Welcome! To our March newsletter and to Spring; longer days and hopefully a little more sunshine.
Following on from our attendance at February’s Best Business Expo , we exhibited at the Going for Growth conference on 6th March. This conference, organised by the Watford Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with Watford council and was arranged to provide support and guidance to Watford and West Herts businesses. It updated us on some really exciting local developments including the extension of the Metropolitan line to Watford Junction and the Croxley business park as well as redevelopment of a health campus around Watford General Hospital.
Going forward, DOHR will be exhibiting at Best Business Expo Luton on 16th May and we will have an exhibition stand at The Great British Business Show on 6th and 7th June at London’s Excel where Donna will also be speaking.
In this newsletter, we examine working from home looking at the advantages and disadvantages from both the employer and employee viewpoints. Finally, we take a brief check on key dates and remind you of our blog.
Feedback is always welcome, you can contact us HERE.
The Great British Business Show 6th-7th June
This 2 day event is posed to attract more than 25,000 businesses with the primary objective – to improve, network and expand. The Great British Business Show is the fastest growing exhibition of its type in Europe, tickets are FREE and you can sign up HERE. We are delighted to be taking a stand at the show which is an incredible opportunity to network with others, attend workshops covering subjects including Social Media and Branding; and visit seminars with top speakers such as James Caan, Gordon McAlpine and of course our very own Donna Obstfeld.
Working from Home – does it work for you?
As you may be aware, DOHR is fully set up to enable its employees to work from home and with the decision from Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer that her employees must work at HQ or resign still resonating around the world, we take a look at the pro’s and con’s of remote working.
There is no doubt that Ms Mayer’s announcement has proved controversial with both employers and employees speaking out against her decision, including Richard Branson. Mr Branson says, quite rightly, “To successfully work with other people, you have to trust each-other”. Yes, it does mean that you need a different style of management, but it is a fact that having embraced the wonders of modern technology it has become clear that work is no longer just a 9 to 5 job and the ability to work remotely has opened up a world of new opportunities and possibilities for employers and employees.
Of course, working from home does not suit all industries, as an example, a manufacturing business could not have factory workers toiling away at home, nor could a doctor’s surgery. Depending on the needs of the business, having employees working from their own home in an evening, may give a company a competitive edge over rivals. In addition, by basing employees in their own homes, rather than centralised offices, company costs can be reduced as less office space is required, less energy is used to heat the office and carbon emissions are lower as commuting is kept to a minimum.
For many, being able to juggle childcare, eldercare and personal needs with the needs of a business can also be achieved more easily by working from home, but there is a duty on both the manager and the employee to agree an acceptable framework, to agree objectives and deliverables and to monitor progress.
Looking at it from another point of view, some people just cannot work from home because they need to be surrounded by the buzz of an office environment, enjoying office banter and bouncing ideas off colleagues. This is where it needs to be a personal choice as to whether working from home is right for you as well as the business.
When recruiting for a new position, with the flexibility of allowing people to work from home an employer is able to offer a role to a candidate much further away than in the past. In fact, if you are recruiting and you have two CV’s placed in front of you, one of which is for a candidate 2 miles away and one is for a candidate 50 miles away, the latter having the best experience and qualifications for the job – why would you compromise on distance with today’s outstanding technology, virtual conferencing and ability to travel?
The world of virtual services is expanding too – with virtual PA’s and virtual consultants in many different fields. There are services available to every business at the touch of a button, is it only a matter of time before every home is built with its own office included in the floorplan?
Do you work from home? Do you employ staff that work from home? What are the benefits and challenges for your business? We would love to hear your views too.
We Blog!
Our latest blog can be accessed HERE. We discuss work experience and whether today’s employers can offer the right type of work experience for today’s students. How relevant are qualifications in an age where there are top businessmen with no qualifications at all running large corporations?
Coming up we will be talking about Whistleblowing and we have guest blogger Rachel Bradman of Naked Recruitment writing a post especially for us. To sign up to our blogs, click HERE.
Key Dates
March Parental Leave increases to 4 months (as of 8/3/13)
17th March St Patrick’s Day
26th March Passover
29th March Good Friday
31st March Easter Sunday
April Employee-owner contract introduced
16th May Best Business Expo,Luton
6th-7th June Great British Business Show, Excel,London
