In Germany, the Federal Parliament is discussing a right to work from home. What are the pros and cons?
Can (or should) such inter-company processes be regulated by law? And what happens if the employee generally does not want to work from home?
Thanks to the technological advance, it is now possible in many industries to work from anywhere if you have a fast and stable internet connection. By moving the entire office infrastructure to the cloud, employees not only have access to work files, but can also collaborate on projects from anywhere. Not just individual employees can work remotely, even entire teams can do so. Instead of sending files attached to an e-mail, all members of a team can work on one project at the same time, keeping track of others’ changes in real-time. (Source: Wirtschaft digital)
And no question about it: the environmental footprint is also a convincing factor when the daily commute could be reduced to “walking to the next room” for a few days per week. Time-consuming meetings are kept to a minimum, or can be easily managed online with a suitable videoconferencing software (such as VNCtalk), even if the team members are spread all over the globe. Additionally, the reduction of the time required for the daily commute to the office can be an absolute blessing for families with smaller children.
Undisturbed and focused work can be easier in one’s own home if the right conditions are provided – according to studies, work in the home office is more efficient and therefore worthwhile for companies. In addition, cost savings can be achieved if flexible work stations are created within a company. This way one work place can be shared by several employees according to presence. On average a normal workplace is used only about a third of the day. There are many exciting concepts to achieve both utilization and usage optimization.
On the other hand, “watercooler brainstormings” sometimes are the best basis for new ideas. But even here VNCtalk can help with stable and secure videoconferencing with two, five or more participants. Collaboration on documents works, for example, via a shared file in VNCsafe or via screen sharing.
Home offices also offer the opportunity to achieve a better work-life balance. But of course this requires self-discipline in two directions – the dangers of working too little or too much are the sole responsibility of the “resident” in the home office. VNCproject is not only an extremely detailed project management tool, the time recording makes it possible to record your own working time very quickly and precisely. With the workload display, colleagues or supervisors see whether there is still room for further tasks or whether the colleague is already booked to capacity.
Our conclusion: With good and secure enterprise software and the right conditions, such as a quiet working environment, a good internet connection and appropriate hardware, home office can be a real alternative to presence times and pure office work in many professional fields. A combination of fixed attendance days, where the team collaborates on problem solutions as well as new innovations, and home office would be ideal.
Whether one should prescribe that by law, is questionable in our opinion.
What do you think? A right to home office – does that make sense?
We will be happy to summarize the results of all answers and comments and provide the results in our blog.
We welcome your comment below or you can send an e-mail to: sales@vnc.biz
CIO summarized further advantages and disadvantages in a contribution.
VNClagoon offers a wide range of tools that make working in the office or home office efficient, safe and enjoyable. VNClagoon also means freedom to work wherever you are. Whenever you want. On every device. VNClagoon is a technical concept – and at the same time a philosophy: The world is becoming more and more virtual. Therefore: Bring Your Own Device, whichever it is. And work wherever you feel good. This is the only way for organizations to attract talented people around the globe.
Get an overview on vnclagoon.com or check in for a quick call or webinar: sales@vnc.biz
