Where should you work if you want to have home working?

6 May 2019

More and more job seekers are asking for home-office, or home working, in interviews. This is considered standard in certain positions within efforts to make working conditions and non-financial benefits for employees more popular. Most typically, these are management positions and other qualified technical and non-technical positions. Its prevalence and popularity continue to climb at the workplace. Within its analysis, Paylab compiled a ranking of the top sectors where this benefit is most prevalent.

Home working is classified as a flexible benefit and is the third most attractive modern benefit as determined by Paylab's surveys, immediately after flexible working hours and additional vacation time. 

The most attractive non-financial benefits among employees according to Paylab Research:

1.    Flexible working hours

2.    Additional vacation time

3.    Working from home

Among the positions where home working is an option available to a relatively large portion of employees are IT specialists, programmers, PR, marketing and journalism employees, project managers, translators, analysts, e-commerce specialists, designers, managers and administrative employees. Top management is clearly given this option most often. Conversely, auxiliary personnel, qualified labourers and employees in services have very limited options for working at home as their work is conditioned by their physical presence at the workplace.

With respect to the sectors in which home-office is most prevalent, employees most often received such benefits in the sectors of information technology, e-commerce and programming. They are followed by consulting, telecommunications, the insurance industry, advertising and market research and the non-profit sector. Every country is unique, for instance in Finland, Estonia and Latvia, home-office is offered to a significant number of employees in state, public and local administration thanks to the electronisation of services in particular. State employees in other countries can only dream of such a benefit.

In what sectors is HOME WORKING most prevalent?

Specifics of home working

Certain companies have stricter rules and only allow their employees to work a certain number of days per month at home. Others allow their employees to work from home several days a week within flexible working hours. Some employees only go to the office if they have a planned meeting, consultation or other programme that requires them to be present in person. This allows them to work remotely, from distances farther away from their assigned workplace, when they do not need to physically go to work every day.  Friday home-office in particular continues to gain in popularity.

This is largely related to the nature of the work that is performed, as there may not be a need for an employee to be physically present at the workplace and employees have remote technical access to their working agenda. Employers are able to check their employees' work by using various internal systems and communication channels. Communications themselves may make use of flexible video calls, video conferencing and remote presentation technologies, which are able to bring people together at different locations in real time.

People use home-office to change their working environment and a commonly cited reason is that they don't want to be distracted from their work by their colleagues, or the desire to avoid a long commute. Work from the comfort of home is also a preferred option if an employee does not feel well or has other activities planned during the day, such as an appointment with a physician, a delivery scheduled by a courier or repair appointment with a technician. Home-office makes the lives of employees simpler in many regards and this is the reason for its popularity as a benefit.

The flip side of home working

Home-office does require the right conditions for working at home, especially broadband Internet service and a work area that allows for undisturbed working. Many people have made the decision to consciously eliminate work at home as their believe that their home environment is for relaxation, or perhaps other members of the household are present and they simply cannot be as productive at home as they are at work.

Home working is ideally a change-of-pace as an employee who works at home exclusively over an extended period of time may experience social isolation or communication problems. Some companies restrict working at home for this reason and strive to attract employees back to the workplace. In any case, once an employee gets used to the flexibility inherent in working at home, they often request it of future employers as well.