Wednesday, November 3. 2010Rent, Buy or Work From Home?John Linton Yesterday was a very enjoyable day - and not just because the Melbourne Cup atmosphere puts almost everybody in a good mood and the girls in the office were wearing their Melbourne cup finery making a kaleidoscopic array of colour in the office - they are a very eye catching group of feminine pulchritude. I followed my grandfather's sound advice of never betting on horse races when the going is wet or heavy and I was a little disappointed that I didn't as I would have picked the boxed trifecta - though I suppose that's what everyone says after the race is over. The sales results for the day, across all services 'held up' and showed no traditional Melbourne Cup day 'dip' which was an added bonus. We met with our bank to discuss how we, personally, could finance the purchase of more floor space if we decided to go that way and were pleasantly surprised that we could finance so much more than we had thought we could and, despite yesterday's RBA decision that the rate we could achieve was still so realistic. It widens our options if we go down that path which is useful flexibility. As we will need to make a decision on this issue sooner rather than later there are some longer term considerations.....not the least of which is the role of 'working from home' in our operational future and how the changes we are implementing within Exetel will impact our needs for Australian floor space. We partly addressed this issue by setting up the Sri Lankan operation where we can get super-premium standard floor space for a third the cost of our 'average quality' floor space in North Sydney. However it would be impractical to use Sri Lanka for the functions we currently run out of North Sydney. Of our 48 or so Australian employees, four currently work from home - Steve (mostly), Annette and two Level 4 support engineers. This has been in place (for Steve and Annette) since we started business and has operated with no real/any problems. The personnel working in the Sydney office are largely sales people, network and corporate support engineers, syadmin and database development plus the senior levels of F and A. While you could make a case for some, or even all, of these positions being suitable 'work from home' candidates I am unconvinced. However confronted with committing a further $A2 million of our personal money to the operation of the business or a further $A20,000 monthly rental increase plus $100,000 or so cash for the fit out, it does give very good reasons for considering just how applicable working from home is to our business right at this moment....and in the longer term. Possibly some people might think that an additional $20,000 a month for a company of "Exetel's size" is a trivial sum. Perhaps for companies operated differently to Exetel it is trivial - but I don't think of it that way - especially in these difficult financial times. So, we will discuss the issues of having more personnel 'work from home' to determine whether or not that could defer/eliminate the need for us to buy/rent more North Sydney floor space over the next week or so. I will also see whether I can find some companies similar to Exetel who have already gone down this path to see if I can get some experienced advice on the realities of this sort of operational arrangements rather than the theory that is so readily propounded by people who have never actually managed a business that uses this method of employing people. One more thing to 'worry about'. Copyright © Exetel Pty Ltd 2010
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I have been working from home as an accounts controller for a major financial institution for almost four years now. I'm one of several hundred who work from home.
Our management regularly say that staff morale is higher along with productivity and their intention is to widen the functions that will integrate work from home personnel. Comment (1)
The "work from home" approach is well worth a trial. I found it very successful for staff whose role involved long periods of solo concentration - analysts, programmers and the like. It produced higher quality work, shorter development times and happier staff.
I should have expanded the program instead of taking on extra office space and all the overheads that go with it (electricity, building maintenance etc). The higher cost base means you have to peddle even harder just to keep the ship upright. More pressure. I suspect it was my own unconscious need to "keep an eye on things" that inhibited expansion of the work-from-home arrangement. One thing that seemed to work well was having regular times that each work-from-homer spent in the office working from a shared workstation. This face-to-face contact was good for both the office bound staff and the work-for-homers. Comment (1)
I share some of those views/attitudes.
However this is the second decade of the 21st Century so those attitudes are probably no longer relevant. Comments (4)
Maybe you can survey your current employees to see what their take on working from home is. Perhaps there are some that you would want to make work from home to free up a bit of space for new people that will need to come in for at least a while to train and get familiar with how things are done.
Comment (1)
While my workplace allows some to work from home, they also seem to have a concern for OH&S issues related to working from home. I take it that allowing someone to work does not relieve the employer of the OH&S liabilities.
Might be something you at least need to look into a little. Comment (1)
You are undoubtedly correct.
Hopefully it is no more than a variation of the current policy. Comments (4)
John,
Do you think this is something that adds support to the NBN? It'd be interesting to get your perspective because all we hear from the government about the NBN is that the possibilities are endless. Too vast to do any financial evaluations at all (as a business analyst, I find that argument most amusing of all). I haven't looked into the potential value of the NBN to any great degree, but would be interested to get your take on whether the number of 'work from home' employees/employers at least would increase as a result. Comments (2)
I can't see that it would make much difference to the speed at which work from home will progress - I think work from home is very much related to the type of work being done and, apart from esoteric positions, an ADSL2 or wireless connection is more than adequate for the vast majority of positions that might be considered as suitable work from home 'candidates."
The 'NBN2' has passed the stage for rational debate or financial analysis - that time passed when the last election didn't change the government. It is now simply another cost to be borne by the tax payer over the next decade which one day will result in some sort of PSTN replacement at which time the costs will be known and the opportunities lost, should there be any, will be regretted with the usual benefits of hindsight used by those who never bothered/were capable of informing themselves of the issues involved when such views were useful. Comments (4)
I agree, I don't think the current speeds available are work-limiting for any job that is suitable for work from home. The issue at my workplace is more one of trust, regardless of the performance of the staff that do on occasion work from home. This is more an issue of company culture/policy than anything, but still, I think it would help if I could work from home and have a dedicated camera showing me in my workroom at home (a bit big brother I admit, but as long as the video was two way you would become accustomed to it).
There's no reason why I couldn't do that now with low resolution, but high resolution would mean I could 'sit-in' on meetings easily. Personally, I don't like the idea of being confined to my home 'permanently', but I can see the inherent benefits to an employer of having some of your employees work from home (from interstate even) while having an almost physical presence in the office too. That's where I see the real benefit to the employer (financially at least) of working from home. You are right about the 'NBN2', the ship has well and truly sailed seeing as the last election didn't change the government significantly. It appears to me that the young population that is becoming more and more 'plugged in' does not have the inclination nor foresight to even consider the potential ramifications. It's simply faster internet? Yes please! Comments (2)
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