Businesses can have both flexibility and productivity

Businesses recruiting for sales and marketing jobs can allow their new employees to work from home without jeopardising productivity, it has been claimed.

According to the Telework Association (TA), while flexible working can create pitfalls for companies that are not prepared for it, with a little forethought the benefits far outweigh the shortfalls.

The TA's development director Shirley Borrett said firms that set clear goals for their new staff members should have no issues with maintaining productivity once they have recruited the right candidates.

"If managers measure people by what they expect them to do, what they expect them to achieve in a week or a month or a quarter or a year - if they're that kind of manger then they're not going to have a lot of problems managing people remotely," Ms Borrett said.

She added: "The fact that they can't see them is not a key thing in supervising them."

Her comments come after figures from the Office for National Statistics were published showing that workplace productivity has risen despite increasing numbers of people requesting home working.

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Posted by Nikki Barrister

Filed: 11-04-2011