Employment Practice : Homeworking - Advantages and Disadvantages

Advantages and Disadvantages
Homeworkers tend to have a lower incidence of absence and higher morale, than those working at traditional workplaces, with the added advantage of a greater number of productive hours.

Advantages for the Employee

avoidance of the stress and fatigue of travelling;

being fresh when starting;

avoidance of travelling costs;

flexibility to carry out domestic obligations;

avoidance of normal workplace distractions (noise, irrelevant conversation, phone bells and conversations, other interruptions etc.); and

contribution to domestic living costs if a dedicated room is made available and 'rent' is paid.

Advantages for the Employer

ultimately less office and/or other space (which, almost certainly, will be more expensive than domestic space);

lower rates of pay and oncosts (particularly for city commuters) as no allowance needs to be made for travel costs; and

lower overheads (e.g. reduced catering, car parking and other ancillary space, lower security costs, lower incidence of staff theft etc.).

Disadvantages for the Individual

homeworking can be a lonely occupation and this aspect needs to be addressed in terms of supervision and contact;

the normal flow of information through which workplace-based employees acquire knowledge can be lacking;

the homeworker may find it less easy to gain answers to problems or assistance with difficulties being remote from supervision;

the social aspects of working are largely absent; and

some workplace-based employees may have a patronising approach to those who do not share their experiences.

Disadvantages for the Employer

flexibility of working hours can pose supervision/control problems;

higher communication costs (telephone, postage, e-mail etc);

higher propensity for mistakes to be made and for delay to occur in correcting these;

lack of feeling of being fully in control, although a requirement for strict adherence to procedures may compensate in part; and

increased demand for supervision time - with consequent increase in costs.