In fact, over a third (37%) of managers feel that if allowed to work from home, staff will use working hours to carry out personal activities, such as taking a longer lunch, while 30% believe employees will use the time to arrange their social life.
However, two thirds (68%) of employees believe that by working from home they would actually take a more flexible approach to work, enabling them to be more productive (41%), and end up working longer hours (28%).
The research reveals that when it comes to attitudes towards teleworking, nearly one in five (18%) employees would like the opportunity to work from home two days a week, and that over half (55%) believe it is an acceptable option for any level.
Psychologist and employee productivity expert, Dr David Lewis, said: “Managers must understand that every individual has a different style of working, so by allowing your staff to work how they feel best able to achieve results can only benefit their wellbeing and most importantly increase their productivity and ultimately customer service. It comes down to a matter of trust. If you trust and respect your employees to get the job done, they will trust and respect you in return and do the best they possibly can, regardless of whether they are in the office or not.
“In fact, many businesses are finding potential recruits demanding flexible working as part of their package alongside salary and traditional benefits Businesses must keep up with, and adapt to, ever evolving working practices if they want to continue recruiting and retaining the cream of the talent pool.”
Reducing overheads, improving customer satisfaction, increasing productivity and staff retention are the core business benefits that stem from teleworking. However, firms are also starting to recognise that their environmental responsibilities can also be addressed, with teleworking helping to decrease the UK’s ever burgeoning congestion problems and cut carbon emissions.
While many employers are still labouring under the misconception that technologies to enable home-working are unreliable and slow, this is simply not the reality.
“With high speed broadband currently accounting for 70 per cent of all household internet connections**, and a wealth of telecommunications technologies, such as IP telephony now an affordable business standard for seamless connectivity to the office, the technology to enable home working is now more sophisticated than ever, said Graham Bevington, managing director of Mitel.
“Through the use of virtual teams using instant messaging to communicate, having the ability to set up video and conference calls and share documents from the network, there is no need for employers to panic that people working from home or outside the office cannot contribute to the business as a fully functioning member of the team. Flexible working practices are becoming an integral part of a successful business strategy and can be a critical tool in the fight for a competitive advantage in the global marketplace.”