More than half of workers globally have a home office, but having a fully-equipped professional space at home is much rarer and businesses hardly make the necessary investment. This was one of the key findings of a research conducted by the world's largest provider of flexible workspace Regus. The local arm of Regus – Regus Sri Lanka – revealed further information on home working trends in Sri Lanka and on the extensive research conducted in more than 100 countries and covering over 44,000 senior business people.

Over the past few years, Sri Lanka has witnessed a steady shift towards companies allowing employees to work from home. In local tech companies, this seems to be a common practice primarily when it comes to jobs such as software development where the developer could work from his or her home office while communicating with the team via tools such as email and chat. One of the main reasons for home working to spread is the relatively low cost of broadband and related devices such as laptops and PCs.Home working is gradually making its way into other industries in Sri Lanka due to the perceived benefits it provides.

However, while there may be a few benefits, the Regus research has shown that across the globe, home working has several drawbacks. Some of the key findings of the research are given below.

Home office not a professional space - 61% of workers said that they have a home office but only 51% claimed that it is a professional space that is conducive to working at optimum levels.

Less support from companies –While a fifth said that it would take a whole month’s salary for them to properly equip a professional working space within their home, only around a third (34%) reported that their company had contributed to equipping their home office. This invariably means that companies that encourage home working were able to make a saving.

Significant annual running costs - Respondents on average reported that running costs for a home office came to about £3,400 or equivalent a year.In fact, half of workers believe that helping workers create a professional workspace in their own homes can save businesses money in the long run.

Hidden risks - 79% of respondents confirmed that companies that encouraged their employees to work from home are not aware that they must ensure health and safety standards are implemented and 77% reported that they do not take out the appropriate insurance cover on this home workspace. This revealed a hidden risk, as in order to achieve a relatively small saving, companies could potentially be incurring in all sorts of higher expenses by not regulating the environment their staff works from.

Other key findings show that more than one in ten respondents (12%) report that fully equipping a home office would cost even more than  a full month’s salary. 79% of respondents confirm that most companies that encourage their employees to work from home do not cover all the costs of creating and maintaining that workspace while almost half (49%) of workers globally think that most companies that encourage their employees to work from home are simply trying to transfer the cost of having workspace onto the employee.

Given this extensive research the financial benefits of remote working for both employees and employer are clear. However, it also shows that many businesses are currently missing out on a valuable opportunity by failing to fully commit. While there is a clear business advantage to ensuring staff are able to work effectively and safely when away from the office, the figures suggest that too many firms risk incurring higher expenses by not regulating remote work environments. In conclusion, a small investment in offering workers with access to fully-equipped, professional workspaces closer to home could help firms provide a fully compliant environment for flexible workers, saving staff money too.

Founded in Brussels, Belgium, in 1989, Regus is the global workplace provider based in Luxembourg and listed on the London Stock Exchange.  Regus’ network of more than 2,300 business centres in 850 cities and 104 countries provides convenient, high-quality, fully serviced spaces for people to work, whether for a few minutes or a few years. Companies like Google, Toshiba and GlaxoSmithKline choose Regus so that they can work flexibly and make their businesses more successful. Regus has opened wherever its 2.1 million members want support - city centres, suburban districts, shopping centres and retail outlets, railway stations, motorway service stations and even community centres.