The biggest advantage you will get from working from home is that you will not have to commute back and forth to the office each day, you are never tied down in peak hour traffic and you don’t have to eat takeaways at lunch time. It can also come as a mixed blessing as there will certainly be more distractions at home, and if you are a procrastinator you will unfortunately be behind the eight ball right from the start.

If working from home means doing your work on the internet, you are much freer than you might think. With the development of laptop and notebook computers in recent years, along with mobile broadband and WiFi hotspots around to keep you online wherever you may be, means you can even take the kids to the beach and still keep your deadline. Working from home now means working from anywhere, as you can change your environment any time you want to.

Working from home demands self discipline and organisation, so use the following tips to help you stay productive:

• To be able to successfully work from anywhere however, you will need to exercise a certain level of self discipline. The work still has to be done and the time still has to be put in, so whenever you go easy on yourself and tell yourself that you will have time to catch up later – don’t listen! Whenever you put things off you are starting to get behind, therefore one of the most important things to remember is to make certain periods of the day available when you can work without undue interruption, and only pass that time up if it becomes imperative that you must do so. Even then have plan ‘B’ on hand where equal time can be made up later without disturbing your weekly schedule.

• It is a fact that it is easier to work in an uncluttered workplace. A tidy desk and room to work in lends itself to a better work environment than having your laptop stuck in among a pile of laundry items on the dining table waiting to be ironed. An untidy workplace can be very distracting at times, especially if you have periods where you have to do a bit of thinking before creating. Some people can find relief just by looking out a window. Others prefer a blank wall, but whatever your preferred thinking area it is much easier if it is tidy and clean.

• Although it is an age old piece of advice, it is as true today as when it was first uttered, know when you work best and try to do your work during those hours. Some people find they work best in the mornings, others during the day, then again there are more who feel they do their best work at night. Whatever time you feel suits you best put that time aside for working in. You are no longer having to work from nine to five so why continue doing so if you work better at other times.

• If you are not careful you will waste a lot of time doing things that are not earning you money. You won’t have a boss looking over your shoulder, so you will be free to waste time if you want to, but it will only prolong the time you will have to sit in front of your computer to get through all your work eventually. To avoid this you will have to prioritise your work. Do what you have to do first. Leave everything else till later. Don’t allow temptation to take over and check the news stories half way through your work. Stick to the job on hand. Get it all done and then you can play around a bit.

• Another old saying is that time is money. Nothing is more true to a person working for themselves at home. Every hour you spend at your computer should be earning you money. If you are not already working to a deadline, create your own. Make sure you complete a certain amount of work every hour. Each time you finish a component get up, take a walk around, have a coffee and biscuits.  It is important to take a break every now and again to refresh your thoughts. It will keep you on top longer. If it helps you can put it all down on paper as a time roster. If you do this stick to it religiously.

• For those of us who are easily distracted try ‘StayFocused’.  Some of us are easily distracted. You are one of these people if you have been going for a full half hour or so and you suddenly want to know who is on Facebook or Twitter. Once online you find a couple of friends with nothing else to do and before you know it, it is lunch time. StayFocused can be downloaded from Google and it will block out all such sites that are likely to distract you. When finished you can turn it off.

You will eventually find your own way to get your work done that suits you best. After all it is your living that depends on it. Having personal freedom to work when you wish to do so comes with certain responsibilities, both for yourself and the body you are doing the work for. It is well worth giving it a go.

For most people, the idea of working from home is a “dream come true”. No longer will you have to brave the rain, snow, and wind the fight your way into the office. No more will you have to endure the endless dramas of office politics, and at last the Monday morning grilling from the boss will be a thing of the past.

Then there are the other obvious benefits that come with working from home like more time with loved ones, nobody else to answer to, and potentially a much better salary.

But in order to make a success of your home business there are certain personality traits you’ll need to have in abundance. Here are a few personality traits commonly shown by some already successful home-based entrepreneurs.

Belief

Self-confidence and belief are vital if you’re to make a “go of it” from home. If you don’t believe in your abilities or products then how can your customers.

You obviously have some sort of product or service that is in demand or presumably you wouldn’t have bothered trying to work for yourself in the first place. Be confident about the benefits of what you do, and what you have to offer the market. That way you’ll be able to communicate those benefits to potential customers.

