Employers could find that including flexible working provisions for employees can boost their business, new research has revealed.

Workers can actually be more productive by working at home, contrary to the commonly-held misconception, according to the poll by Dymo.

The survey found that office-based workers often end up wasting time by browsing online, doing personal admin and emailing friends.

Commenting on the findings, the Telework Association’s development director, Shirley Borrett, said that there were several knock-on benefits for the workplace, from allowing workers to be at home.

She said: “If an employee is trusted work at home, then they tend to have a good relationship with their manager and they value both that trust and the practical ability to fit work around their lives.”

In November, the Trades Union Congress reported that the rise of home working had helped reduce the average commuting time to its lowest in a decade.

It now takes homeworkers an average time of 47 minutes and 48 seconds per day, the trade body calculated.

Find out more on working from home with Lawpack’s Working From Home Starter Kit , written by Shirley Borrett, and Lawpack’s Working From Home Guide.

 

Published on: December 17, 2010