Today millions of Brits will lie in bed for another ten minutes, spend an additional five minutes munching through extra toast over a lazy breakfast and take a longer shower. They won’t have to rush for the early train or get into the fast lane of traffic congestion. Instead, they will amble into their home office, switch on their PC and get stuck into emails and buried in office documents without commuting distractions, for today is National Work from Home Day.

There are currently 3.1 million people in the UK working from home and many more millions have flexible employment with an expected 20% of all employees to be working in this way by 2012.

Driven by technology, flexible working is probably the single greatest change that has taken place in the working environment in the past decade. Technology has shunted this trend into this millennium. Now providers are rising to the comprehensive and constantly evolving challenge of meeting the needs of flexible working practices in order for businesses to deliver suitable services to its remote employees.

Ground breaking new expertise in technology will increase the need for cool tools to get the flexible and remote working culture through the working day.

Remote Employment Registration:
This new online recruitment site specialising in home based and remote working with professional positions full time and part time vacancies is thriving and is a necessary tool for home based workers. The concept of home working has been around for some time, but there hasn’t been a recruitment service to connect reputable companies and individuals so this unique service is a first stop on remote working shopping list. It is fast becoming popular with both employers and job seekers. Register your CV at www.remoteemployment.com to receive alerts for any new work from home positions.

Do-It-All Phone Nokia E61i
Experience improved email with One Touch keys, a qwerty keyboard and a handy large screen, yet slimmer than ever design. This powerful 3G smart phone makes for easy e-mailing and web surfing via high speed 3G. It can also run other applications, such as advanced diary features, or view pictures and even edit presentations. Connect on the go with the WLAN Wizard to locate available WLAN networks. Have fun too with the MP3 player and 2 megapixel camera. This can be found at www.nokia.co.uk for £280.

Cordless Mogo Mouse x54 pro
This flat laptop mouse works wirelessly by Bluetooth and, when you’re done, it folds up and stores away inside the 54 express-card expansion slot of newer laptops. It also acts as a multimedia remote that can control a PowerPoint presentation. Try one at www.newtonperipherals.com for £65.

Apple MacBook Air Laptop
Weighing in at only 3 pounds the MacBook Air is a 13 inch 1.6GHz with Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2GB of Ram built in while the 80 GB 4200-rpm PATA hard drive provides provides plenty of storage space. It also features a built-in 2.1 Bluetooth. And you have the option to upgrade to a 64GB solid-state drive, which offers advanced performance and durability. Unlike most other ultraportable notebooks, the MacBook Air includes a built-in iSight camera. It’s so smartly integrated you hardly notice it’s there. The iSight camera and iChat software make video chatting easy anywhere there’s a wireless network. Available at www.apple.com for £1,199.00.

Lightweight Laptop Dell Latitude D630
Need something cheaper than the MacBook? The D630 is lightweight yet powerful and offers nine hours of battery life. Decent processing power will handle spreadsheets and presentations, and there is an optional internal 3G card giving fast internet access if out of wi-fi range. This can be found at www.dell.co.uk for £699.

Skype Away Sennheiser PC146 USB headset
Sign up for a Skype account which allows free calls over the web. However, you’ll need a decent headset such as this with a built-in microphone. Its noise-cancelling technology helps you make clearer calls. This can be found on www.sennheiser.co.uk for £80. 

Microsoft® Office Live Groove 2007:
Work Together: Anyone, Anytime, Anyplace. Office Live Groove 2007 makes it easy for teams to work together, no matter what their location, time zone, or work hours. Spend less time co-ordinating with each other and more time working on the project at hand. Live Groove 2007 collaborative workspaces put people, tools, and data in one place, so you and your team members have access to everything, right on your desktops. And you stay in synch, automatically. Try it here www.trial.trymicrosoftoffice.com for a free trial.

Outlook 2007 Mobile Service
This feature of Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 enables you to send and receive text messages between Office Outlook 2007 and any mobile phone. By setting Outlook 2007 Mobile Service to send SMS reminders for tasks and contacts, and even SMS messages containing your daily calendar right to your mobile phone. It gives you the flexibility and freedom to receive vital, time-sensitive information whether you’re out of the office, or in a meeting. The enhanced connectivity provides remote workers with the communication tools needed to remain up-to-date in today’s rapidly changing workplace. Easy to use and no additional software or hardware needed. Sign up for a free trial at www.trial.trymicrosoftoffice.com.

Remote Worker from Voice4IP
Remote Worker, from Voice 4IP is the complete home worker package, incorporating broadband with a VPN as an option, a telephony system that mimics a corporate environment regardless of where the call is made from, 30 hours worth of inclusive calls even a business conferencing system. It enables workers to transform their standard phone into a fully featured business phone system via the use of the Voice4IP remote worker web portal. No special equipment is required, just a working landline or mobile phone. Simply hi-jack any phone in the world with a DDI and it will work. There is no need to port numbers, change telco, or move to a CPS provider. Browse www.remote-worker.com for more information.

GoToMyPC
Work anywhere and increase your flexibility. Now you can work when, where and how you want by taking your office with you wherever you go. All you need is the Internet to access all your programs, files, emails and network resources — just as if you were at your desk. No extra software or hardware is needed. Don’t worry about whether you remembered all the files. You can access your PC anytime you have an Internet connection so you’re only out of touch if you want to be. With GoToMyPc your documents, emails and applications are always at your fingertips so you can get more done faster. Give www. gotomypc.com a whirl.

Remote Employment hopes thousands of companies and organisations will follow the new remote working culture by implementing flexible working practices to the benefit of their business, their employees, and the country as a whole.

For more information, browse www.remoteemployment.com to find a variety of positions suitable for the ‘worker of the future’.

According to National Stats, there are more than one million women in the UK working from home and at least half of them are womentrepreneurs. Helen Hammond, an Aromatherapist and Indian Head Masseuse from Stoke on Trent, is a good example of a successful ‘Work from Home Mum’. Apart from juggling a husband and two teenage sons, she runs Scentsible Solutions, a website offering natural Aromatherapy products and services to both private and corporate clients.

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Working from home can be a dream. No commuting, no fighting traffic, no expensive lunches, no petty office politics and no racing to climb the corporate ladder. And you could put in a pretty good day’s work without constant interruptions from colleagues’ phone chatter and funny emails, and of course, the always present, office gossip.

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