--- title: Does home working work? - 4 Tips description: Does home working improve productivity and employee moral? Stanford University have recently published an interesting study that examines this very question. Plus read top tips to get working from home to work for your business. image: https://blog.vtsl.net/hs-fs/hub/364792/file-1765930040.jpg --- ## NEWS & BLOG ## Does home working work? - 4 Tips - ** Audra Oliver - ** 03-Oct-2014 11:27:00 - ** ![Home_working_VTSL](https://blog.vtsl.net/hs-fs/hub/364792/file-1765930040.jpg?width=331&height=207&name=file-1765930040.jpg)Ctrip, China’s largest travel agency, ran an experiment.  They asked the 996 employees in the airfare and hotel departments of the Shanghai call centre whether they would be interested in working from home four days a week, with the fifth day in the office. Approximately half of the employees (503) were interested and began what was a [9 month experiment](https://web.stanford.edu/~nbloom/WFH.pdf) on home working.   The results were striking.  Firstly the performance of the home workers went up dramatically, increasing by 13% over the nine months of the experiment.  This improvement came mainly from a 9% increase in the number of minutes they worked during their shifts (i.e., the time they were logged in to take calls). Secondly attrition fell sharply among the home workers, dropping by 50% versus the control group (those working in the office). Thirdly home workers also reported substantially higher work satisfaction and had more positive attitudinal survey outcomes.   The overall impact to the company was even more striking.  The firm estimated it improved productivity by around 25% and saved about $2,000 per year per employee working at home, leading Ctrip to offer the option to work from home to the entire firm.   So how do you make home working work for you?   **1)      ****Get home workers connected**   In the experiment above, the home workers had the exact same IT set-up as their office based counterparts—i.e. their work phone and settings, internet connectivity and access to company programs, drives and applications.   To get home working to work, your business needs cloud-based phones and applications so that they are easily accessible anywhere.  This doesn’t need to be expensive.  Google offers great business email / drive options, and phone providers like [VTSL](https://www.vtsl.net/)offer affordable cloud-based VoIP services, meaning your employees can work from home with essentially an office phone, or use their mobile just like their office phone. [Learn more here.](https://www.vtsl.net/solutions/flexible-working/)   **2)      ****Strict working hours & clear cut rules**   Make it clear from the start what the parameters of home working are—who is allowed to work from home, the procedure, and what home working hours are.   **3)      ****Balance is best**   In the Ctrip experiment, home workers were still required to come into the office for one day a week.  Make sure your home workers come into the office regularly and attend team meetings.   **4)      ****Video conferencing**   Modern video conferencing means that employees working from home can attend meetings virtually as if they were in the room.  For companies with lots of internal meetings, video conferencing will help to ensure there isn’t a loss of connection between staff that benefit from face time with each other.  Have a chat with our friends at [Videonations](http://www.videonationsltd.co.uk/solutions/) to see what video conferencing option would be best for your business.   The truth is [home working is on the rise](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-27694938) with more employees working from home this year than any year previously.  As such employers that don’t offer a home working option are going to increasingly find they have a harder time retaining staff, and the staff they do have are less productive than they could be.   Don’t’ let that be you.  Get a quote on a VoIP system for your business today and get home working, working for your business.   [![Get a quote from VTSL for a VoIP business phone system](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/364792/c41dc9eb-bfd7-45b7-87c3-39e7a6513d2b.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/364792/c41dc9eb-bfd7-45b7-87c3-39e7a6513d2b) - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) ### Welcome to our blog! 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