April 26, 2011
Managers scared that implementing flexible working policies will lead to a drop in employee productivity should embrace the new laws for the good of the workplace, experts have urged.
Research by Remote Employment suggests that there are upwards of 3.4 million people working from home in the UK, and by next year that figure is expected to rise to 20% of the working population.
And according to Shirley Borrett, Development Director at the Telework Association, managers must introduce thorough systems that can measure staff’s productivity levels, in order to avoid any instance of slacking or ’dodging’ of duties when working from home or remotely.
Recent figures published by the Office for National Statistics found that output per worker increased by 0.8 per cent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2010, yet there is still a common misconception that staff who work remotely will not do as much work when they are left to their own devices, Ms Borrett explained.
Managers who are eager to measure people by what they achieve in a certain timeframe will not encounter "a lot of problems managing people remotely", she added.
“If managers measure people by what they expect them to do, what they expect them to achieve in a week or a month or a quarter or a year – if they’re that kind of manger then they’re not going to have a lot of problems managing people remotely because they know what they expect these people to produce.”
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