The reasons to be cheerful about remote working are numerous. Serious studies have found that far from turning into TV-watching layabouts, home workers - enabled by technologies such as Yuuguu - become more productive thanks to a happier working environment. Combined with the time and energy saving benefits, teleworking is becoming a serious option for employers to offer their staff and colleagues.

Institutionalised resistance to the concept of remote working in the UK is fading away. Vestiges of concern - among employers about the productivity of employees away from the office, among employees about the diminished potential for promotion, and in general about the required shift in working practices - remain. But, as serious studies have shown, those potential risks are far outweighed, and even entirely contradicted, by the benefits.

The annual government Labour Force Survey tells us that, in 2006, about 12% of the UK workforce were classified as homeworkers, about three and a half million people. Of those, 22% worked chiefly from home and 80% of those are ‘teleworkers’, using information and communications technologies to perform their roles. This figure has doubled since 1997. Overall, the UK is sixth in the league table of EU countries for the percentage of its workforce that telework from home at least one day a week.

But, for employers not eager to join the trend towards enabling remote working, there is another statistic to consider: according to one international study, 65% of UK workers were “very” or “somewhat” interested in at least one type of telework, while 33% regarded their job as feasible for home teleworking at least one day per week. This study was conducted in 2003, since when the technological feasibility and cultural acceptibility of teleworking has increased dramatically. Meanwhile, in a Tickbox survey of more than 1,000 representative adults, 73% said that, in larger firms, the ability to offer flexible working was a major factor in choosing a new job.

This suggests that, as time goes on, employers will struggle to compete for large parts of the workforce if they are not able to offer more flexible working options, particularly through ICT-enabled remote working.

The Tickbox survey identified the following reasons for people wanting to work from home:

• Not sitting in rush hour traffic (56.6%)
• Enjoy a less stressful working life (51.6%)
• Happier (49.1%)
• Able to conduct personal appointments at a time that suits me (46.0%)
• Able to be more involved in family life (school’s sports days and taking children to school) (42.2%)
• Less tired (42.1%)
• Being more productive at work (34.8%)
• None of the above (14.1%)

However, just 16% of businesses are said to have a formal flexible working policy in place. The dominant group preferring this option is younger workers who are more used to using the technology now available to enable remote working. But they are aware of the negative perceptions from employers about their commitment and productivity. A study in 2006 by Mitel found that 29% of 200 senior decision makers did not allow teleworking because they were concerned about less work and time input from teleworkers. Meanwhile, 30% of teleworkers believed there would be less promotion opportunities.

But there are much more positive reasons to embrace the trend than fear of losing out in the recruitment market. In fact, the benefits of enabling teleworking are so strong as to be impossible to ignore. This explains its rapid growth in recent years.

The core benefits of remote working include:

1. A happy employee is a hard working employee

The irony is that, actually, remote working has been directly linked with lower absenteeism, improved recruitment and retention, and higher productivity. Indeed, teleworkers tend to work longer hours than non-teleworkers, and identify this as one reason for their improved performance, but see reduced stress and better concentration as more important factors. One survey found that about 75% of teleworking employees believe that their productivity is improving and 61% think that managers do as well.

2. Reduction in office costs

The benefits of allowing remote working are obvious as far as the provision of ofice facilities is concerned. Office space, car parking, security, insurance and energy use all decrease where teleworking is employed with resulting impacts on costs. Businesses would expect to cover the costs of the employee at their remote workspace, but there are much greater savings to be had when a business is designed to allow employees to telework.

3. The ‘regional office’

For businesses that have wide-ranging clients in a variety of locations, remote working enables them to locate staff much closer to their customers to deliver a more personal, direct service. This can prove beneficial whether it be to set in setting up remote regional sales offices and even across countries. Technology to connect across distances is so advanced as to make the process of inter-office communication seamless.

4. Less travel time

Much of office-based workers’ time is taken up with travel between home and office. This is time, energy and money wasted. Home working maximises the amount of time the worker has in their day, aloowing them to achieve a better balance and focus their attention on their business rather than the journey in and out.

5. Reduction in carbon footprint

The combination of less travel and reduced office facility needs combine to reduce a business’ impact on the environment. In journeys, for example, research tells us that, by allowing employees to work from home, their reduced travel derives not just from a lesser commute, but also from being within reach of local amentities at all times. The impact is even evident on other household members who, because life becomes much more home-based, tend to travel less.

How Yuuguu helps

In a survey conducted by Thus in 2006 of small and medium-sized businesses, 36% cited the lack of proper equipment as a key barrier to remote working, with the lack of out-of-hours support being seen as the major limitation to remote working. Meanwhile, a research study by David Banister, Carey Newson and Matthew Ledbury of the Transport Studies Unit at the University of Oxford concluded that “a general picture of a lack of knowledge about both the latest opportunities for new forms of remote working and the security implications is apparent in SME/SMBs.

Yuuguu’s ability to connect workers together seamlessly can have a massive impact on the ease with which a business can enable home working. Its advanced instant messaging features allow immediate communications to keep workers in touch. Meanwhile, the remote screen sharing allows presentations for example to be viewed at the same time - and discussed. The note-making facility, where users can draw on a shared screen, promotes easy co-editing and discussion of documents and designs. Also, the screen control features mean users can take control of co-workers desktops to fix IT issues or demonstrate particular topics, sites, slides and so on with ease.

The Thus report concluded that just 26% of SMBs offered teleworking compared with 68% of organisations with over 100 employees. Part of the reason was that 57% of SMBs expected their employees to pay for at least some of the technology required. Issues like this, combined with the evidently enormous benefits of teleworking demonstrate just how critical the adoption of technologies like Yuuguu could be in the future lives of businesses and their employees.