1 Is where you work an important part of the job?
If clients always expect to see you at your place of work, it may be difficult to transfer to homeworking. A doctor working in a casualty department, for instance, is unlikely to be able to work outside the hospital for any length of time, since patients expect to be treated at the hospital and that is also where support staff are based. On the other hand, if much of your work is location independent, i.e. can be done anywhere, you are much more likely to be able to work from home for some of the time.
2 How much necessary face-to-face contact do you have on a daily basis?
A manager of a large branch library spends most of his day interacting with members of the public, who expect to see him on site. Similarly, if your work requires delicate face-to-face negotiations, it may be necessary to hire a meeting room, rather than speak with someone on the telephone from home. However, it has to be said that the Norwegian diplomat who brokered the Israeli-Palestinian peace deal invited both parties into his home for much of the undercover negotiations. Both said how much they enjoyed the homely and relaxed atmosphere.
3 How much specialist, expensive equipment do you need to do your job?
And would your company be prepared to pay for it if you work at home? Who would insure it? Who would be liable if a client injured themselves falling off the chair in your dining room ?
4 How important is it to be able to bounce ideas off people in an informal, unplanned way throughout the course of the day?
The more you enjoy exchanging ideas at the coffee machine, and walking around the office to see what’s going on, the less suitable you will be for homeworking.
5 How much of your work can be done alone?
The more work that can be done alone, the more likely you will be able to do it from home.
6 How much benefit do you get from observing your boss in action during the course of a working day?
In many industries training is almost entirely on the job, with juniors being expected to learn by watching seniors — something that’s difficult if you are not on site. On the other hand, if you are already experienced in your work, you may not have much to learn from watching your colleagues or direct boss. It is worth noting that computer firm ICL only allows people to telework if they already have five years experience in their area, i.e. they are confident and are not on a steep learning curve.
7 How much day-to-day supervision do you require?
The less you need, the more suitable your job is for working at home.
8 How much day-to-day supervision do you need to do?
If your juniors are extremely well motivated, or also have the option of flexible working, you may not need to be on site all the time. However, if they are poorly motivated, untrained or resentful of your privileges, out of sight can become out of mind.
9 Does your company have a policy about homeworking? Are other people already working from home on an informal basis?
If the answer is yes, your company is already willing to take the idea of homeworking on board and are more likely to listen to you.
10 How much processing of information does your job require?
Information based occupations such as economists, researchers, journalists and computer boffins are all likely to be able to do some work from home.
The more A’s you have, the better your chances of working from home successfully. If you score more than five B’s, think again — it sounds like your occupation is firmly tied to the office or factory.
Another way to assess whether you are suitable for homeworking is to analyse the nature of your occupation. The management consultants, Fresh Solutions, who specialize in setting up teleworking schemes for employers, have found this method useful in working out whether employees could work from home at least some of the time. They distinguish four categories of workers :
- Specialists by dint of their specialization often work alone. Technical writers, designers, academics etc. can all do a large proportion of work from home.
- Nomads’ travel from client to client or site to site in order to do their job. They could make their central base their home, rather than doing unnecessary travelling into an office. Sales teams, architects, marketing managers, would all fall into this category.
- Managers could spend part of the week at home, doing those tasks which require quiet — writing speeches or preparing presentations, compiling reports or doing budgetary tasks.
- Clerical staff could do tasks such as routine administration, data- processing and compiling lists from home.
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