Working from home, so why not?

My last two assignments, both contracts, have involved 2 days working from home, 2 nights away and 3 days working on site. It was a good balance for those contracts which required in person time and wasn't too disruptive for family life and also helped to keep costs down.

I've been researching and writing about remote working since the early 1990s . I've put together the following list of work from home benefits - feel free to share and I hope to add to this with any suggestions in the comments to build up a quick list for anyone wanting to make a business case at their workplace.

Benefits for the employee

• Lower commuting costs: Less spending on petrol and probably less spending on public transport. Seasons tickets are the exception here and I'm asking the Scottish Government to consider different flexible fare options which benefit people working 3 days a week or less in an office.
• Less stress: Commuting is often stressful. That problem goes away when your commute is across the living room.
• Lower childcare costs: If you leave your children with someone when you go to work, you're probably paying by the hour for not just the time you're at work but the time commuting too. No commute time means lower costs.
• Better work/life balance: You can get home earlier and spend more time with your family. You can go to a Doctors/Dentist appointment near where you live and still do a normal productive day.
• Less need for a work wardrobe. You're at home, are you seriously thinking you still have to wear a suit?
• Probably cheaper lunches. You've likely bought your house food from a supermarket, that's usually cheaper than your local coffee shop.

Benefits for the employee's family

• Children get to see parents for longer. That can certainly help a healthier family life.
• Fewer divorces. Some jobs require lots of travel because face to face time with customers 5 days a week is seen as important. That results in many nights away in hotels, etc. If this pattern persists for months or even years, it can lead to a breakdown of family life. See comments here .
• Greater financial resilience. In a couple if one of you loses your job, then it's often not cost effective to consider new permanent opportunities away from home and pay for two rentals. If there's a really appealing job but it's too far to commute daily, it might be feasible to do it 2-3 days a week onsite and then be cost effective. Without that work from home option though then the job isn't viable and the family finances suffer whilst you wait for something more local.
• Better career progression: In a couple, if one of you gets a great job but it requires a house move the other partner may have to give up their job and find another elsewhere. This then penalises the other partner who might have to justify to their next employer that they are genuinely committed and won't just move again if their partner gets a promotion.
• More flexible housing options. You don't have to live near major cities where there's the most work, therefore it's easier to live somewhere cheaper or nearer existing family if you can work remotely. This saves money and benefits family life too especially for an extended family. Moving house because of a job is expensive as well as the difficulties with getting children into your preferred local school.

Benefits for workplace equality

• It's easier for disabled people to do work. Disabled people are more than twice as likely to be unemployed. 53% have a mobility disability. How is commuting helping them? How also does it help people with compromised immunity such as those on chemotherapy who would be able to safely work at home rather than be stuck on a busy bus or train? Macmillan cancer says to avoid crowds or public places . That sounds like your home office is a lot more attractive than a train or bus at peak time.
• Women are underepresented at the C-Level and one reason is the difficulty balancing work and family time. Companies which promote working from home mean that you don't need to make hard choices between spending time commuting and being in an office over supporting your family.
• Single mums and dads. Mandating that single parents travel overnight to meetings that could just as effectively be done by video conference causes significant problems and disruption trying to arrange overnight childcare and 4am starts to catch a long distance train or plane for a meeting that could be held digitally is just as bad. These are unnecessary problems for single parents which remote working from home would help to address.

Benefits for the employer

• Fewer sick days . Sick leave costs employers ￡29 billion each year according to PriceWaterHouseCoopers. On site employees take 2.6 days a year on average, home employees take 2.4. That's more than ￡2Bn saved. It might just be that stressful commute putting people off returning sooner.
• It's easier to recruit quickly. This is a particularly?important one and which I've noticed when I am recruiting. Mandating that either employees live locally to come into an office or that it's 5 days a week on site for contracts limits your options to people who live locally or who are happy working away from home the whole time. If you want to start up a project quickly for commercial reasons, being able to draw on people across the country gives you a far wider pool of talent to choose from, and you can scoop up great candidates who are being turned down by people with less flexible working practices!
• Staff retention. Competitors can't poach your staff so easily by offering them a shorter commute which is more attractive or fewer days working away. Instead they have to compete on quality of work. Unless you're a rubbish employer, then competing on quality of work shouldn't worry you too much.
• Reduced need for deskspace. If fewer people are coming into the office, you might not need such a big office. This could save you money. It's ￡35,000 a year for an average desk in Whitehall (Central London), see also the video at the end.
• Technical relevancy: People at home rarely say "I can't upgrade the home PC to the latest windows because we're depending on 3rd party suppliers and legacy embedded software". However, some workplaces still run Windows XP more than 3 years after the end of support date. Consumers use and expect up to date technology and when they are running the latest operating systems and browser in a home context then you've got an even less compelling case for having legacy software that demands a browser from the last decade. A work from home policy is an additional lever to stay technically up to date, that probably has a benefit for people in the office as well.
• Flexibility: It's easier for employees to work longer hours occasionally?if there is a short term need for this. It's easier and safer to work at home after dark than walk home after a late night in the office.
• Workplace health. When someone has a cough or cold, then working from home means it's less likely they will be spreading illness around the office.
• Workplace reputation. Do you want a reputation as a green company or as a company with policies which contribute to environmental pollution?

Benefits for the community

• Fewer cars on the road means less pollution, less CO2 being generated, cleaner air and less global warming.
• Fewer cars on the road also means the roads are freed up for people who genuinely need them. People shipping goods, people working in caring professions, The plumber trying to get to you if you have a home emergency. This could result in less spending required on road upgrades.
• Fewer ghost towns that are dormitory towns for commuters.
• Remote working helps communities far from major cities, often called "remote" by city dwellers. Rather than being remote, they are home to communities that for many years have had challenges of depopulation and especially young people leaving to find work. If you can work remotely from a community, including island and peninsula communities, then this helps address the local brain drain. This in turn means more money spent in the local economy by people living their all year round rather than empty properties, second homes and holiday lets.
• If there's fewer cars on the roads then there's less pressure to build on the green belt for new roads as well as city housing for people wanting a short commute.

Conclusion and further reading

I've outlined some advantages here from different perspectives. I believe that the usual default position of 5 days a week in an office isn't always the best. That doesn't necessarily mean 5 days a week at home is the best either - it could be but sometimes a mixture of home time and in the office can work out too. Have that discussion!

Here's an animated video I put together, feel free to share.

Now - what's stopping you?

Craig

p.s. The caption in this article was taken when I was away on business in the north of Scotland, sometimes the odd night away does have unexpected advantages!