Remote working: has the point be proven?

The run up to the 2012 Olympics saw many organisations, particularly those based in London, concerned how the games would affect operations, with specific concern regarding staff commuting to the capital.  Now the event has finished, is it time to accept that home-working policies are the way to beat the commuter blues and do staff really want them?


Recognising the additional strain on transport infrastructure during the Olympics, many forward-thinking businesses investigated other ways of staying operational, with the obvious solution enabling staff to work offsite.  Mobile provider O2 even experimented by closing its Slough HQ for a day earlier this year, requiring over 2500 employees to work from home.

The experiment was a success, with 88 per cent of staff claiming to have been as productive working from home as they would be in the office.  Naturally such an operation takes planning, with particular emphasis on the corporate network.  In the lead up to the experiment, O2 significantly upgraded its virtual private network (VPN), and ensured server traffic load was spread across offices around the UK in the hope of reducing data bottlenecks.  Further indicators of a successful implementation come from O2’s IT helpdesk which reported a normal day with the usual volume of calls, and the fact that VPN use increased by 155 per cent while remaining stable.

However fears of gridlock were largely unfounded, with use of the London Underground growing from 3.8 million last year to only a 4.4 million high during the games.  This situation is fortuitous for many, with a YouGov study finding that during the games only 33 per cent of those employed in London actually worked from home.  The primary reason is that more than half of UK office staff are not allowed to homework, even though 58 per cent of employees believe they would be as productive from home as they would be in the office (the O2 experiment appears to back this up).

YouGov also polled over 2000 employees from Skype, finding that more than two-thirds of its London based staff hadn’t planned on working from home any more than usual during the games, with 31 per cent claiming lack of face-to-face time with co-workers as one of the top reasons against remote working.

O2 may have indicated that remote working is both practical and efficient, even if staff have certain reservations regarding lack of contact with co-workers.  It is also very different closing down an office for one day than it is to implement as an ongoing policy.  However, it must have senior managers wondering about the need for large traditional offices as mobile and remote technology continues to improve.  It is unlikely that O2’s experiment will see the death of the office, but even if you can decrease workspace requirements by half without affecting productivity, it would seem to make sense from both staff and management perspectives.

If you are interested in home working please get in touch with us, Richmond Systems has extensive knowledge of important IT support issues; we will happily offer free advice so give us a call.