Home-working: psychological implications and practical solutions
Introduction
Technological advances are now enabling many forms of traditionally office-based work to be performed in a diverse range of locations. For example, Home-working is a growing business practice. The key difference between home-working and working from home is that for home-workers the employee’s main office base is in their home, rather than just working from home on the odd day.
But, how do you ensure your organisation’s work practices, policies and culture enable the benefits of home-working arrangements to be realised?
We have done extensive research into the advantages and disadvantages of home-working, including the psychological implications of home-working for individuals and organisations. For example, feelings of social isolation can result, and problems with identity both of the individual and their line manager. We have written a white paper summarising our research to date.
In this article, we offer practical recommendations to help you tackle some of the key psychological implications and get the most out of this type of working arrangement.
Recommendations for managing home-working schemes
The recommendations (based on psychological theory of course) are practical steps we would advocate if you are planning to migrate to a home-working scheme or already have a scheme in place that you wish to improve.
Establish home-working policy An important first step before embarking on a home-working programme is to establish a home-working policy. The policy should cover; equipment, telecommunications, security, eligibility to work away from the office, off-site support (including hardware, software, other facilities), health and safety issues, legal issues, financial issues (i.e. taxation) and how personnel issues will be dealt with.
Establish a supportive “virtual culture” Next home-working needs to be seen as acceptable to all organisational members with expansion of the corporate culture to include virtual etiquette and understanding. Without this it may create potential resentment among employees who remain in the office.
a.Awareness workshops To aid creation of a virtual culture, and also to help employees decide whether home-working is for them, it is recommended that organisations first educate themselves and their employees in what the positive and negative implications are. Increasing awareness will also help cultivate buy-in from non-home-workers and discourage the perspective that home-workers do not work as hard as office staff. Linked to this, organisations will need to estimate the impact on remaining staff to ensure it is feasible and to prepare people.
b. The role of management Managers have a very important role in ensuring the success of a home-working programme. Organisations should ensure that managers are fully aware of the implications and should provide adequate training to ensure they have the relevant skills to manage remote workers. Organisations should ensure managers know how important their role is in a home-working arrangement and allow them to be involved in formulating the programme. Where possible it may be beneficial to have home-workers managed by someone who is also a home-worker, so that there is shared understanding.
Ensure procedures and communication processes are in place Employees need to know home-working may be an option, in line with the home-working policy, and how to have discussions with their line manager about the possibility and how it might work for them. The organisation also needs to have communication processes in place to enable virtual working.
a. Home- working status We recommend that organisations do not implement a full-time home-working scheme, except in exceptional circumstances which would need to be evaluated on a case by case basis. Not only would this reduce the social isolation that home-workers experience, but it has been reported that part-time home-workers report significantly fewer negative and more positive outcomes than full-time home-workers. Furthermore, gains in job satisfaction are reported to be more substantial. Alternating home-working offers the benefits of undisturbed, efficient work at home, perhaps for more mental tasks, whilst using their time in the office for social and interactive tasks reducing the risk of social isolation.
b. Communication processes Effective communication becomes even more essential in a virtual organisation. As mentioned previously, new forms of virtual communication may arise from a change in culture. Training may be required to improve employee and managers ability to communicate electronically. A change in culture to use more electronic-based communication, will allow social support to be conveyed through these means which can help reduce feelings of isolation and alienation.
Assess employee suitability It is essential that organisations carefully consider an individual’s suitability for home-working. Situations that lend themselves to home-working include work that requires independent thinking and writing, work that is processed electronically and work that does not require daily face-to-face contact. Also some people will not suit home-working, and this could be a potentially awkward situation for a manager. However, it is important that the decision process is thoughtfully considered on an individual basis. Mendas can help with designing an employee screening tool, completed by both the employee and their manager, which can then be used as a basis for discussion. Additionally, employees should be allowed to change their mind if possible as the reality may not match their expectations despite them considering all the implications before commencing.
Home-working set up It is important that individuals are able to maintain their home and work identities as much as possible, if they so wish. In order to facilitate this, it is preferable that employees have a separate room at home with a separate business phone line, which can be set to answer phone when they are unavailable. Home-workers should establish times when they can and cannot be contacted, and make these known to all relevant people, so that privacy can be maintained out of hours. There will also be other practicalities to establish in the home-working policy such as who pays for things such as internet and phone calls in a home-working arrangement.
Support during home working Home-working will require support from management and a potential change in management style, with an emphasis on good communication and rigorous measurement of performance. Managers will need to trust and empower employees to complete the work when and where it suits them best. We recommend managers take a task-centred approach rather than a person-oriented one, focusing on outputs and setting clear objectives in collaboration with the employee. Performance management should not be discernably different from that of office workers. This is important to reduce the risk of resentment from those who remain in the office. However, managers will have to provide regular feedback to home-workers in ways other than just face-to-face. Use of telephone, email and video-conferencing using Web-Cam are potential media but should not replace regular face to face visits. This should extend beyond just an employee's manager, to regular contact with colleagues. This will allow social comparisons to take place, and is particularly essential for new employees as establishing initial bases of trust and familiarity through face-to-face interaction will strengthen subsequent virtual communication. Trips to the main office will help combat social and professional isolation. Home-workers should be able to contribute to the organisation with suggestions and should be encouraged to join in activities and training programmes in person.
Evaluating the programme An evaluation plan should be created before beginning a home-working programme so that organisations do not miss a critical opportunity to measure its success. Criteria should be aimed at the organisational level (e.g. productivity, operating costs, organisational commitment) and the individual level (e.g. well-being, satisfaction with working arrangement). Also, both managers and home-workers should provide feedback on a regular basis as to how well it is working and what improvements, if any, they would suggest. Again, we can provide forms that could be used for this purpose. By allowing relevant people to have their say, the success of the programme should be improved.
Summary and Conclusions
Home-working is a growing practice which allows organisations and individuals to work more flexibly. There are many reported benefits as long as organisational work practices, policies and culture enable them to be realised.
In this article, we offered practical psychology-based recommendations to help organisations migrate or improve their existing home-working programme. Once a policy has been set up, a supportive ‘virtual culture’ should be established through building awareness in both employees and managers. Then, organisations will need to ensure they have the right procedures and communication process in place.
We recommend having a part- time home-working scheme to reduce feelings of social isolation and increase the positive outcomes of home-working. Not everyone, or every role, will be suited to home-working so organisations will need to have conversations with individuals who would like their suitability assessed. If a suitable arrangement can be made, a home-working ‘office’ will need to be set up at an employee’s home. Home-workers will need support from management and the style they use should focus on outputs with regular feedback.
The programme should be continually evaluated in order to measure its success (in terms of productivity, costs, organisational commitment) and on an individual basis to assess how well it is working for the employee and organisation to check what improvements could be made. By thinking about the implications of home-working and following our recommendations, organisations have a high chance of reaping the positive benefits of a successful home-working initiative.
Interested in more information?
If you would be interested to find out more, please contact Marielke (Marielke.pritchard@mendas.com) or Hilary (Hilary.blackmore@mendas.com) who will be happy to discuss in more detail and/or can send you a copy of the white paper.
