Homeworking on the increase in the UK

Innovations in broadband and communications technology have seen increasing numbers of people doing their work at home, a new report has claimed.

Nearly a third (30 per cent) of employees are now homeworking for at least part of the month, with an average of 15.73 hours being spent away from the office, according to financial services provider Zurich.

This has been spurred on by innovations in data transfer, secure office networks, IP PBXs and VoIP telephony systems.

And the trend is set to continue according to Mark Searles, Zurich's managing director of retail, who said: "We are going to see the popularity of home working rise and rise as both workers and employers seek a better work/life balance."

Two-thirds of the 1,078 full-time workers questioned in Zurich's survey said that the best benefit of homeworking was avoiding the commute, while over half (55 per cent) said they enjoyed working at home as it meant they were away from their colleagues.

This follows a report from Robert Half Financial Services Group, which found that a quarter of all financial service workers looking for a new job wanted one which allowed them to work from home.