Other sites of interest:
Science Frontiers Society of Interdisciplinary Studies ABC Dating and Personals
The Employer
How to become an employer of homeworkers
 

www.henleyoffices.com
We have collected together some of the best resources on the net to help employers consider using staff who are based at home. The following resources are from both the US and UK but are worth looking at wherever you are in the world.

Resources on Homeworking.com:
The CoHo experience of a Company Director Read the CoHo experience of a Company Director
New rights for part-time workers See our own comment on the introduction of new rights for part-time workers (in the UK) including homeworkers (May 2000).

Sites for employers in the UK:

Flexibility www.flexibility.co.uk aims to inform and stimulate debate about the changing world of work. Flexibility brings together research and opinion about innovations in employment practice, organisational development, technological change and public policy. These include trends towards more flexible forms of working: such as part-time, temporary and short-term work, annualised hours and teleworking.

They also have some Case Studies of employers who use teleworking very successfully such as the Child Benefit Centre : Flexible Working and Hertfordshire County Council : Trading Standards.


Safe Homeworking - a guide for employersSafe Homeworking is an innovative guide to a safer working environment at home. The programme includes a video, manager's guide, homeworker's guide and risk assessment forms. The clear and easy to absorb video takes you through good and bad Health and Safety practice in the home environment. This package will help you to deliver your legal duty of care as an employer. Produced by Merlin Communications.


www.ndeva.co.uk/mgtw/Contents.html is A Manager's Guide to Teleworking, written and researched by Ursula Huws on behalf of the Employment Department. Includes What is Teleworking, Benefits to employers and employees, setting up a telework scheme and day to day management.


Analytica is an independent social and economic research company. Its director, Ursula Huws, is also an Associate Fellow of the Institute for Employment Studies. As well as being an excellent source of research documents there are answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about teleworking http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/parade/hg54/telew.htm:

  • What is teleworking?
  • How many teleworkers are there?
  • How can teleworking be managed?
  • How can a teleworking scheme be set up?
  • What collective bargaining issues are raised by teleworking?
  • What are telecottages?
  • Who are the other experts on teleworking?

The EMERGENCE website brings news of results and progress of the research programme which is funded by the European Commission’s Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme. Beginning 2000, the three-year EMERGENCE project will carry out pioneering research in 22 countries. This research programme looks at all aspects of homeworking and the new 'jobs' such as 'Web Designer' or 'Call Center Operator', as well as outsourced and freelance work which up till now have not been included in statistics. As a result, we will find a more accurate figure for the number of people actually homeworking. www.emergence.nu


NEW Andrew Bibby is an independent writer and journalist, who has written widely on the business and social implication of information and communication technologies. A number of his articles are on the web (see www.eclipse.co.uk/pens/bibby/telework.html but especially useful for employers to consider the impact of teleworking on the individual is Andrew's article Is Telework right for you?


European Telework Online is a useful site to be aware of. One article A New Market for Work has the subtitle "Market developments and policy responses to the skills, employment and enterprise dilemma". The article begins:

"For some years one of Europe's main challenges has been unemployment - a net shortage of jobs and work opportunities in most countries and most regions. This is now changing and most of Europe is moving into economic growth mode. But a new dilemma has emerged: an increasing shortage of skills in the places enjoying the best economic growth, coupled with a continuing - sometimes worsening - shortage of attractive work opportunities in other regions. The shortage of skills hampers the pace of recovery and growth in one place; high unemployment and lack of opportunities hampers social cohesion and enhancement in another. Often those who are unemployed or underemployed in one place have skills that are in short supply elsewhere. Bridging the two can transform both business and employment prospects."

For the latest UK government initiatives and regulations concerning homeworkers and the employment of homeworkers use this search facility Click Here at the www.open.gov.uk website.

Work-Life Balance has been put together by the Department of Trade and Industry and shows many examples of flexible ways of working in a changing world. Companies are quoted and these studies show not just homeworking but other flexible ways of working which employers might want to consider as a step towards homeworking.


