Home working coveted by employees, businesses told

15/01/2008

Nearly a quarter of employees would be willing to take a pay cut to work from home, employers have been told.

In a study by software company Famatech, 22% of employees said they would happily take a pay cut in order to be given the opportunity to work at home.

The survey found that 6% of respondents would be willing to have their salary slashed by between 6 and 10%, whereas 2% would accept a pay cut of 16 to 20%.

More than 80% of respondents said that the ability to work from home would influence their decision of whether or not to take a new job. Despite this, just 14% of respondents said they were encouraged to work from home and 16% were banned from doing so completely.

The results serve to demonstrate how highly valued job flexibility is becoming, Famatech said, making it an extremely useful weapon in the battle to recruit and retain talented staff amid skills shortages.

“It is astonishing that so few companies encourage home working despite the numerous competitive, financial and environmental benefits they can be gained from doing so,” said Anton Levchuk, marketing director at Famatech.

“The quality of the remote access technology that is now available ensures that ‘working from home’ doesn’t mean the employee will be delivering less value or getting any less work done.”