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home-based working for your employer - Part 2

By Darina • Dec 1st, 2008 • Category: Latest Entry

Many leading-edge organisations have been actively promoting home-working for several years and have measured the benefits across a range of criteria over a significant time period. However if you aren’t lucky enough to work for one of them you need to know how to approachyour employer and look for it for your situation.

Last week we looked at some of the things that need to be in place before you even start thinking about approaching your employer. Now we are going to look at how to approach them and how to sell it to them !

A lot of it comes down to that old adage “Fail to prepare and you prepare to fail !” You need to prepare a thorough and well researched proposal before putting it to your employer.
First of all try and suss out what your employers attitude to home-working might be. Just because you think “they’ll never go for it !” isn’t a reason not to try. If you can present a good case you might be able to swing them.

Don’t just have a casual chat with them about. This is an important decision for your employer and you. You need to be professional about it. Sure you need to talk face to face but you also need to have a well researched, written proposal ready to hand to them at the end of your chat !

Here are some things to think about including in your proposal.

Find out if competitor companies in the same industry sector. allow telecommuting

Don’t talk about what telecommuting can do for you ! You need to include what telecommuting can do for your employer Don’t mention that you want a better work-life balance, or to spend more time with your family and less time commuting or any other personal need. State clearly only that telecommuting will make you more productive and efficient. That it will be a better use of the time you previously spent stuck in traffic or commuting. That it will make your employers life easier - Not yours ! .

Try and find some statistics and articles on the benefits of telecommuting to employers. There are lots out there in the big world wide web ! Get as many statistics and case-studies as you can..

List your accomplishments and achivements in work. Describe yourself as someone who has the characteristics of a successful telecommuter, and wherever possible, give supporting evidence of these characteristics, such as in performance evaluations..

Explain clearly to your employer that your childcare arrangements will remain the same as when you are working in the office. - not that your 3 year old will be your assistant ! and address this straight up with your employer. They know why you want to work from home Of course they know personal circumstances and needs come into it, so while you don’tpresent your proposal in those terms you do need to address them and lay your employers mind at ease.

Show how you will handle disturbances or interruptions. One of the biggest fears of many employers in allowing home-working is the loss of control ! the feeling that if they aren’t there to supervise you, nothing will get done. This is particularly prevelant in small to medium companies..

You need to build in accountability measures into your proposal.

Suggest ways that you can report on the work that you have done. There are lots of online tools now to help you with this. Most of these are freely available and if you can suggest a specific one it will impress your boss with the research you have done. You can also agree on times for you to phone in, or have online video calls at a regular schedule. Again most of this can be done without any cost to your employer with the technology that’s now available versus even 5 or 6 years ago when I used to telecommute with my employer.

Make sure you include a description of your workspace,as I mentioned in the previous entry, casually remarking about your great big kitchen table is not going to cut it !

Propose a schedule and a trial period.Explain to your boss that you understand this is a new departure for them. If you present your case properly they’ll realise they have nothing to lose by at least trialling it !

So you’ve prepared your case and now you need to present it. Don’t get off on the wrong foot at this stage. Know your boss ! Think about things like whether they seem to prefer discussing new ideas in the morning or afternoon? Are they more receptive to things at the beginning, middle or end of the week?. Don’t pick end of month when they are upto their eyes in finances !! Just plan your time as carefully and thoroughly as you planned your proposal. If they are the type of person who likes ownership of ideas, then take this into account in your proposal - If they need to go to a higher level to get approval they might want to present it as if it’s their idea ! Don’t worry about that as long as you get what you want in the end.

If you are passionate enough about this, passionate enough to show you’ve done your research, you know the pros and cons and you are prepared for objections (which we will take about next time !) then your employers can’t fail to be impressed !

next time we’ll look at some of the objections you might face and how to overcome them

darina