Discipline

The freedom you have when working for yourself if great, yet for some it can be very easy to get distracted. Being able to come and go as you please whilst working at your own pace is a wonderful perk, however like any other business if things don’t get done the business will suffer.

You have to remain fully focused and disciplined at all times. Organize your day the night before so you know the exact tasks you must complete the next day. This will help you stay on top of things that need to be done.

Without a structured “to-do” list you’ll find yourself getting side tracked by your children, loved ones, and probably Facebook!

Motivation

Lack of this is the biggest killer of home businesses worldwide. When you have a J.O.B you have a boss or manager who oversees what you’re doing, keeps you positive, and gives you a gentle kick in the rear if you begin to slack.

That external motivation will be lacking when you work for yourself. It now becomes your responsibility to motivate yourself, and to keep yourself in that positive, pro-active state of mind for the whole of your working week. Give yourself business goals, and reward yourself each time you hit one or achieve something particularly special.

Organisation

When you work for yourself you have to be organized at all times. You won’t have anyone looking over your shoulder, or checking to make sure you’re getting everything done correctly. You are your own boss now, and it’s down to you to manage your time, and to ensure that any plans and systems you have in place are working effectively.

Time management is an area that many home based business people struggle with, and effective planning is a big part of staying on top of everything.

Persistence

There are many positives to working from home, but you must never lose sight of the fact it is hard work. Persistence and consistency are two very important ingredients for success. You must be prepared to go the extra mile for customers in order to build a long term relationship, and you need to consistently deliver results.

You must also continuously tweak and alter your systems so you can always have that important edge needed to stay ahead of the competing pack.

If these traits show up regularly enough during your working life, then you should be well on the way to a successful home business.

This article was written by Timothy Ng. You can read more of his work at www.lifeinsurancefinder.com.au where he has a number of comprehensive guides to life insurance.

The state government’s infrastructure adviser has said planning for the future of Sydney’s transport system should factor in the increasing number of people who will want to work from home rather than head to the office.

Wave of the future … Julie Reeves, an event manager for an international finance house, at work in her Alexandria home. Photo: Lee Besford

And on the evidence so far, there is a trend here, although the numbers remain small.

A study by the NSW Bureau of Transport Statistics shows that in 2009 about 7.5 per cent of workers who usually travelled to work spent some days working from home as part of an arrangement with their employer.

The percentage, which equates to about 172,000 workers out of a total pool of about 2.3 million, was up from 5.8 per cent (120,000 workers) in 2005 and 3.8 per cent (72,000 workers) in 2001.

But ”teleworking”, as it is called, is not a universal trend; it remains a time-management tool used by a particular type of worker.

The bureau’s study, presented in a paper last month to the Australasian Transport Research Forum, shows that male workers are more likely to be teleworkers than female.

Teleworkers are usually aged between 30 and 50, and often are part of a couple with children. They have higher average incomes – almost 70 per cent of teleworkers earn more than $60,000 a year – and about five in every six teleworkers are classified as managers, professionals and administrators.

Jon Dee, one of 20 Australians selected to ”champion” the national broadband network, admits to a bias in promoting the cause of teleworking.

But, as the managing director of the environmental not-for-profit Do Something!, he also perfectly matches the profile of the modern teleworker.

The average distance Sydneysiders travel from home to work was 15.6 kilometres, the study found. Teleworkers typically had a longer commute, recording an average 19.7 kilometre journey.

”I live in north Katoomba and for me every day that I don’t come down here [Do Something!'s office in Newtown], I’m saving a 200 kilometre trip,” said Mr Dee, who makes the journey into the office only a couple of times a week.

Julie Reeves, an event manager for an international finance house, said avoiding the trip from her home in Alexandria to the city was a pleasant side effect but not the main reason she now works from home on Mondays.

Ms Reeves, 25, said her employer had encouraged staff to take up flexible hours across its global offices. ”It’s a new arrangement. I’ve been doing it for about six to eight weeks now,” she said.

Part of the benefit for the company is that it saves on office space. ”You can have people sharing work stations and what not … but I would say the main driver of doing it is employee satisfaction and morale.”

