How to introduce homeworking in your company: 5 Tips

How to Introduce Homeworking in Your Company

50% of UK’s workforce could be homeworking by 2020, according to recent research conducted by ONS. Remote-working is becoming a norm and is no more simply a trend. Talented employees are beginning to search for job opportunities that satisfy their preferences. One such preference that most prospective employees insist on these days is flexibility in working. Organisations around the world are also beginning to realise that productivity and employee performance depend on factors such as employee happiness, and enabling homeworking can make employees happier.

If you’re planning to introduce homeworking in your company, here are five tips to help you do so:

1. Invest in a pilot program: When initiating any major change in an organisation, it’s critical to create a pilot program. What’s a pilot program? Well, a pilot program involves a small, test group of individuals on whom you can test ideas before they are implemented in your entire organisation. Choose a good representation of all types of employees in your organisation to form the pilot group. It’s not a good idea to have the most productive people in the test group, because you won’t be able to identify issues that may crop up with the homeworking program.
2. List jobs to which you can apply homeworking: Every job role is different in terms of responsibilities and type of work. Some jobs require more data security, and can’t be managed from computers outside of office property. Other jobs require less supervision and can be managed from anywhere. When introducing homeworking within an organisation, it’s important to consider the different types of job roles within your organisation, so you can effectively create guidelines for every unique job type. It’s best to carefully consider potential threats and issues to your plans and put systems in place to avert them.
3. Organise training sessions for employees if needed: Plan how to engage homeworkers in advance and create training sessions to ensure that they are well-equipped to handle their responsibilities. Some people may require lessons on time management and self-accountability before they are allowed to work from home. Others may require training in certain technologies or etiquettes beforehand, so they don’t face any issues when having to run the show by themselves. You could create a set of resources that homeworking employees can access from the cloud when working from outside the office.
4. Preplan your employees’ communication: When working from home, communicating effectively plays a key role. Some managers allow employees to figure out communication by themselves, but it’s always best to set up infallible systems to ensure that you stay connected. Some organisations allow their employees a lot of freedom. Such organisations may brief employees in advance and allow them to run the show independently. The way you communicate depends on your organisation’s work culture. Do you typically conduct daily meetings? If that’s the case, you may want to explore online conference software to ensure the same continues after you implement homeworking plans. If you’re unsure of the software that you can use, you could employ an IT support London company such as totality services for consultancy and logistics.
5. Set clear performance targets: When you work from different locations, it’s natural for production rates to get affected. That’s why it’s critical for a manager to understand and set clear performance targets. Ideally, your deliverables should be measurable numerically, so there’s no conflict on what has to be done. You could ease the requirements for employees who work from home, so they don’t feel overwhelmed when working from a different environment. Remember, employee performance is at a peak when they’re happy.

Homeworking is here to stay. Over time, more organisations will enable homeworking to suit employees’ preferences and help them avoid the downtime spent in travel every day. If you’re planning to introduce homeworking within your organisation, you can use our IT Support team tips on the article to enable the transition effectively.