Employers who allow staff to work from home need to ensure home workers enjoy equal career development prospects, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has warned.

The CIPD’s warning comes in response to Durham Business School’s survey of 750 home workers, Location, location, location: Does place of work really matter?. The survey highlighted home workers’ concerns over missing out on networking and career development opportunities by not being based on site with the rest of their colleagues. The survey is due to be published in the British Journal of Management later this year,

“A lot of employees who work from home do so on an ad hoc basis,” said CIPD adviser Angela Baron. “Employers can often be bad at keeping in touch with these staff, which can leave them feeling isolated.

“They need to maintain good communication with home workers if they are to avoid employees feeling out of the loop,” she added. “This might be through a combination of email updates and regular face-to-face meetings with staff. Home workers need to feel they are part of the team and not missing out on any perks of the job by working from home.”

Durham Business School’s research also found staff who work from home are concerned about missing out on training, networking opportunities and informal discussions.

“There were worries from those we surveyed about the lack of face-to-face time in an organisation, simply because their face wasn’t there to be seen,” said Tom Redman, Durham Business School professor of human resource management. “Working from home is an antidote to the stresses of office-based working, but this may be at the expense of lower-levels of support for career development.”

Baron agreed that flexible working can help reduce the stress that many employees feel when they try to balance the demands of home and working life.

“Firms can also benefit from the positive impact of flexible working on their reputation as a responsible employer,” she added. “But staff that work flexibly need to be managed effectively so that the benefits of allowing them to do so, are not counteracted by employees’ concerns they are missing out.”

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