Press & PR

Growing numbers of firms are choosing to allow their secretaries and administration staff to work from home, it has been suggested.

According to Richard Phillips of internet-based transcriptions service Outsec, the greater availability of secure VoIP services and broadband have made it easy for secretaries to work away from the office.

"The outsourcing industry for secretarial work is exploding at the moment," he told the Guardian.

"They can work from home, determine their own working practices and have a huge amount of control over what they're doing."

Freelance secretaries may not appeal to all firms, but it reduces the amount of office space needed, while allowing administration services to deal with and transfer calls off-site means that the carbon footprint of the company will be reduced due to fewer journeys being taken by employees into work.

Mr Phillips added that working from home also removes the chance for a number of prejudices to come into play, such as ageism or sexism.

"Over the internet, the only thing that matters is whether you can do the job well," he said.

Using a VoIP service is a key part of home working as it can allow employees to seamlessly work away from the office.

And by using the Vonage phone adaptor or V-Phone, anyone working from home can link up their computer to the net and make free calls from anywhere with an internet connection.