Working from home provides a new range of possibilities for working with businesses and its structure themselves. With the outbreak of the novel coronavirus pandemic, home working has given employers the flexibility of continuing their business operations while considering the well-being of staff and customers as part of their public health responsibility.
Advantages of working from home:
- Agility and Flexibility: It gives more agility and flexibility in such types of arrangements. With employees no longer fixed to an office, they are better positioned and more willing to work flexibly, such as earlier or later in the day or even at weekends, which saves time. It could assist in meeting the business requirements. For instance, if one is trading with customers dwelling in an area having a different time zone. It acts as an incentive to come and work while being at him, which further attracts new talent. It offers a boost in the job market over competitors that don’t provide home working as an alternate option to their employers.
- Enhancement of Technology: With the advancement of technology, staff members feel happier and focused while working from home and leading to fewer chances of their immune system being negatively affected by burnout. Since the employees work in isolation, there are less chances of spreading the infections in an office environment. It removes the need for a commute to work that can be stressful to staff members. Time savings such as this also permits them to get extra health benefits, namely additional sleep, spending more time with family members and exercising or preparing healthy meals.
- Reduces Absenteeism: Applications such as Skype, Google Meet have made communication between colleagues and teams much more effortless and paces the way for efficient and effective meetings. It further reduces absenteeism and enables the person to work in an energised manner throughout their schedule.
Disadvantages of working from home:
- Hard to monitor performance: It is not easy for managers and heads to oversee their staffs’ growth and functioning of overall structure and performance without them being in the same office environment. This has particularly given rise to the job role that needs much of the “background duties’ that can’t be supervised on a work’s system. Regular calls to employees for follow-up or to tackle this issue could take time which remains precious and further lowers productivity levels.
- Breaks teamwork: Working from home naturally implies that one doesn’t get to work in a team as much. There is less scope of communication between employees, which may lower an element of teamwork amongst yourselves. It can also mean that one could miss out on ‘every day matters’ like daily updates and potential promotions, as one becomes less involved. Some employees may begin to feel isolated as the business culture abates throughout.
- Hard to solve a problem: Simple problems like software issues become more difficult to tackle when not in the office. It takes longer to try and assist someone over the phone than it would be in person. Technological issues especially tend to require professionalism, which could take days to resolve.
- More Distractions: Even though there is enough proof that working from home can improve productivity, undeniably, there are some new distractions as well. Factors such as noisy neighbours, family or acquaintances will indicate that productivity and concentration levels could lower.
- Rise In Telecommunication Costs: The amount that one is likely to use on their mobiles increases while working from home. Not being around any of your colleagues will also imply that the phones are used more frequently. If the business isn’t utilising video conferencing software, telecommunications costs also rise.
