'Homeworking' is simply doing your job from home. It is a method of working which can be relevant to many jobs.
There is no legal definition of working from home, but the essential feature is the use of information technology to enable people to work away from the office. This could apply to people working full-time or part-time at home, those dividing their time between home and the office, and mobile workers who use their home as an administrative base.
Working from home is growing. Over 1.5 million employees regularly work from home, according to 2015 data from the government Office for National Statistics – up nearly a quarter of a million over the preceding ten-year period. . Developments in modern technology, most notably faster Internet connections, mean that homeworking is now an option for a large numbers of workers. And TUC analysis has shown that employers are behind the curve here, because another 4 million workers would prefer to work from home for at least some of their working week, given the chance
Further analysis by EU research agency Eurofound has found that 'part-time' homeworking is on average about four times more common than 'full-time' homeworking.
There are many benefits to homeworking for both employers and employees. It can enable companies and public service organisations to modernise the way work is organised. It can also help employees better reconcile work and home life. However, there are a range of issues to be considered when moving to working from home and it is important that homeworking is introduced in such a way as to benefit both employers and employees.