Paul Broad, the inaugural chief executive of Infrastructure NSW, is in the midst of drawing up a 20-year infrastructure plan. He said in July that he thought there would be a rapid rise in employees avoiding traditional work spaces.

”If you paint a picture 20 years from now, you and I won’t be coming to work at 8 o’clock in the morning,” Mr Broad said.

”That will be seen as prehistoric … We will be far more flexible in how we come to work, and we come to work to meet people, to interact with people, and do a lot of the other work you would do either at home or in a community environment somewhere closer to home.”

Source:  Sydney Morning Herald

If you’re tired of spending hours on trains commuting to and from work, or you’re finding it hard to juggle your career with picking the kids up from school, then it may be time to consider working from home.

It may not be the easiest transition, but it’s sure to be one that will make reaching that work-life balance a lot easier.

Interior designer and stylist Juliet Love has these tips for setting up a home office.

Functionality

Storage is key to making a home office work for you, says Sydney-based Love.

She suggests using a small filing cabinet, bookshelf, boxes for storing discs and decorating the room with cherished items. Love, who is also a television presenter, is a big believer in surrounding yourself with things that you love and find inspirational.

“More and more people are working from home and so I think it’s really important to dedicate a space that is really organised and functional and somewhere that you can be motivated to be productive throughout the day,” she says.

“The first thing is to clear the space and make it as organised as possible because it’s pretty hard to be organised in a space that’s not organised, if that makes sense.”

Find inspiration

Decorating your office with inspiration can be as simple as hanging a pin board on a wall and posting favourite phrases or pictures on it.

“You don’t want to go overboard though because it is a work space,” says Love, “but just a couple of things around you that you’ll look at throughout the day that will keep you going.”

She suggests photographs, inspirational quotes from books or websites, pages from favourite magazines and artwork.

Furniture

Having the right furniture means a lot when it comes to being productive. Love says it’s a must to have an ergonomic chair and a proper desk.

She says using a proper desk instead of another piece of furniture, such as a dining table, is important. She says the right desk and chair will be easier for you to work at and help you to be motivated and productive.

If you’re thinking of grabbing your laptop and plonking on the lounge with a blanket, think again.

Stay focused

There are a lot of distractions around the home, and some of us may find it hard not to duck into the laundry to throw on a load of washing, or stay out of the kitchen cooking up a dinner feast. But when you’re working from home, staying focused is crucial.

Love says to avoid the temptation to tidy, have a dedicated space and make it as organised as possible.

“When you’re there treat it like you’re at an office outside of your home,” she says.

“Another trick that works for a lot people is to actually make sure that in the mornings you get dressed as though you’re going into an office where you’re going to be seeing a lot of people.

“If you’re all dressed for the day and you’re going into whatever your space is that is your home office and you’re not just in your pyjamas or your tracksuit, that also has a psychological effect on how you work at home.”

So no pot roasts, afternoon tea guests or midday telemovies.

Plants

For an extra touch to your home office and to get rid of any stale or musty air, add a pot plant to your desk.

“I love having plants around,” says Love. “I actually have a lot around my own home because they clean the air for you.”

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald

We’re no strangers to discussing the issue of work/life balance here at Lifehacker, and the challenges can become particularly acute if you decide to work from home. Here’s five aspects of the issue that are worth considering if you’re struggling with balancing life and work commitments and/or trying to move to a more flexible workplace arrangement.

Networking giant Cisco hosted a panel discussion in Sydney today to examine the issues surrounding making workplaces more productive and embracing the potential for more flexible work systems, and it raised a lot of interesting issues. Here’s five highlights that struck me as an audience member.

Flexibility should benefit the employer

As individuals, we often focus on the potential benefits to ourselves of more flexible work arrangements (no commute, availability for family commitments). However, offering that kind of working environment should also produce better results for employers as well. As futurist Ross Dawson put it:

What is required is flexible work structures which bring out ultimately the talent of the people working in those organisations. No organisation fully taps the value of the people working within it. Even getting incrementally better at that would put most organisations miles ahead.

