If you’re a working mum, working from home could be the solution to the current childcare crisis. Here’s the Five-Step Plan to Talking your Boss into Letting you Telework.
Convincing your boss to let you work from home can be a difficult task, especially if there isn’t already a telework programme in place where you work. But armed with the facts, a proven track record for performance and a well-drawn up plan, there’s a good chance you can tip the argument in your favour.
1 Determine whether it’s right for you
Some people, jobs and tasks are just not suitable for teleworking. Assess yourself, your working habits and your job and work out whether it’s a viable option for you.
Ask yourself what advantages will this working style offer you and your company? Have you the skills necessary to work from home? Are you a good self-starter? Are you disciplined in your work? Is there a risk that you might start feeling isolated and cut-off if you’re working from home? Is your home the right environment?
If you decide you’d like to give teleworking a try, go the next step and develop a proposal.
2 Develop a Plan
Draw up a proposal outlining the business, personal and professional benefits for you teleworking. Also you need to decide how many days a week you’ll work from home; when you will start and whether you envision a return to the office at some point in the future.
Come up with a firm schedule, for example, working in the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays and working from home on the other three days. You’ll need to figure out exactly what equipment will be required to set yourself up too. It can be as simple as borrowing the company’s laptop, but long-distance phone calls, if that’s required in your job, can add up fast, so be sure you establish up front who’s going to pay for it.
3 Give your boss a written outline of your plan
Talk to your boss. Explain how your work-from-home system would benefit the company. Always focus on the benefits that teleworking can offer the company, rather than the traffic jams it will enable you to avoid.
Never approach it from a permanent basis. Say you’d like to try it for three months and they can evaluate you at the beginning, once in the middle and once at the end, to see how it’s working in terms of productivity. Then tell them you’ll sit down and re-evaluate it at the end of the trial period. This can be reassuring for you and for your employer.
4 Support your case
– Surveys suggest that productivity can increase by between 10 and 40 per cent arising from reduced distractions of an office environment and time spent travelling
– You could indicate that you’d be willing to work late on a difficult project if you were given the option of working from home some of the time.
– The inability to directly oversee employees that are working from home is perhaps the greatest concern of managers. Give them some facts to prove them wrong. Reassure your boss that you’ll be fully reachable if and when required.
– Teleworkers are usually able to focus more clearly and work more efficiently.
– Offering a telework programme can be a major factor in helping to attract and retain qualified workers.
– The company will be able to cut the costs of recruitment and training of new staff.
5 Offer your boss a list of productivity measurements
The biggest fear bosses have is that you’re going to be sitting around in your pyjamas watching day-time TV and drinking tea all day. Your proposal might include, “I’ll deliver this many reports per week” or “I’ll meet these milestones by the first of the month.” Giving a concrete list of what you’ll deliver makes your plan look serious and well thought out.
For example if you’re involved in customer service or sales, start keeping track of how many calls you put out to clients each week. Find some way to quantify your current level of productivity, so you’re boss will have something with which to compare. The task is made significantly easier, of course, if you’re a good worker to begin with, with a proven track record of getting the job done, done well and done on time.
Debbie O’Halloran
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