Work from home beats home from work

One of Australia's leading lighting designers, Mark Pennington, lives in the Barossa Valley and teleworks one day a week from home. He says the pay-off is creating high order work while achieving a happy work/life balance.

"I work for longer (at home) and still have time with my family. I have a good work environment with fast Internet speed so I'm very productive. I also deal with international companies and working at night makes communication with them much easier."

So why don't more Australians do it? One blocker has been business liability. When the harmonisation of occupational health and safety laws started in 2012, employers became liable not only for workers' compensation, but also for civil penalties of up to $3 million payable to employees who injure themselves on the job at home.

In 2006, a Telstra employer was working at her home office in Brisbane when, over a period of two months, she had two serious accidents. The employee successfully sued Telstra for compensation. But Telstra wasn't put off. It now ensures OH&S guidelines in teleworker's home are followed and it includes flexibility provisions for all new positions.

About one quarter of Medibank Private's 4000 staff are teleworkers. Around 90 per cent of Cisco's 75,000 global workforce telework at least one day a week, with 40 per cent classified as mobile workers.

Even so, the current Australian teleworker legislation reads as if it was written by Colonel Blimp. If you have a disability, look after school aged children or are 55 years or older, you have the right to request flexible work arrangements under the Fair Work Act. But an employer has an equal right to refuse on 'reasonable business' grounds.

The workplaces of the future will have little to do with legislative ambiguities and everything to do with producing and analysing high quality data, information and strategies.

Many solutions to societies problems don't always involve building more 'stuff' but rather thinking of new ways of behaving and implementing work strategies that are in both the employer and employee's best interest.