Honey, I’m home ... to work

WORKING from home or working remotely is increasingly common in 2018, with up to one in three of us now opting for the shortest possible drive to work, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

For the hundreds of regional Geelong commuters who make the trek to Melbourne and beyond by car or rail every working day, the option of potentially avoiding that energy-sapping commuter chaos would have to be an attractive one. So how and why? Well, while we often hear the complaints about the technological advances that have so many us wired to our devices seemingly 24/7, the truth is that the wondrous world of cloud computing has opened up a brave new world where for many businesses, expensive offices, formal board rooms and endless rows of office desks have become increasingly anachronistic.

Obviously, there will always be businesses that need a physical shopfront or working site, but an increasing number of enterprises just don’t need them.

Not only don’t we need them, but the truth is very often businesses get better results by having workers who aren’t forced to turn up to HQ for a regimented day at the office.

Studies have shown that for many people working from home, their motivation is actually to do more work and catch up away from the distractions of the formal office. The result is some fulltime staff end up contributing an extra six hours of unpaid overtime a week, while parttimers add an extra three hours to their tally.

And as we so often see reported, for working mums or those women trying to return to their careers, one of the biggest challenges is childcare.

Offering genuinely flexible working arrangements can often make the difference between having a great worker back on your team — even if remotely and working ‘non nine to five’ hours — or having to wait until she can find and afford decent child care. Sadly, that doesn’t always happen.

Add to that, flexible work places reportedly enjoy increased morale, reduced burnout, access to a larger talent pool and increased trust within their workplace.

But this new-age nirvana is not without its organisational challenges. The flip side of flexibility is not all staff enjoy or necessarily cope as well with a less formal workplace and can soon feel isolated, left out and fear they won’t be appropriately appreciated by their peers and managers. In fact, recruiting firm Hays in a 2017 survey found an overwhelming 94 per cent of Australians would prefer to work flexibly, but many were concerned that being less ‘visible’ could have a negative impact on their career. So employers and managers have to think very carefully about how to manage their out-of-office staff and make sure they are part of regular and consistent catch-ups. Whether it’s daily or weekly, schedule those meeting and stick to them to reinforce that ‘remote’ doesn’t equate with ‘forgotten’. Make your catch up a phone call or video call, and don’t forget the importance and impact of regular face-to-face meetings.

When you do catch up — listen, talk about workload and progress, but also be clear about your expectations.

So how do you know your team members are actually working, even if they’re enjoying the comfort of their PJs and slippers?

There are quite a number of simple online tools easily available across all platforms for people to record their daily input. My team uses WorkflowMax, which integrates simply with Xero, but there are a number of other systems that offer very similar features.

Technology and collaboration tools like Trello, Skype and Google Hangouts are also key to a flexible workplace and productivity, you just have to start exploring what’s out there and what will work well for your team.

Data security is often raised as a potential roadblock to people working from home or using their own device (BYOD). Don’t panic, there are solutions you can employ. But most important of all is to ensure people understand their responsibilities in protecting personal data and business resources.

You’ll also need to make sure you have up-to-date security software, have updates activated automatically, insist on strong passwords and ask that information is not stored on the personal desktop. As a last resort, there are remote-wipe applications that can erase data if a device is lost.

Big business is reaping the benefits in cutting total business running costs, reducing their square footage, having access to an expanded talent pool made up of happier people who aren’t spending half their lives commuting.

The end result? Well according to a survey by Officeworks, 42 per cent of employees who worked flexibly said they were more productive, 33 per cent said there were fewer distractions and 29 per cent said it was easier to focus. So why wouldn’t you consider it?