Small businesses around the nation utterly nail down the one thing big businesses struggle with the most, that’s flexibility. For instance, take homeworking.

Large corporations are tied down by red tape with their reluctance in advocating homeworking. The knee-jerk reaction is that lack of a physical presence encourages lower levels of productivity. That is the furthest from the truth! Research suggests that workers offered this working arrangement, take less leave and show heightened levels of productivity.

Now depending on the type of business, it might not make much sense. If you’re a brick & mortar retail outlet, you’d much prefer boots on the ground than tumbleweeds rolling on by. For those with an office-based approach, it may be time to start offering up the choice.

Have you been thinking of incorporating a flexible working structure?
Here’s a brief overview of how it all works.

Home Working 101

Flexible working is fast becoming an integral part of staying ahead of the competition. With productivity rising and many of the “millennial” generation preferring it over the standard 9-5, homeworking offers an attractive incentive to potential workers. However, classifying this practice is more complicated than just “being at home. You see, homeworking isn’t classified as “permanent home-stays”.  

ACAS (the non-departmental public body that specialises in the United Kingdoms working patterns) suggest they include the following:

Office based

  1. Working entirely from home apart from the occasional 1-2-1 or necessary meeting.
  2. Split time between working at home and at the office.
  3. Working from home occasionally (the odd days it’s needed).

Travel Based

Where the employee’s home acts as their base. Generally, travel-related roles where their equipment goes with them.

Homeworking has increased over the last couple of decades, with the Office For National Statistics showing a rise of 3.9 million workers between 1998-2014. A reason for this is the growing incorporation of business laptops. Allowing workers to work remotely and outside of normal working hours; significant when every moment is critical.

If you have an employee working from home or carrying out work through a company laptop, you should carry out a risk assessment first.

Flexible Working Risk Assessment

Even if your employees work out of the office, you’re still required as an employer to assist in a safe working environment. Now, if this office work it would generally be low risk. What you should keep in mind is the durability and safety of the equipment supplied. The health and safety executive (HSE) specify that “Of the work equipment used at home, you are only responsible for the equipment you supply”.

Take for instance the company laptop. A routine PAT (Portable Appliance Testing). For standard office equipment, extension leads should get tested every 2 years, while transported equipment such as laptops is best every 12 months due to the increased risk of damage. For the full lowdown on PAT testing and how often you should be conducting your inspection, click here.

As the owner/manager keep in mind that a risk assessment involves identifying the hazards, managing them with appropriate controls and then reviewing them on a regular basis. Now that you have the risks under control, the next question to ask yourself is how to manage your flexible workers.

Managing Your Home Workers

Leadership is the key to success here. When we first mention home working it’s the managers who provide a driving force towards employee responsiveness and productivity. A worker is only as good as the manager’s competence.

Three Key pointers will help improve this arrangement:

Planning: Communicate your business aim and vision. A powerful strategy will sit in the mind of your worker and give them the motivation that comes with the physical presence of a team.

Trust: A good working relationship is built on trust. It goes without saying, homeworking demands employer-employee trust above all else. The rise of this flexible working arrangement has seen many applications ease this process. For example, asana is perfect for managing work tasks. With this application, you can easily monitor your teams’ task progression in real time.

Remaining in good contact: Monitoring goals are one thing, employees will have concerns, queries and everything that comes from solitary work. Communication-based tools like Skype offers a great way to make conference calls, keeping everyone in the loop and at the same time, providing a direct conversation channel which doesn’t distract from using conventional social media. Although, more modern business communication tools like Slack offers an instant messaging approach. This way, countless emails aren’t flying about so, queries don’t pile up. This way, everyone wins!

Home working is tough. Workers have to be strong-willed and self-reliant. A welcome return to the office headquarters every now and again will have a good rejuvenating impact. Now, your flexible workers will need the same comfort and safety that any workplace has. Ask, how safe is your workplace?

Workplace Safety

We don’t expect that your company works in unsafe conditions, far from it. The issue is, running and maintaining a business is hard work, which means some information falls down the wayside. After all,  everything is your problem. Whatever goes right is great, but whatever goes wrong is up to you to handle. After all, everything is your problem. Whatever goes right, that’s great, however, anything that goes wrong, you have to handle.

The Health and Safety at Work act (1974) lays down the rules that employers must protect the “health, safety and welfare” of all workers, be it full time, temp or casual. Including that of visitors, clients and the general public. This comes back to before as we mentioned about risk assessments. Anything that presents a risk should be taken into account, controlled and monitored. A classic example of this is your fire safety.

Did you know?
The four main causes of an office fire are the following:

  • Smoking Materials carelessly discarded.
  • Cooking Appliances left on and unattended.
  • Faulty Electrical Appliances.
  • Stationery and paper kept near flammable liquids.

At Direct365 we offer a myriad of safety services to help not only keep your business in good standing and non-liable. But, to ensure the safety of all employees and visitors alike. It can be quite daunting when considering the different things that could go wrong. That’s why we offer simple, detailed and extensive services geared toward supporting you and your workplace.

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