it’s becoming a common desire for office workers all over the UK to want to join the other 1.5million of them. The biggest reason for working from home is due to soaring childcare and commuting costs, but the efficiency of a home worker is hard to measure. Should you let your employees work from home?

Pros of working at home

Email, chat, video conferences and cloud collaboration software make it possible for almost any job to be executed remotely, and for communication to be upheld.
It can make employees more productive: a study from 2014 found that remote workers made 13.5% more calls than their office workers. An American company introduced a flexible work program that resulted in a 35% increase in employee productivity and another found that 77% of remote workers got more work done because of fewer distractions from meeting and noisy co-workers.
No commuting time; no travel costs.
Enables carers to cut costs on childcare or other establishments; less people are likely to become a full-time carer and quit their jobs if they can work from home.
Work from home employees can be happier and healthier; reducing sick days and absentees.

Pros of working in the office

Nothing is better than a face to face meeting; getting a feel for personality and repour which you cannot do over a screen is essential for developing employee and client relationships.
It could make employees work more hours than they should; the lack of physical separation between work and personal space makes it harder to separate a personal life from work.
Even with the benefits of chat applications, the best way to get an instant answer is to be there.
Collaboration and brainstorming with co-workers (employees in an open plan office possibly with glass partitions) create brighter ideas.
It’s harder to get into the zone and potentially less comfortable at home; offices are more likely to have ergonomic furniture and the appropriate technology.
It can be isolating being alone; many make friends from work and enjoy the social interaction. A study at MIT found that even workplace chatter increases productivity!

Should you let employees work from home?

Like everything in life, a healthy balance is key. Encourage those who are more productive working alone to work from home, and start from there! However, if you’re a business that can’t accommodate remote workers, consider bringing the benefits of home to the office. From using glass office partitions to create solo working rooms and reducing distractions, Applied Workplace are specialists in creating a productive office. Call 01202 577 776 or email enquiries@appliedworkplace.co.uk today.