Small business employees often work from home

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 28 April 2011 12:24

It's sometimes asserted that small businesses lag far behind the corporate sector when it comes to letting employees work from home or other locations away from the main office. But that's not what a survey conducted for Telstra found.

Research conducted by IDC for Telstra has found that a majority of small businesses allow their staff to work from home.

60% of them allows staff to work from home, 65% have at least one staff member spending the majority of their time outside the office, and 35% have the majority of their staff spending more time outside the office than in it.

It is tempting to suggest there may be some bias in the sample. Many small businesses operate in retail and hospitality, which offer few opportunities for most staff to work away from the main place of business. Conversely, services businesses such as carpet cleaning, mobile car servicing or on-site technical support may not need a traditional office at all.

Why was Telstra interested? It's using the findings to help develop products and services for small businesses.

The online survey of 500 small business (less than 20 employees) decision makers was conducted in October and November 2010.