Firms should start to prepare for a potential increase in home working caused by the spread of swine flu - but nobody needs to panic, according to business and medical experts.

British Medical Association GP chairman Dr Laurence Buckman told a web conference hosted by the British Chambers of Commerce today that there is a lot of over-reaction to the swine flu epidemic.

"This flu is not very virulent - it's nasty if you get it, but relatively harmless and I don't think the government's prediction of 100,000 cases per day by the end of August is not panning out like this at the minute," he said.

Hired Help has introduced QBISCOM, a leading edge web-based telephony platform to provide a telecommunication system for all its home based agents.

Many of our operators work from home, which is great for them, but throws up its own challenges in managing a growing workforce.

"Hired Help was conceived to be a virtually based business, able to operate with staff based anywhere", says founder, Jackie O'Donnell, "However, while that is terrific in principle, it does require a sound ability to glue all the bits together, so the work flows.  As our business grows, we need to ensure that agents working at home don't feel isolated.  QBISCOM allows agents to see who else in the team is online and to chat with them about tasks or indeed anything they might chat about in the office."

After trialling a host of systems, which all promised the earth, but failed to deliver, Hired Help chose QBISCOM for its ease of installation, operation and resilience.

The Financial Times reported that Regus Boss Mark Dixon, predicts a surge in home working, as companies looking to tighten their belts, get more staff to work from home.

Will this be a passing fad when the recession ends or will we see a paradigm shift in how we work and handle the work/life balance?

Denis O'Donnell from Hired Help Ltd, agrees with the Regus founder.  "We are creatures of habit and the habit of getting up every day and going to a place of work is ingrained in our culture.  However, it is a relatively recent phenomena, brought about by the industrial revolution.  Before that, home working was the norm."