Companies are often slow to recognise this, but that is in part because large enterprises aren’t designed with flexibility in mind in the first place. Fernanda Afonso, national chair of the Australian Psychological Society, explained that well:

Some of the biggest challenges we face is valuing diversity and being able to appreciate that we don’t all think the same and work the same. How do we accommodate the diversity of thinking, working and interacting with each other? Processes and policies need to signal that diversity is valued and how it is accommodated. Human beings tend to think “the way I’m wired is the way everyone else is wired”, but that’s rarely true.

Be active and take responsibility

Your workplace might seem to have an entirely rigid structure, but you won’t know how much it can be varied until you try. Many employees shy away from trying, as Afonso noted:

What can the individual do to set their own boundaries and communicate quite clearly what is important to them? Sometimes, we do expect our managers and our organisations to second-guess what’s going in in our lives and to accommodate that. We need to be active in communicating those needs. There are things that are hard wired that you have to work within, but there’s a growing amount of stuff you can actually be flexible about.

You also need to take some responsibility for striking the balance. Senator Kate Lundy gave a concrete example, noting that while her mobile phone meant that she was constantly connected, being able to communicate with her teenage children (a non-work task) was just as important a reason to have that option:

I’m on my phone a lot, but it’s not necessarily work. I don’t feel like I’m carrying work around because I’m carrying this around. It is about how I choose to control it.

Virtual community can only go so far

If you are working from home, then staying in touch with your office team is vital. Social networking tools (whether public or corporate-controlled) can make a big difference there, but it’s important to recognise that they have limitations, as Afonso explained:

In order to maintain good mental health, there’s two things that human beings need: sensible timing and control, and a sense of being connected to some sort of community. The way in which we’re doing that is shifting and changing. People have got Facebook accounts, Twitter accounts, and there is that virtual connection. But when it comes to relationship building and enabling the trusting relationships which will enable flexibility, that part still has to be done face to face and it’s hard to get away from that. At the core of it all, we are still human beings and we are still social animals, and there is the sense of needing to feel connected.

Flexible working is more than working from home

We often associate flexibility in the workplace with working from home and having control over our own hours, but that’s not the only approach. Senator Lundy promoted a different view:

The models are going to be many and varied, and I can foresee many of our country towns having a shared place for telework that will be very social. It’s not just about working from home. The issues of social isolation are really important. Rather than a daily commute, maybe it’ll be a weekly commute and an overnighter and the pattern will change. We need human interaction on a daily basis. To construct work-life models that preclude that kind of engagement would be heading in the wrong direction. Combined spaces will be a really important part of the trend.

That might sound like an appealing “sea/tree change” scenario, but Dawson noted that not everyone wants to leave large cities:

There is the potential for regional hubs to flourish, but it’s not as if everybody goes everywhere. People are still looking for those social and cultural and infrastructure elements that cities offer, and in Australia there are issues like water and other basic necessities of distributed life to consider.

Or as Jacob Murray-White, head of the customer solutions at home program for call centre and communications company Salmat, put it: “It’s not just chucking a couple of rooms in the council chambers in Tamworth. You’ve got to do more than that.”

The rewards should be shared equally

The hidden challenge with flexibility is that it’s rarely made an equal option for everyone. If your boss wants to work from home, chances are they will — but a properly flexible workplace will offer that option to everyone. Murray-White summed up that aspect:

People working from home is already happening. It’s just devolving what is already happening at the executive level and the mid management level down throughout the workforce. That’s what we’re trying to do, but we have a long way to go.

What hurdles have you faced in trying to achieve more flexible work arrangement and better work/life balance, and how have you overcome them? We’d love to hear about it in the comments.

Picture by Sean MacEntee

Source: Lifehacker

Okay, I’m not really going crazy but I bet those who just made the switch from being corporate slaves to work-at-home professionals feel like it.

Working at home for the very first time can be disturbing. People may complain about being tied to the office but when things change, they tend to miss office life. You miss the efficiency, how accessible things are, and the relationships with co-workers. So how do you stay sane and productive with your new environment?

1. Don’t lose the connection.

Working at home doesn’t mean cutting all your ties to the outside world. If anything, this is a time when you should cultivate more relationships. Check up on your clients regularly by emailing them or chatting with them online. Set a weekly date with your friends or former officemates to catch up on each others’ lives.

