Thursday, October 02, 2008

Half of Employees Would Rather Work from Home

The traditional office environment could soon become a thing of the past as a new survey reveals almost half of employees would rather work from home. Escaping the rush hour traffic, saving on travel costs and flexible working hours were the most attractive aspects of homeworking, according to the survey by travel company Cruise118.

Of the 1,000 office workers questioned, 46 per cent said they would prefer to work from home full time. A further 80 per cent said they would like the option to work from home occasionally but would miss the camaraderie of working in an office environment too much to do it permanently. Only one in five said they prefer being based in an office full time.

Mal Barritt, director of Cruise118 which offers both home and office working options to sales staff, said: "With rising petrol prices, expensive child care and a stressful commute to the office each day, it's no wonder that many people would rather work from home. The majority of business is done via email and telephone these days and therefore in most cases staff can work just as effectively from home. Working from home can greatly enhance people's work-life balance, the reduction in commuting alone could save several hours each day which can be spent with family or on leisure activities."

Cruise118, one of the UK's leading independent cruise retailers, has moved away from the traditional call centre approach to travel sales, launching a unique "cruise concierge" service. Highly trained sales staff, providing customers with an individually tailored service, are all offered flexible and/or home working options. Mal added: "Introducing homeworking and flexible working hours has enabled us to recruit the most talented sales staff irrespective of geographical location or commitments outside work.

"Not only do we have many working mothers, we also have an opera singer and an actress who no longer have to miss rehearsals or auditions which take place during traditional working hours. I would be surprised if we didn't see many more business offering staff homeworking options, particularly in this difficult economic climate when homeworking can help save both the employer and employee money."
From Online Recruitment

2 comments:

  1. I was first attracted to your site through your posts about small houses. Perhaps there is a link between people interested in small houses and people who want to work from home? In addition to your points soaring energy prices and ubiquitous internet access will drive more people to seek home based jobs or a home based business. I chose the latter since many employers penalize home based workers in favor of traditional office workers.

    Jim
    Start a New Life, Not a New Job!™ at Ex-Employee.com

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  2. I agree that working from home would be a bonus due to the amount of time saved with not being stuck in traffic queues and less money spent on petrol. As mentioned, with the technology now available it is very easy to work from home. I have seen some attractive Home Offices if anyone is interested in working from home and needs some extra space.

    Julie

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