Home working

More and more people are working from home and fall into two broad areas of work, home-based employees and self-employed.

Different home working options

Home-based employees

You’re employed but you work from home for all or part of your working week. You might also be referred to as a remote worker, telecommuter or teleworker.

Self-employed

The majority of home workers are self-employed, including anybody who has set up a home-based business. You might offer a product or service from your home such as editing, accounting and graphic design to home tutoring, counselling and childminding.

As a freelancer or a portfolio worker, you’re self-employed and produce pieces of work or offer a service to clients or organisations without a long term commitment. Most of your work can be done from home or at another non-work location at times that you choose.

Portfolio working is an extension on freelancing in that you may have many career strands and decide to combine a mixture of work for different individuals or types of organisations.

Read our article on self-employment for more information about freelancing and portfolio working.

Advantages and challenges

As a home-based employee, working from home can:

save you the time, stress and cost of travelling to work without the interruptions of an office
allow you greater flexibility and control to fit your working hours around family commitments, such as being a carer
open up more opportunities for employees with disabilities.

The challenges of home working:

If you have family at home, they may become a distraction while you're working.
You may feel that you have to prove yourself to colleagues more. Being less visible may pose additional challenges for promotional opportunities.
There may be important meetings which you can’t attend or access online.
You may feel isolated being away from colleagues or other professionals.

Is home working right for you?

Being self-disciplined, motivated, managing your time effectively, networking with others and being able to switch off from work are considerations for all home workers.

Whether an employee or self-employed, consider if your personality, skills, preferred style of working and occupational interests are suited to home working.

Are you organised, motivated and disciplined enough to structure your work, set yourself deadlines and achieve them?
Have you got the skills, ingenuity and resourcefulness to work by yourself with nobody immediately on hand to consult if a problem arises?
Will you miss the social interaction of the workplace?
Do you have a suitable area in your home from which to work? Is it separate enough from your non-working space to allow you to switch off when not working?
Do you have the facilities and equipment that you need?

It's also useful to audit your skills based on all your paid and unpaid work experience and any gained from training, studies and interests.

Becoming a home working employee

There are a couple of options for becoming a home-based employee; you could find employment as a home-based worker or negotiate with your employer to work from home.

As an employee, the arrangement may be made at the request of your employer or can be negotiated by you. Access to the internet and social collaboration tools (e.g. Yammer, Skype, GoToMeeting) now makes it easier for employees to work from home for all or part of their working week.

Check whether you're eligible

Circumstances may lead you to negotiate working from home for some of the time, perhaps to balance work and other needs such as caring responsibilities. Employees can submit an application to request flexible working arrangements if they are viable and would not adversely affect their employer’s business. You'll find more information about flexible working on the Gov.UK website.

Find home working job opportunities

Many of the major job search websites allow you to choose ‘work from home’ or ‘home working’ as a search option. Check advert information carefully to make sure opportunities are legitimate.

There are specialist sites that highlight home-based jobs such as those aimed at students or stay at home parents or carers. For example Employment for Students and Working Mums.

As well as searching for advertised positions, networking with employers and offering your services to them as a home worker may prove fruitful.

Disability and working from home

If you have a disability or health concerns, home working not only offers greater flexibility, but potentially more possibility for undertaking meaningful work.

If you are self-employed, it may allow you to control the amount of work you take on, pace yourself and set realistic and manageable schedules, which can help to minimise stress.

If you are thinking of working from home because of your health or disability, there are a lot of issues you should explore first. You may find it useful to check whether the Access to Work scheme could offer you some additional support towards equipment or adaptations of your workspace. This information is available from the GOV.UK website. NHS Choices also has information on work and disability.

Business advice in your local area may well include a free initial consultation, and may include information on any start-up grants.

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