2. Have your own workspace.

It’s tempting to work while in bed but don’t or you’ll end sleeping the day away. Pick a nice spot in your house where there is a nice view and plenty of sunshine. Place a small table and set up your laptop.

Seasoned work-at-home professionals know that a workspace can make or break you. A workspace in the basement will make you lonely and irritated while working on your dining table would only distract you especially when the kids and the hubby come home. Your own workspace allows you to stay focused and be more effective.

3. Maintain a work schedule.

Working at home gives you some leeway to sleep a little late but don’t overdo it. Keep a work schedule to make sure that you do your projects on time. Whether your calendar is on your Blackberry or on your laptop, you should always remember that there are projects to finish, deadlines to meet, and people to talk to.

Choose your own work schedule, whether it’s 7 to 4, 8 to 5, or 9 to 6. Stick to it and when the work day ends, you are free to tend to other things in your life.

4. Schedule a break.

I don’t want you to go insane so I always recommend that work-at-home professionals take a short break. A 15-minute break in the morning and another one in the afternoon will help you re-energize. You can take a nap, walk in your street, do some stretching exercises, or eat a healthy snack. Oh, and don’t forget to have lunch!

5. Don’t forget a ‘me-time.’

Working at home is never easy and you should learn to reward yourself with some quality time. Some mums I know have their weekly massage to de-stress while others hit the gym. It’s up to you if you want your ‘me-time’ on a daily or weekly basis. What’s important is that you allow yourself to relax.

There are other things to do to stay sane while working at home. Different strokes for different folks. Whatever you do, make sure you remain productive and effective with what you’re doing.

How about you? How do you stay sane? Care to add to the list?

Recently, Fortune Magazine published their annual list of the 100 Best Companies to Work for. It’s always a popular read to check out the companies listed. If you haven’t seen this year’s list, you can check it out here.

What I always find more interesting that just the list of company names and their rankings, is what these companies offer their employees. To me, this is what the list is really about. It identifies best practices.

This year’s list had some interesting data:

• The top 10 best companies encouraged employees to balance their work and personal life
• 82 of the 100 companies listed offered telecommuting

So, the key concept behind workshifting – being able to work productively from anywhere – are embraced by the companies considered to be the crème de la crème in Corporate America. This comes right after the Federal Government implemented the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010, mandating Federal Agencies to implement telework policies.

It’s clear organizations both public and private are recognizing the benefits of workshifting. This is terrific. But we all read this blog and know that, right? The next logical step in this new normal is education.

For years, employees have been accustomed to getting up every day and driving to this place called “work.” They put in their time and go home. If they bring work with them, they make do with their resources at home. Today, work might be 10 steps away. It’s a major change.

I remember when I first started consulting. I spoke to every consultant who would let me buy them a cup of coffee. And asked them their biggest challenges.

One person told me it would take two years to get used to working at home. Two years?! Somehow that seemed ridiculous. But let me tell you…for me, it took every bit that long. Working from home is not a cakewalk. You have to be disciplined and manage yourself.

In my case, it was a bit different. I was too disciplined. I was so afraid of getting distracted by television or the household chores that I made myself miserable. I finally lightened up and achieved some balance.

In order for workshifting to be successful, it takes a lot of information. Companies can’t simply declare telework is OK and hope everything works out. Guidelines for success need to be created. Both employees and employers need resources.

The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Families and Work Institute (FWI) just announced a multi-year partnership called Moving Work Forward. Their goal is to be that resource that can help organizations adopt workplace flexibility policies in an effort to be more competitive.

Check out this video from FWI and SHRM that explains the Moving Work Forward initiative:

Source: WorkShifting.com

As broadband erases the boundaries between places and time zones, companies can take advantage of remote workers and virtual teams, but two new surveys show that many organizations aren’t. Generally, it’s not because they don’t have the tools, but because they don’t have the mindset. It’s not just technology, but the culture, that needs to change, according to reports issued today by Cisco and Citrix. Both companies hope to make huge sales on collaboration software and gear.

