How to Convince Your Employer to Let You Work from Home

While some people are perfectly content to hop in the car for their morning commute or squeeze their way into a packed train to get home after a day at work, many more prefer the idea of rolling out of bed and finding themselves magically transported to their office. Of course, there needn’t be any magic involved if you work from home.

In 2016, more than 43 percent of employees spent at least some time working from home. Thirty-one percent of those employees work from home four to five days per week. Compared to previous years, more bosses are allowing their employees the flexibility to spend at least some of their work time outside of the office. In fact, the number of people telecommuting in the U.S. increased an astounding 115 percent between 2005 and 2015.

The increase in WFH opportunities is well-reasoned from the perspective of both employees and employers. Employees that are able to telecommute are typically more engaged, less likely to leave their job, and ultimately happier because they reduce or eliminate their commute time and are able to spend more time with their families and friends. Employee engagement is quite valuable for employers as well, with 71 percent of employers in a Harvard Business Review-reported survey ranking engagement as “very important to achieving overall organizational success.” Further, employers with flexible workplaces are able to spend less on overhead to support in-office employees and therefore better allocate resources for more efficient growth and other strategic goals. Additionally, the environment benefits when workers decrease their carbon footprints by reducing or eliminating their commutes.

While the data shows that working from home is beneficial for both employees and employers, there are still those companies that lack a tenable WFH policy or have reservations about relinquishing direct supervision of their workforce. If you want to take advantage of the flexibility and increased productivity of working from home, the first thing you will have to do is convince your boss of its benefits.

Following are a collection of statistics as well as tips on how to negotiate the change with your boss, even if he or she is skeptical.

As working from home has increased in a wide range of industries, there is quite a bit of data available to indicate the value of this type of workplace flexibility for employees:

• Employees who work from home full time can save more than $4,000 annually, while workers who telecommute 50 percent of the time can still save more than $2,500. These savings are largely due to the cost of a daily commute
• On average, telecommuters tends to be less stressed and happier than their in-office counterparts.
• Employees who work remotely are “shielded from much of the distracting and stressful aspects of the workplace, such as office politics, interruptions, constant meetings and information overload.”
• Working from home can quell the spread of office germs, leaving remote employees healthier (and therefore more productive).

At first blush it may seem that allowing workers to telecommute is a concession that offers the most benefit to the employee, but the data shows that to be categorically untrue. A WFH policy can save employers money, increase productivity, and help to support company growth:

• A 2013 study found that when workers were allowed to work from home, their productivity actually increased by an average of 13 percent.
• Eighty to 90 percent of employees report they would like to work from home at least some of the time, and allowing them to do so can make for more competitive recruiting for talent. Also, flexible schedules and the ability to work from home “play a major role in an employee’s decision to take or leave a job.”
• Workers who spend 60 to 80 percent of their time (three to four days) working remotely also report being the most engaged in their work. Conversely, workers who spend 100 percent of their time either in or out of the office are the least engaged, so a balance may be key.
• According to economists, flexibility in work schedules and location, including working from home, could go a long way towards closing the gender pay gap.
• For every employee that works half-time from home, an employer can save more than $11,000 per year.
• If every employee with a job compatible with working from home did so just half the time, the greenhouse gas reduction would have the same impact as taking all cars off the road in the entire state of New York—a laudable accomplishment for those companies who want to lead on environmental issues.

You’re ready to take the plunge and ask your boss for the flexibility to work from home. Following are some tips on how to negotiate that conversation so that both you and your boss feel good about the next steps in your career.

It’s unlikely that your boss will be amenable to more flexible work conditions if you have not been reaching your productivity targets without them. Assuming you’ve had a successful and productive year, be sure that you have tangible evidence of your accomplishments at your job and can link them back to the overall success of the company. It’s okay to “toot your own horn” here with details of what you have been able to achieve.

If your boss is particularly skeptical about the efficiency of working from home, make sure you have data at the ready about the productivity and engagement of remote employees. Collecting data from your specific industry will be most effective, if possible.

Every boss will have his or her own objections to a work from home setup, whether they have had previous bad experiences or just are not familiar with how to best manage a remote team. Your request will be most effective if you can tailor it to some of those concerns ahead of time, ready with facts for those objections that may come up.

Your ideal situation may have you working from home full time, but making that leap all at once can be a hard sell. Instead, be prepared to work from home for a set number of days or hours at first while still coming into the office for face-to-face meetings and projects that will benefit from in-person collaboration.

If you want to work from your home (or anywhere outside of the office), you need to have the right capabilities to stay connected to your co-workers and your boss. Make sure that you have a reliable internet connection as well as a comfortable, quiet place to work and take phone calls. It’s also a good idea to research where to find reliable internet outside of the home, for those days you’d like to get out.

Having a conversation like this in person with no context can be daunting. Consider letting your employer know about your request in an email, which may precede an in-person discussion. Sending a preliminary email has the added benefit of getting your request in writing. You can modify the following template to make it relevant to your job and performance, or write your own. Be sure to include as many specifics as possible for both you prior contributions to the company and how the flexibility to work from home will directly benefit the company.

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Dear [NAME],

I’m happy I’ve had the opportunity to impact [COMPANY]’s business these past [#] years. As we look to 2018, I’ve been reflecting on my role, the scope of my duties, and everything I’ve accomplished. I’ve [DETAIL AT LEAST THREE CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BUSINESS].

As I reflect on my current responsibilities, it’s apparent that my impact exceeds what was expected of me when I began in this role. In order to continue growing our business effectively, I’m requesting that I be able to work from home for [# HOURS/DAYS].

With a more flexible working arrangement, I would [DETAIL AT LEAST THREE WAYS YOUR NEW SCHEDULE WILL ALLOW YOU TO POSITIVELY IMPACT THE BUSINESS]

I hope you agree and we can look forward to growing the business together into the future. Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully,

[NAME]

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Farheen Gani

Writer

Farheen Gani is a freelance writer, marketer, and researcher. She writes about healthcare, technology, education, and marketing. Her work has appeared on websites such as Tech in Asia and Foundr, as well as top SaaS blogs such as Zapier and InVision. You can connect with her on LinkedIn and Twitter (@FarheenGani).