Finding workers

  • You will either be considering teleworking for your existing workers or you may be looking for new employees to work from home or else you might want just need help for occasional projects.
  • Our own database of Homeworkers worldwide is no longer operating. In due course, it will be replaced by something better.
  • Our own Classifieds for you to post jobs to is no longer operating. In due course, it will be replaced by something better.
  • Or you could try online freelance sites such as Elance. It is free to register, search and post requests.

Sites for employers in the US:

The U. S. Office of Personnel Management is the Federal Government's human resources agency. The Telecommuting page www.opm.gov/wrkfam/telecomm/telecomm.htm has indexed the following subjects:

  • Briefing Kit
  • National Telecommuting Initiative
  • Governmentwide Pilot Project
  • Reasons For Telecommuting
  • How to Reach The Office of Personnel Management
  • How to Reach The General Services Administration
  • Basic Parameters for Telecommuting in Federal Agencies
  • Conditions for Successful Telecommuting Arrangements
  • Personnel Policies and Procedures
  • Steps for Implementing Telecommuting
  • Telecenter Sites References
  • Sample Self-certification
  • Safety Checklist
  • Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
  • Sample Agreement

Conditions for Successful Telecommuting Arrangements is one of the above subjects. An excerpt offers:

    "Suitability of Work. The nature of the work should be suitable for telecommuting. Work suitable for telecommuting depends on job content, rather than job title, type of appointment, or work schedule. For example, telecommuting is feasible for work that requires thinking and writing -- data analysis, reviewing grants or cases, writing decisions or reports; telephone-intensive tasks -- setting up a conference, obtaining information, following up on participants in a study; and for computer-oriented tasks -- programming, data entry, and word processing. Positions in the Government-wide project included writer/editor, scientist, investigator, psychologist, environmental engineer, budget analyst, tax examiner, and computer specialist."

U.S. Department Of Transportation ~ Federal Transit Administration has a report www.fta.dot.gov/fta/library/planning/tdmstatus/FTATELE.HTM from August 1992 which looks at the effects of teleworking on transport use. In doing this, the report looks at the current modes of transport and how pollution can be reduced as a result. It also looks at the costs of employing workers at home in comparison to the commuting costs and the costs of employment in prime office space. This report begins with an introduction to telecommuting:

"Telecommuting is an approach for reducing home-to-work trips by allowing employees to work-at-home. Employees may be linked to the work place by computer and modem, or simply may take work home requiring no computer. Telecommuting employees usually work at home one or more days per week. Related options include employees working at satellite work centers (run by single employers) or neighborhood work centers (run by multiple employers). The centers usually are equipped with computers and modems and connected to a main office."

The Gil Gordon site www.gilgordon.com/index.htm consolidates a wide variety of information from around the world, and from many different perspectives, on the subjects of telecommuting, teleworking, the virtual office, and related topics.


Finding workers

  • You will either be considering teleworking for your existing workers or you may be looking for new employees to work from home or else you might want just need help for occasional projects.
  • Our own database of Homeworkers worldwide is no longer operating. In due course, it will be replaced by something better.
  • Our own Classifieds for you to post jobs to is no longer operating. In due course, it will be replaced by something better.
  • Or you could try online freelance sites such as Elance. It is free to register, search and post requests.

More information will be added to this page to make this into a comprehensive section to encourage and help employers to move towards more flexible ways of working. If you have information you think we should include we would be pleased to hear from you at admin@homeworking.org

The e-Work Awards are given annually to organisations within Europe that represent examples of best practice in the introduction, development and promotion of new working practices developing within the Information Society. Details on www.etw.org See our Events Page for a list of the 1999 and 2000 winners and a photo of the prestigious award. Caroline Tresman, the Founder and Editor of Homeworking.com, was one of the key-note speakers at the awards ceremony in Brussels in November 2000.

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