An estimated five million workers will be absent on 15 May for National Work from Home Day.

The national day has been set up to highlight smarter working practices by encouraging companies to give employees a day at home to work to trial flexible working, remote working, mobile working - all promoting a work-life balance.

The scheme is backed by Remote Employment - a website which promotes flexible and home-based recruitment, which argues that the traditional 'office' is outdated, wasteful and is heading for a workplace revolution. Research shows that the structure of the labour market is going to be reshaped dramatically over the next four years, with remote working expected to almost double. There are already around 3.1 million people working from home in the UK and this is expected to double by 2012. The recent emergence of 'virtual jobs' and 'virtual communities' is changing the way companies attract and retain skilled employees.

Remote Employment invites companies across the UK to support National Work from Home, by giving their employees the ability to work flexible hours or work from home. Founder and managing director of Remote Employment, Ken Sheridan, believes a flexible employment solution benefits business, employees, and the country as a whole.

He said: “The recent emergence of 'virtual jobs' and ‘virtual communities’ is changing the way companies attract and retain skilled employees. Smarter organisations reduce employment costs by adopting ‘remote working’ as a regular employment solution. With this new approach, many employers are now considering remote working and working from home as viable options in their recruitment drive.”

For more information, see www.remoteemployment.com  or www.workwiseuk.org.