Almost a quarter of employees would be prepared to take a pay cut in order to work from home, a new survey by security software firm Famatech reveals.
With attracting top-calibre staff high on the agenda of most organisations in 2008, 83pc of respondents agreed their decision of whether to take a new job would be influenced by the ability to work from home.
Despite the popularity of home working, only 14pc of respondents stated they are actively encouraged to work from home and 16pc said home working was not allowed at all at their place of employment.
“It is astonishing so few companies encourage home working despite the numerous competitive, financial and environmental benefits that can be gained from doing so,” said Anton Levchuk, marketing director, Famatech.
“The quality of the remote access technology now available ensures that ‘working from home’ doesn’t mean the employee will be delivering less value or getting any less work done,” he continued.
Levchuk said high profile cases of stolen laptops has meant many organisations are cautious about offering flexible working options for security reasons but as long as the organisations take the necessary security precautions, this needn’t be a concern.
“Using remote access technology can actually increase security, enabling home workers to access corporate applications, systems and databases securely with no need to store any information on the mobile device,” added Levchuk.
“By giving remote workers and IT administrators a more secure system from which to access workstations remotely, companies are reducing the likelihood of data loss. They can be confident that their confidential company data is safe and they aren’t vulnerable to expensive breaches or law suits.”
By John Kennedy
