My take on an old favourite...

How to Work from Home Successfully

Let me start by saying that working from home is not for everyone. 

I love working from home.  I'm productive, relaxed and really don't miss the commute.  However I speak to people regularly who believe that they would hate it.  They feel that working from home they would lack focus and fear the isolation.  I currently have the best of both worlds.  I work from home and I work from the office.  In fact I believe the majority of people who 's main place of business is home actually spend half their time there.  They spend the other half meeting clients, networking, developing their business; and the increase in drop -in hubs and free networking spaces have made it easier and cheaper to connect and build business relationships.
I will revisit networking and shared spaces in a future blog.  Today I am going to focus on making your working day in the comfort of your home a productive one.

These tips work for me:

Don't feel confined by the 9-5

Everyone has times in the day when they are more motivated.  For me it is the afternoon.  So I plan my day around this.  With all administrative jobs completed, emails sent and washing done in the morning I can concentrate on creative or more involved projects in the afternoon.  I can also decide to leave the project go for a walk or have dinner then come back to it with fresh eyes and new ideas.

You may work best in the morning and be finished on your projects by the afternoon.  Even better as you can then plan your next day, cook dinner or find other ways to fulfil your day. You will be more productive when you are at work if you can also make time for other things.

However...

Set boundaries

If you're not working to a fixed schedule and don't have dinner to cook or kids to collect from school then sometimes there is no natural end to your day.  Too many times you start work early and are still working when you realise it's dark and you've missed your evening.  Then it is often good to set a reminder in your calendar or phone to have a cuppa for a time that you'll definitely want to have finished work by.  If you take that step away from your desk you can then decide whether the project you're working on can wait until the next day.  It normally can.

Break away

It is important to take breaks but it is also important to go outside.  A walk round the park or to the shop not only forces you to get dressed it is also good for your health.  It provides light exercise, improves your vitamin D levels and will help you clear your head making you more productive when you return to your desk.  Constantly putting in long hours without break is draining and damages long term productivity.  More importantly it damages your health.  A change of scenery will do you good and make you happier.

And that's it.  Nothing that will make headlines.  Just a gentle reminder to us all that working hard doesn't mean being chained to your desk.  It means working to your strengths. Keeping yourself happy and healthy will help in every area of life. Simple.

The ongoing Flexible working debate

There has always been resistance to flexible working with the majority of businesses preferring to keep employees within their sights.

Earlier this year a ban on remote working at Yahoo reignited the flexible working debate.
The arguments are the same but the strength of opinion is different. With the explosion of social technologies and the ease of remote working many are anxious about losing creative impromptu moments between colleagues. Charlie Mullins, founder of Pimlico Plumbers, feels that in a fast-moving, entrepreneurial society, we cannot afford to live without the face-to-face interaction that drives business.

However during preparation for London 2012 many companies decided to embrace flexible working as a viable option for their business. Telecommunications company O2 have moved their teams' working week away from traditional offices.
According to employee Darren Farmer people from all areas of the company are now working away from the office at least one day a week. In his article 'Flexible working one year on' he states that the biggest thing that any company looking at flexible working needs to consider is a behavioural change. I have discussed in the past the level of trust required by an employer to commit to home working. It is not just investments in technology to ensure you can still be collaborative and productive. It's about encouraging a feeling of ownership in your employees. As Darren says 'it’s all about output, not where you are. I know what constitutes me doing my job, and it’s up to me to make sure it’s done wherever I am'.

SMEs are more likely to encourage autonomy. They have entrusted their business dream to their staff so have developed more personal relationships. The result is a belief that the work will be produced speedily. Staff in return want to produce the best quality output possible to ensure the trust remains.
Essentially flexible working should be just that. Flexible. It doesn't mean always working at home with no face to face interaction with colleagues or suppliers. It means working in a flexible way to benefit the business.

Increased employee motivation and reduced premises costs are beneficial. However, ultimately, the biggest benefit is the business reaching optimal quality and productivity.

The Unexpected Side Effects of Swine Flu - On Businesses

If Swine Flu turns out to be the pandemic predicted by officials and journalists alike, then be prepared to see incredible alterations to life as we know it.

It is suspected that as many as half of London’s seven million inhabitants could catch swine flu and that 94,000 could die in a worst case scenario. If the virus proves itself as communicable and if it evolves to be less reactive to the anti-viral treatments being used to keep it at bay presently, then many lives will be at risk, not just in the capital, but around the world.

Employers do have a duty of care to ensure that their employees are kept as safe as possible from any threat to their health or well-being. There is lots of buzz at the moment about the adoption of teleworking on a much grander scale across the business world in order to minimize the amount of time people will have to spend in close proximity and hopefully aid in slowing or eliminating the spread of the virus. Also, with nearly half of employees expected to take at least two weeks off of work over the coming months due to personal illness or to care for a friend or family member, working from home may become a necessary part of everyday operations for most companies. It is suspected that if the flu spreads as is predicted, then workplaces and schools alike can be expected to be shut for long periods of time. Many businesses will need business support networks to cope with this reality as they become more and more dependant on teleworking.

With so many employees set to be displaced from main office headquarters, a Virtual Office can help you to maintain a unified front and provide personalised telephone answering and call forwarding to employees no matter where they happen to be working from. A single telephone number for your company and the ability to reach any of the employees helps keep communication simple for you and your clients if much of your operations are switched to a virtual office concept.

Though the prognosis may be upsetting, it is still best to be prepared to continue business as closely to normal as possible throughout the next few months because much as there is no guarantee that we will make it out of this episode unscathed, there is also no guarantee that doomsday is upon us just yet.