There is a tangible shift that is taking place within the UK workforce today. Largely driven and made possible by advances in technology, the amount of professionals in the UK who work at least part of their working week from home is growing at a exponential rate.

Figures from the UK National Statistics agency show that the number of people who work from home has risen by 3% in the last 10 years. That may not sound like a huge amount, until you realise that it translates to roughly 3.5 million people who have moved work from the office to their homes in the past decade. As technology makes this option more viable than ever, we look at the pros and cons of working from home from an HR perspective.

Pros and Cons – Why Do It?
Operating a policy of employees working from home can be an attractive option, potentially offering the following benefits to your business:

· Practical savings on fixed overheads, such as office space and other facilities
· Increased staff motivation, often with consequently reduced staff and sickness levels
· An increase in staff productivity, as employees can have fewer distractions and no commute
· A wider pool of applicants from which to recruit, for example disabled people, or people whose geographic base may make an office commute impossible or undesirable
· Increased staff retention, as home working can ensure that working parents, for example, can manage their time more effectively and thus build loyalty to their employer

On the other hand, there can be some fairly significant downsides to letting employees work most or all of their working week from home. These could be:

· The challenges posed in managing and monitoring the performance of a remote workforce
· A possible deterioration in employee skills and work quality, and the logistics of correcting this
· The sense of isolation, and a lack of team spirit, amongst home workers
· Additional costs of training and the provision of suitable equipment, which could include adaptations to meet health and safety standards and the needs of disabled employees
· Working from home isn’t suitable for all types of jobs

Which Types of skills and roles are suitable for home working?
When weighing up whether to let an employee work from home, you should consider the nature of their job. Some types of work are particularly suited to home working. For example:

· Telesales and marketing
· Print and web design
· Customer service
· Consultancy and professional services, such as accountancy
· Writing, editing, research and translation
· Certain types of administrative work

You may also need to consider whether employees themselves are suited to working away from the office base. In order to be successful, it is important that they possess skills in a number of core areas, such as:

· Time management and self-discipline
· Motivation
· Self-sufficiency
· Communication
· Technology

Pandora’s box
Even though working from home seems to be an increasingly popular option for both business and employee, it may be helpful to evaluate some of the points above to see whether you really have the business type, the cultural mindset and the personnel to gain tangible benefits from this route. Bear in mind that in some cases you are legally obliged to seriously consider requests for home working. Parents of children under six and disabled children under 18 can request a range of flexible-working patterns from their employers - including the right to work from home. Employees who are carers of adults are also entitled to request flexible working.

Equally important here is the notion of precedent – the Pandora’s Box situation that can occur once one employee is granted the option of home working. Be prepared for requests from other employees and to enshrine a procedure and benchmark rule for qualification prioritisation if this is a direction you wish to follow.

There is no doubt that workforces who work either full or part time from home represent the future for some companies. As technology evolves further and HR management systems, either online or software based, become more sophisticated, this option may well extend even further into less likely industries. Regardless of your peers however, make sure that the process is right for your business and you may well reap the benefits.