New figures show that the proportion of people working from home dropped slightly last year.
Research from the TUC shows that there were 3.7 million people who mainly worked from home by the start of 2010. Although the number increased by 10,000 last year, this actually represented a fall from 12.9% to 12.8% of the workforce.
The TUC believes that job insecurity and high unemployment during the economic crisis made staff less inclined to request to work from home. However, allowing employees to work from home is a cost-effective option for employers as they save money on office costs and staff can organise their workloads more effectively.
Phil Flaxton, the chief executive of Work Wise UK, said it’s sensible for individuals to be allowed to work from home sometimes as they avoid stressful commuting and can concentrate without the normal day to day distractions of office life, something that umbrella company contractors have probably known for a while!
Peter Thomson, the director of research at Telework Association, stressed that working from home brings benefits to both employee and employer and should be promoted as good for business. It tends to be praised as a family-friendly initiative and yet employers have much to gain.
It has long been recognised that people who work from home are happier and healthier than their office based counterparts and a happy workforce is more productive. We now have a National Work from Home Day [May 20th] when millions of people will have enjoyed working in their own home.
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Image: Home Sweet Home by Steve Snodgrass
