The rules covering flexible working were implemented in 2002 and have been successful in their aim of supplying increased flexibility to both employers and employees. The days when person’s hours are worked and the number of hours worked may vary hugely as employment contracts are drawn up to suit the needs of both parties. The use of part-time, term-time and flexitime working has increased progressively over the past decade. Part-time work is the most utilised kind of flexible working and almost every firm now has some part-time workers. The education industry uses term-time working extensively and flexitime is now provided by almost twenty five per cent of employers in the United Kingdom. One of the more contentious options within flexible working is permitting employees to Work From Home.

Accepting the flexible working directive is mainly at the discretion of the business circumstances involving person’s need to care for children under 16 (under 18, if disabled) or elderly dependents where the firm must “seriously consider” offering flexible working options. The employee has no automatic right to any of the options and must make a proper application to his firm to request it. Many of these special circumstances, by their very nature, would appear to require a Work From Home option. While any moral firm would be eager to help a member of staff in these cases there are some vital issues to think about before granting the request. This is not an area that has seen a great deal of growth in the last few years. Only 3 per cent of employees Work From Home on a permanent basis and this has barely changed since 2002 despite the invention of the modern Internet Business which uses cutting-edge technology to provide Online Jobs for its employees. The number of staff who Work From Home on an occasional basis has increased progressively to about 20% of the workforce.

When an established non Internet Business is looking to convert some roles to Online Jobs it must first of all determine which roles, if any, would be suitable to be performed at home. Generally these would be telephone based roles in sales, marketing or customer service departments where an electronic client management system can be accessed from home or at the office. Besides these, some administrative, accountancy and personnel roles could be done at home. Should there be some roles suitable for a transfer to home working then thought must be given to the cost of equipping employees with the relevant level of technology to actually do so. This cost might also have to include training in the use of the technology.

Apart from the cost there are also several operational issues which employers must be comfortable with. The suitability of the employee to Work From Home is critical as many people who switch to home working discover that they miss the busy office environment or find it hard to work in isolation away from colleagues and friends. It is important to keep the remote employees involved in the business wherever possible as a feeling of isolation can generate a fall in their performance levels. Management procedures ought to be adjusted to check this closely. Finally, depending on the types of job being transferred and the company’s line of business there might be problems associated with the removal of confidential information from the office.

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