Homework growth tests support systems

Are you the one-in-ten?

As many as one in 10 UK employees now works from home, according to research published in September. Experts argued that businesses would perform better if they improved IT and security support for their remote staff.

There are now 5.4 million home workers in the UK, or 19 percent of the total workforce, according to industry analyst Point Topic. Of these, 3.2 million are self-employed or run their own businesses, and 2.2 million work from home as employees.

However, a separate report released today by the Management Consultancies Association indicates that despite the high numbers of home workers, many firms offer inadequate support.

Only seven percent of people working at home said they did so because of encouragement from their firm. And less than half who use a laptop or PC outside the office said their employer covers the costs of working remotely.

Tony Heyworth of web conferencing vendor Polycom said money spent on support could be made back in increased productivity, as well as lower overheads and premises costs. “Firms need to change their mindset. They are now a value chain where all parts of that chain need to be linked, and technology can enable this,” he added.

Tony Caine of SSL VPN vendor Aventail said the problems of providing secure access to remote workers can be addressed by readily-available tools. “[IT managers] traditionally had to install IPSec VPNs and therefore take responsibility for supporting the home machine, which is an IT department’s worst nightmare,” he said. “But [SSL VPN] technology now provides a very good fit [for home workers]. If a company allows staff to access its network, it has to give them the tools to do it.”

Lewis Gee, UK vice-president of Citrix Systems, said there is still a tendency for many companies to believe that staff can only be properly managed if they are physically in the office. “There are also concerns over the security of data, so managers at a high level need to be persuaded that there is now no business risk,” he added.