Home is where the workplace is

With the number of employees who work entirely or partly at home continuing to grow, it is easy to imagine the immediate cost savings involved. However there are a number of important people-related issues to consider when planning for a successful transition from office to home working.

• Involve people from the start. Staff may well identify issues that employers have not thought about.
• Sell the concept effectively. Communication is key and everyone should be clear about the benefits and not feel alienated by the decision to move to home working.
• Assess training needs. The individual members of a team are likely to have different training needs. Remember those working from home have no colleagues to just ‘show me how to’ when they become stumped by an IT problem
• Plan how your team will be managed. As managers can no longer literally see what is going on, outcomes become key and trust is vital.
• Support staff proactively. Staff may feel isolated from the workplace and as such need to feel that they are still part of the team. Structures need to be set up to solve problems, particularly customer-related ones, and periodic brainstorming meetings can help to sort out relevant issues. From a social perspective, employers should consider setting up electronic ways of exchanging news and views and hold regular social events.

Government policy generally looks to support employers that try to provide better work-life balance opportunities for their employees. In the last few years there have been a number of changes to legislation to help employers support those working from home without incurring a tax or NI charge.

• Employers can essentially provide all of the computer facilities, telecommunication links, office furniture and supplies that an employee needs to work at home without a tax charge. Where the benefits are exempt from tax there is no liability for NI.
• There is no tax charge where an employer makes payments to employees to reimburse the additional household expenses they incur in working from home. The Inland Revenue has published a guideline rate of £2 per week that can be paid to employees working regularly from home without the employer having to justify the amount or the employee having to keep records to demonstrate the additional expenditure. This amount is not however a maximum and more can be paid so long as appropriate records are kept.
• Where the office is no longer a permanent or regular workplace, travelling expenses incurred in irregular or self-contained visits to the office may be allowable for tax purposes. This is a complex area and each case would need to be looked at carefully.