Work from home catching on

Deanna Smit works from home one day a week. Photo / Stephen Parker

Working from home might sound like an opportunity to enjoy a lie-in and sit in front of the computer in your old trackies.

But for Deanna Smit, the mornings she works from home are the same as any other work day.

She gets dressed in work clothes, does her make-up and puts on her jewellery - the same way she would if she was heading to meetings in the office instead of her laptop on her dining room table.

For the support services manager at Whare Aroha CARE, flexible working arrangements that allow her to work from home a day a week mean better productivity and time to focus on her work without being interrupted by the day-to-day operations of the businesses - and that is a win for her and her employer.

Last week, changes to flexible working arrangements came into effect with the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2014 extending the legal right to ask for flexible working arrangements from caregivers only, to all employees. The flexibility could be towards hours of work, days of work or place of work.

The requirement of six months' prior employment with the employer before asking for flexibility has also been removed, as has the limit on the number of requests for flexibility that an employee can make in a year.

Mrs Smit believed the opportunity for flexible working arrangements could be of real benefits to employees and employers, if it was done right.

She believed it worked particularly well in the project environment. Currently looking after the development of Whare Aroha CARE's new Ngongotaha village, Mrs Smit said being able to work from home gave her the opportunity to concentrate "a bit more fully" on the project one day a week.

"I don't need to be in an office environment to do that."

Scion is another local company that allows flexible working hours.

Spokeswoman Keri-Anne Tane said it offered many advantages which included ensuring they gained diversity in capability that might not otherwise be available. It also improved retention rates and meant they could attract some staff who might not otherwise be prepared to work the traditional 40-hour week. Employment lawyer Ros Morshead, of Morshead Law, believed the amendments reflected the way New Zealand did business nationally and internationally, across all days and times of the week.

"The reality is that for many employers and employees the days of working 8.30am-5pm, Monday to Friday, no longer exist in the running of their business. "Ultimately, the amendments reflect the changing nature of the modern workplace and enables employers to turn their minds to thinking about structuring jobs and the workplace in a more flexible manner."

Kellie Hamlett, of Talent ID, said more employers were looking at trade-offs if they found a candidate who was the right fit - offering flexibility could prove to be a "win-win".

"A great candidate will add value to the organisation and often that added flexibility allowed means employers are actually getting more value from those employees.

"One firm I know of actually increased productivity and chargeable hours when they introduced flexible working hours to their organisation."

She said the most common were allowing access to work from home for a set time each week, or the ability to start and finish early.