Tip 10

Take advantage of remote working

"We know that IT is the single most effective medium of ensuring that people, including those with disabilities, can maximise their effectiveness, work where and when they chose and balance their home and work priorities. As long as you do your job well and meet the objectives your company requires of you, technology allows you to make choices about managing your life. Not everybody is fortunate enough to be able to get from A to B every day and some people just don't want to! There is also the benefit that remote-working is kinder to the environment and often leads to operational efficiencies in space and resource planning." - Rebecca George, EMEA Staffing Director, IBM

Remote working allows staff, who cannot get into a place of work, to productively make an input. It is a useful way of enabling those with disabilities or caring responsibilities to work in a job that they otherwise would not be able to do. Due to developments in technology, particularly the use of e-mail and availability of documentation in soft copy and the improvements in tele/video conference facilities, location is less of an issue now than ever before. Reducing the number of people that leave work completely due to family commitments (to give just one example) can make a big difference to the cost of recruiting into the vacancies that they usually leave.

Companies are finding that it is to their benefit to make remote working available to a wide variety of employees. They have found that it is not just those employees who cannot travel to a particular place of work that are interested in having the kind of flexibility that remote working can provide, but those who value the control over how they make their contribution to the business.

'Work/life balance' may be the buzzword at the moment, but it is certainly not a phase or fashion. At the same time as employers are asking for more commitment from their staff, their employees are looking to exercise more choice regarding how they work. Some employers are combining the two issues to ensure that staff are enabled to make the highest contribution that they can to their organisation by giving them the control to decide when and where, they work.

Giving the control to their staff means that there is less time spent on management issues and allows the employee to take a more flexible approach to working with their customers. The offer of flexible and remote working involves an inherent display of trust and imparting of responsibility that can be daunting for some, but has been found to be rewarding in itself.

Employers that have adopted this policy have found that the productivity from staff has, in many cases, increased. An outcome focused evaluation of achievement tends to follow, that allows a broader range of people to contribute to the business in a way that suits them. The development of a results orientated workforce is something that many employers are working towards and remote working has been found to be one of the factors that can make it happen.

Useful Linnks

• St Loye's College
  www.stloyes.co.uk