Managers and professionals are more likely to work from home yet management attitudes can prevent other employees from being able to adopt the same flexible working option, according to new research.
Responses from 54 HR departments across the private and public sectors, revealed that while one third of employers allow office-based employees to work from home on an occasional basis, for example to meet a deadline, to deal with a domestic crisis, or because of a transport strike, several barriers to adopting homeworking policies were cited.
A quarter felt that their organisations’ activities were not suitable for teleworking. One in five organisations expressed caution about lack of interaction with other work colleagues and others cited performance management as a concern as respondents believe it is difficult to monitor and assess staff off-site.
The following were perceived as the benefits of homeworking:
- boosting employee motivation/satisfaction – a third believed it could aid work-life balance
- potential savings on office space – expressed by a fifth of respondents
- recruitment and retention – almost a fifth of organisations see home-based working as a retention tool.
The full survey can be found on the IRS website.