Despite the fact that SMBs are far more likely to have employees working remotely than larger organizations, they haven’t invested in collaboration tools to the extent that enterprises have, according to the Citrix Online report: the company behind tools such as GoToMyPC and GoToMeeting. The study, carried out by Forrester Research, looked at the working habits of employees in the U.S., the UK, Germany, France and Australia, and revealed that while 31 percent of SMB employees work remotely at least some of the time (versus 21 percent of enterprise employees), SMBs are using collaboration tools significantly less than enterprises. Some 35 percent of SMBs use audio conferencing tools, compared to 58 percent of enterprises, while just 14 percent of SMBs use video conferencing tools, versus 40 percent of enterprises.

The results of the Citrix survey might sound somewhat surprising given the availability, usefulness and low cost of many web-based collaboration tools, and illustrates this gap in culture. Perhaps some businesses feel they don’t need such tools, or feel they can’t fit them into their workflows. Some organizations might even be unaware of the benefits that collaboration software can offer to remote workers.

The study also looked into differences in attitude toward flexible working from companies in different countries and found that U.S.-based workers tend to have less flexible work arrangements than those in other countries. Twenty-three percent of workers in the U.S. work from home at some point during the week, vs 34 percent in the UK, for example. And just 11 percent of U.S. employees work while traveling (at a coffee shop or airport, for example), compared to 30 percent in France.

The mindset of U.S-based firms toward flexible working will have to change in the future, however, if companies want to attract and retain the best talent. Data released today in anther report — Cisco’s Connected World survey — revealed that most workers (66 percent) would prefer to have the option of flexible working over a higher salary. The Cisco study (which draws on a survey of end users and IT decision makers in a variety of countries) says that two-thirds of workers would like to have the option of flexible working, with 60 percent of workers feeling that they don’t need to be in the office to be productive.

This begs the question: If flexible working arrangements could help businesses to attract talent and could also mean lower overhead in terms of salaries, why don’t more companies offer it currently? One of the primary reasons is also revealed in the Cisco report: 45 percent of IT professionals are struggling to make their workforces more mobile and distributed, with security, insufficient budget and corporate culture cited as the biggest obstacles.

Source: Gigaom

So you want to work from home. You wonder what you can possibly do to sustain this as a long-term option.  Hobbies are a lot of fun, but you know what is even better?  Turning your hobby and passion into a way to make money and work from home.

Don’t quit your day job just yet, here are just some ideas you can consider when starting a home-based business.

1. Auction sites

Many mums start by selling pre-owned items on online auction sites. Go through the wardrobes and the garage and look for items that you no longer use but are still in great condition, and sell them online. Selling second-hand items is a great way to earn a little money and be familiar and gain confidence in selling online. Check out eBay, WahmBay and QuickSales.

2. Arts and crafts

Do you love creating things? Are you into arts and crafts? You can channel your creative juices by creating products that you can sell to family, friends, and others. If you’re into creating scrapbooks, you can make and sell these to fellow mums who love to chronicle family milestones. You can also create one-of-a-kind accessories like necklace, earrings, bracelets, etc. There are some amazing sites to sell your arts and crafts online. Check out Etsy, Mums Who Make, and MadeIt.

3. Culinary

If cooking is more your forte, you can share your great recipes by selling your goodies. Food never goes out of style and everyone is always on the lookout for great-tasting and mouth-watering dishes. You can start by baking cakes or desserts and sell them to your friends and neighbors. Some mums also take advantage of the holidays like Christmas since food is always a great gift to give. You can also offer your services as a chef for birthdays, private dinners. Love cooking for large groups of people? If that is the case, you will want to look into starting your own catering business; you could even provide a lunchtime delivery service to local businesses and offices.

4. Writing

If writing is more your thing, you can offer your services as freelance writer. Writing covers a lot of things. You can be great at writing articles for publications, or work as a freelance scriptwriter. Some people are also great at writing sales letters or grant proposals. If more work comes your way, you can also hire other writers under your supervision. Check out Service Seeking, Professional PA and Cloud Crowd. 

5. Direct selling

If you’re not the creative type or you don’t even know how to boil water, maybe you’re good at selling.  Avon has always been known in providing women with the opportunity to earn by becoming an Avon Lady. Maybe this one is more suitable for you. If you have the gift of gab, then you can try your hand at direct selling. Check out these other great direct selling opportunities. Euro Skin Care and Tupperware.

