DTI publishes teleworking guidelines

Best-practice pointers offer a mixed bag of advice for UK firms

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued a Telework Guidance document to help employers implement teleworking options for staff.

The document is intended to encourage harmonisation with European rules, but some firms fear that its best-practice pointers will lead to a minefield of potential problems.

Flexible working could improve the work-life balance, reduce staff travel time and help regional business development, according to the DTI.

However, the report, produced with the Confederation of British Industry, the Trades Union Congress and public sector employer group CEEP UK, inadvertently suggests that implementing the guidelines could be a costly and time consuming process.

On the contentious area of health and safety, the DTI recommends conducting risk assessment and ensuring that electrical equipment at workers' homes complies with safety regulations.

It adds that firms should consider security measures, including the locking of home offices and the secure destruction of documents. It further warns that company insurance policies may need to be updated.

Finance departments may balk at the recommendation that companies offer business-dedicated communications links, and consider expense allowances for staff travel to office meetings.

The report also recommends that the costs of lighting, heating and wear and tear be taken into account.

Other suggestions relate to softer issues. Teleworking NVQ courses should be considered, and productivity measures should take into account the home worker's self-administration tasks.

Employers should not contact staff out of agreed hours, and personal support should be provided.

"Telework ... can place particular stresses on employees," warned the DTI. "Not everyone will be suited to working for long periods of time on their own."

However, experts have suggested that any DTI endorsement would help to make the case for teleworking.

"It's a one-size-fits-all publication, but you've got to apply it to your business needs, so some of the risk assessments will not be necessary," said Gordon Napier, marketing manager at VIA Networks, a provider of managed internet services.

Ian McKeown, European chief information officer at Nortel, added: "The DTI sets out the information in layman's terms.

"We have nearly a third of our workforce able to telework. It's a way you can see the kids and have a better work-life balance."

About 2.2 million people in the UK used IT to work away from the office when the numbers were last counted in spring 2001.

The total increased by 65 per cent in the four years to 2001 and will grow at about 400,000 a year, according to the DTI forecast.