by Kim Latham - 9 May 2019
Latest figures show that 1 in 10 Brits now work from home according to the latest statistics from job site, Monster.co.uk.
Today’s average UK worker also spends 10.5 days a year commuting, equivalent to an extra hour (58 minutes) of additional sleep each working day, or four hours at the gym a week.
As the trend to work from home increases, more and more people are insisting on flexible working hours in job interviews and are having home-based working hours written into employment contracts.
Break it down and consider this: If 15.2 million people (57%) were to spend their time working instead of commuting this would result in a £20bn boost to the economy, says a recent study by Lenovo and the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) on the benefits of flexible working.
In a report published by Business News Wales, Louise Goodman, Marketing Director at Monster.co.uk, said: “Working from home is a growing trend in the UK – however some businesses have been slow to adapt.
For anyone who thinks they would work well outside of the office environment, and would like to save a little time on the side, you are well within your rights to ask your employer for the opportunity to work from home.”
“At Monster, we ran a few ‘what if’ scenarios looking into the other positive impacts that increased working from home could bring. It turns out beyond potentially improving work life balance, we could see less crowded trains, substantial savings, and significantly reduced CO2 emissions. All very good reasons to consider a switch,”
Louise Goodman | Marketing Director | Monster.co.uk
In a survey carried out by Monster.co.uk, UK workers, when asked to list what they think are the most beneficial aspects of working from home said: time saved commuting (30%), a better work life balance (22%), higher productivity (14%), reduced stress (11%), and money saved from no longer commuting in to work (9%).
Nina Skero, Head of Macroeconomics, Cebr, quoted in a report created by Information Age, says: “Not only can flexible working boost the economy, businesses really must harness it to help attract and retain talent. Our research with Lenovo shows how demoralising long commutes to and from the office can be. With more advanced technology now at our fingertips, we must seek smarter solutions. It’s crucial for businesses to move to introduce these practices, for their own benefit, but also to benefit the economy.”
One vital reason why UK workers are able to work remotely or from home is obviously due to advancements in technology.
Video call technology – from Skype and FaceTime to Google Duo, you’ll need a high-quality video app for making those all-important face-to-face meetings and calls to stay in touch with both clients and your boss.
Alexa-enabled Amazon Echo – grab yourself one of these babies to book your meetings and to research basic information which will give you more time to work on your bigger projects.
The FreshBooks app – The Freshbooks app will create professional invoices for you wherever you are, enabling you to get paid faster and to organize your expenses in just seconds.
Epson WorkForce WF-3540 All-in-One Color Inkjet Printer – This high-capacity, multi-tray machine packs in a decent batch of bells and whistles for the price, including touchscreen gesture navigation, double-sided printing, scanning, faxing and copying. The best perk, according to Entrepreneur.com, is the ability to print wirelessly from a tablet, smartphone, or laptop. You can also use it to scan, save, and move critical documents and pics to the cloud via Apple AirPrint and Google Air Print.
Internet connectivity – the faster the better as you don’t want clients or colleagues waiting around for emails and documents and if you’re planning on making video calls you’ll need a decent speed for good connectivity.
Digital innovation continues to change businesses as well as the way employees work, where we work, and how we work, and this looks set to evolve even further as the business world continues to move forward in an era of technology and speed.
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Disclaimer: The advice provided here are our own interpretations and opinions. We have tried to simplify the main points of this topic for ease of reading.
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