6. Party planner

The parents of the new Duchess of Cambridge Catherine Middleton made a fortune by starting a home-based party planning business in 1987.  Since then, they have transformed their business into an empire. Party planning is always a hit for busy people. Check out PartyPlanPortal, Silver Swan Jewellery, and Lorraine Lea Linen.

7. Graphics design

Graphics design is something you can always do at home. Many companies, including publications and advertising agencies, outsource design works instead of hiring regular employees. You only need a great computer, a reliable Internet connection, and lots of creative ideas. Check out the Lifestyle Careers website (www.lifestylecareers.com.au) to see what possibilities really exist for you today – and be sure to bookmark the page, so you can keep updated on new opportunities.

Working at home is never easy but the rewards can be great. As with anything, perseverance, hard work and commitment are always the key to achieve your goals.

]]> http://www.yourbalance.com.au/make-money-from-your-hobby-and-work-from-home/feed/ 0 http://www.yourbalance.com.au/managing-a-virtual-workforce/ http://www.yourbalance.com.au/managing-a-virtual-workforce/#comments Sun, 03 Jul 2011 22:00:17 +0000 Leah Gibbs http://www.yourbalance.com.au/?p=1892

Managing remote and virtual workers is going to become a key competency for managers. But with no one teaching this vital skill, it is something managers and co-workers may have to pick up on their own.

More companies will be managing virtual workforces and remote workers. How do you manage someone who is never there? Photo: Illustration: Frank Maiorana

As companies become leaner, the virtual worker will become more prevalent, and some will be providing their services either from home or from a separate office location.

There is a lot to be said about remote working. You can wear whatever you want and you don’t have to put up with the tiresome shenanigans of office politics. The downside is that it can leave you out of the loop and it’s harder to communicate with your boss, if you can ever get hold of them. (If you have ever had to work outside the office, or spent time telecommuting, you know what that means.)

Nevertheless, remote working will become more mainstream and office hours will become less relevant. Part of it is economics. Companies want to run as efficiently as possible and a remote workforce allows them to keep a lid on labour costs and real estate.

The other reason why it’s likely to be seen more often is because of greater access to technology. As reported here, 8 per cent of Australians now own a tablet and smart phone penetration is at 35 per cent. That makes remote working a lot easier.

As Daniel Etherington writes in Gigacom, companies and managers need to start preparing for the post-PC world. “If you stay stuck in a PC mode when the rest of the world moves into a post-PC phase, you not only run the risk of losing touch with employees, but also with customers and the rest of the marketplace. If you start getting ready now, and keep in mind that a change in attitude can precede any change in deployed hardware, you should be able to keep pace with or anticipate the post-PC curve.”

That’s all well and good but what about the downside of remote working. While there is a lot to be said about not seeing your boss or colleagues every day, there are communication problems. And not everyone is suited for this sort of working style. As I say in my blog entry here, it only suits people who are self motivated and who can work around distractions, even go for hours without talking to anyone. If you can’t do that, you are better off in the office.

So what are the best ways to deal with remote worker issues? USA Today columnist Anita Bruzzese says bosses should use instant messaging to stay in touch and schedule a daily phone conversation, picking up the warning signs when the remote worker is missing deadline and making sure they mention things like birthdays, anniversaries and awards in newsletters and the intranet.

She says remote workers should keep regular hours so that the boss knows when they will be available, keeping the boss in the loop about what they’re doing, and constantly keeping up to date with training to keep their skills fresh. It would also be a good idea to just keep in touch with people at the workplace, getting together with them for a coffee.

Management writer James Adonis suggests companies use social networking sites to keep in touch, have more videoconferences so that employees can see each other, conduct more off site get togethers, perhaps once or twice a year, and ask the remote worker to come in for a day every quarter so they can interact with staff.

Intel Australia managing director Philip Cronin says it’s an issue for managers because they have to focus on outcomes and results, rather than the process. It doesn’t matter how they do it, as long as they get it done – and that can be a challenge for some. “Because you don’t have the same degree of involvement in how the work is done, you need to be comfortable operating with more ambiguity – in how you set goals, in how you measure things and so on. This in turn will challenge some managers, particularly in a company where people are very measurement-focused. Some might not make the step to the new environment.”

What are the traits you need to be a remote worker? How should managers interact with their virtual workforce?

Source: The Age