Do your homework about working from home
Working at home, we were suddenly thrown in, and now it’s impossible to imagine our society without it. Practically and technically, we are completely settled and we no longer have any secrets from anyone. We are already completely used to our home office and see the advantages of it. But what are the two biggest footnotes of this whole story? And do we respond best to this downside of the medal?
Teleworking works
Advantages for the employee:
- Better balance between work and private life: If you work from home, you can determine your own time allocation. Would you like to go to the supermarket in the morning when it’s quiet? That’s possible and you can just catch up on those hours when the children are in bed. Plan your time yourself. If at the end of the day you have met your targets or completed tasks, it’s all right.
- Sharing with partner and children: Share your workplace with your children while they are studying or work together with your partner. Without colleagues you’re just alone.
- Reduced commuting traffic: You no longer have to travel by car, train or bus. In other words, you can now fill in the time that is normally lost by traveling otherwise. This means you have more free time. And we have not even talked about the time saved by the long traffic jams.
Advantages for the employer:
- Productivity: employees are more productive at home than in the office. They are not distracted by a colleague quickly asking a question. According to a survey by HR service provider Securex, 86% of employees perform just as many or more hours than during a comparable day at the office.
- Fewer reports of illness: working from home lowers the threshold for continuing to work in the event of health problems such as a cold. You can then sit in your own cocoon and work in your jogging pants.
- More efficiently: the majority uses their hours at home more efficiently than at the office. Only 3% do less work at home than at the office.
- Safer: At home you stay in your bubble. In short, you stay safe in your room.
“We will need facilities to work at home and at the office.”
– Tim De Troch, director HR business at
HR and Well-being specialist Attentia
Why doesn’t teleworking always work?
Okay, we agree on the benefits above. But what are the two most common dangers of teleworking? When does working from home become a disadvantage?
If we work from home 5 days a week, there is a big chance that you will lose touch with the company. You will become alienated and not only with the standards and values of the company you work for. But you also lose sight of your colleagues because the small talk at the coffee machine is no longer there. The loss of social contact should not be underestimated. Our golden advice? It’s all in a healthy mix between working from home and working coronaproof at the office. Provide a clear approach to working from home and communicate this to your employees.
Moreover, the home office is a potential pitfall. Do you know in what conditions your employees are working in from home? Maybe most of them are sitting at the kitchen table working on a hard kitchen chair. Or do your employees have a separate office space? Physical complaints are a common problem with homeworkers because they often do not have a qualitative office chair.
