Working from home…do you offer this to your
employees?
Many employers are reviewing their work from home policies due to the recent Yahoo announcement that they were clawing back this option. If employers didn’t have this option, certainly many are now thinking twice about offering it.
My two cents… if an employee was not hired with the specific work from home arrangement due to their location or otherwise, then working from home is an option for an employer to provide. Some
employees do indeed view this as a benefit. It saves on commuting costs, can increase employee morale and can increase productivity. However, be well aware that not all employees can work from home. Some are easily distracted by the surroundings, some are not disciplined enough and some can take advantage of the situation all leading to lower productivity. Having said this, there are many that perform quite well in this situation often starting work before their normal time, working through lunches and having a much more productive day due to the less frequent interruptions from the workplace.
If you are thinking about implementing this arrangement, I would think about the following:
* If you have current issues with dysfunctional teams and lack of communication and comradely – I would hold off on work from home arrangements until you have combated a lot of these issues
* Ensure you create a policy or some “rules” around this option as if you encounter things like abuse of the policy, performance issues etc., you can “claw it back” or take it away from those in the situation until these issues are rectified
* Monitor the before state of productivity and the after tate of productivity to ensure there isn’t an adverse reaction on your bottom line. This will also show you if there was an increase in productivity which will help you substantiate keeping this option in place
* If working from home is not an option you can implement at this time but you want to do something in this regard, think about offering flexible hours…set some core hours, but flexibility on start or end times as long as a full workday is put in
* Many employees and potential employees view this option as a benefit – if it is working well in your company – market this option in your job ads
The bottom line is that if you are thinking of implementing this option, ensure that things are running smoothly before you consider it and ensure you list options to remove the benefit if necessary.
We would love to hear your comments on your experience, challenges etc., feel free to email them to: christie@1stophrconsulting.com