idealpeople blog

It’s been a slow couple of weeks in terms of juicy news - there’s not been much of note in the Idealpeople blog inbox (except something about banks and credit crunches and doom and stuff) and besides, we’ve been particularly busy putting the final, finishing touches to the Idealpeople corporate website - why not pop over and have a look? There - that’s our excuses done with (do all bloggers feel like us - like they need to apologise for being a bit quiet, or is it just us?) - so let’s get on with things.

In other news - we’ve realised that the blog is now over a year old! We’re actually quite proud of that - so well done to us.

One thing that has grabbed our attention recently is a survey which suggests that 62% of us Brits would like to tele-commute but 75% of us are in jobs which don’t allow for it.

Working from home (the traditional name for the admittedly much cooler “tele-commuting”) has been the topic of many a discussion at Idealpeople HQ. So, if 62% of us want to do it - and the technology exists to allow it, why are only 15% of us allowed to? The arguments for and against are, we guess, relatively well published - it’s harder to manage and measure someone not in the office - but allowing tele-commuting allows a much wider search for new recruits and is such a benefit that it really adds to a recruitment brand and certainly makes a company a more attractive prospect from a potential hire’s point-of-view. The fact is - some employer’s support it, and some (well, if the above survey is anything to go by, most) don’t.

Perhaps a more interesting question then is how a job-seeker can pro-actively target positions which allow working from home without being instantly ruled out by the perception amongst recruiters that people who want to work from home for all or part of the week are less attractive than people who don’t. How can that 62% make their desires better known and avoid being turned away or forced into the office 5 days a week?

Well, as a starter for ten, try these tips….

1 Don’t hide it
A common mistake is for people to secure an interview, do well at that interview and then drop in that they want to work from home 2 days a week. This is never a good ploy. Instead, be up-front and honest about it. Put it in your CV. If companies you are talking to aren’t aware of it from an early stage, you’ll end wasting your own time by going to meet companies who are negative towards the prospect of home-working. It might result in fewer interviews, but an open approach will mean a better success rate.

2 Have answers to concerns
There’s an excellent article on this here, based on an interview with Tory Johnson, author of Will Work from Home. In it, Tory describes how to overcome the majority of objections that any manager is going to have about home-working - including measuring performance, ad the fear that if one person is allowed to do it - so will everyone else. So make sure you are armed with positive things to say if you’re questioned about it.

3 Don’t force the issue
If a potential employer is extremely against the idea of allowing you to work from home, ask yourself if it’s even worthwhile trying to convince them otherwise. The last thing you want is to accept a job having negotiated hard for an extra half-day out of the office: if the company you’re talking are slightly against it in the first place, the chances are their stance is not going to change too quickly - and your chance of increasing the time you get to work from home are limited.

Happy hunting!