5. Is Working From Home suites for your organization?

Working from home (WFH) is becoming more and more popular (Bloom, et al., 2013). Working from home is also referred as telecommuting or telework. Home worker is defined as ‘a worker who carries out remunerative work with his or her home or in the surrounding grounds’ (Gough, 2012). WFH is a concept which is still under debate, though more and more organizations have started practicing it (The New York Times, 2013).

The number of employees who work from home in United states have increased three times more in the last 30 years (Bloom, et al., 2013). A lot of advantages, disadvantages and responsibilities are associated with the concept of WFH (Anon., n.d.). WFH does not mean that the employees have to work from their home all the time. It is a must for employees to be in their offices in regular intervals to be fully involved (Anon., n.d.).

Working from home saves a lot of time and money which are associated with going to work daily. When you have the flexibility to define your own work hours, with an environment which suites an employee best, they will be happier and more productive. Further, physically being close to the family will be a huge advantage for some employees specially when kids or elderly parents live with them (Aljawamis, 2007). Further, improved employee retention rate, able to access wider range of applicants, improved employee motivation, convenience, and better work life balance being some of the advantages of WFH.

On the other hand, Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer, in an interview with New York Times, said that ‘Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.’ (The New York Times, 2013). This means there are disadvantages as well in the WFH concept. Lack of communication, lack of face to face contact, not able to be competitive with other employees, losing out long term carrier opportunities are few of them.

Not all employees can perform their work from home. People working from home are mainly rely on technology, (The New York Times, 2013). Should you let your employees work from home? Below decision-tree will provide you some guidance when taking this decision.

(themuse, n.d.)

References

Aljawamis, M., 2007. The Advantages and Disadvantages of Working from Home. [Online]
Available at: https://www.bayt.com/en/blog/27906/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-working-from-home/
[Accessed 09 05 2019].

Bloom, N., Liang, J., Roberts, J. & Ying, Z. J., 2013. DOES WORKING FROM HOME WORK? EVIDENCE FROM A CHINESE EXPERIMENT. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 130(1), p. 165–218.

Gough, K., 2012. Home as Workplace. In: International Encyclopedia of Housing and Home. Loughborough: Loughborough University, pp. 414-418.

Moore, J. & Crosbie, T., 2004. Work-Life Balance and Working from Home. 3 ed. s.l.:Social Policy and Society.

NIBUSINESSINFO.CO.UK, n.d. Employees working from home. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/advantages-and-disadvantages-employees-working-home
[Accessed 09 05 2019].

The New York Times, 2013. Location, Location, Location. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/03/opinion/sunday/working-from-home-vs-the-office.html
[Accessed 10 05 2019].

themuse, n.d. Should You Let Your Employees Work From Home?. [Online]
Available at: https://www.themuse.com/advice/should-you-let-your-employees-work-from-home
[Accessed 11 05 2019].