Businesses are being urged to persevere with home working initiatives designed to curb carbon emissions and bolster productivity, after new research revealed staff are increasingly reluctant to work from home for fear the practice may diminish their job security at a time when the economy is struggling.

The survey of 1,000 UK office workers was commissioned by Microsoft and found that the proportion of firms claiming to offer some form of mobile working has fallen from nearly 60 per cent in 2007, to just under 50 per cent this year.

The research found that middle managers were particularly reluctant to embrace home working models, with senior managers three times more likely to work remotely than other employees.

James McCarthy, a business manager at Microsoft, said that recent worries over the state of the economy were behind the drop off in mobile working. "When people feel a bit less secure about their jobs they want to be seen to be working," he said. "The irony is that a time when rising fuel prices should be making people think differently about commuting is also the exact time they start going into work five days a week."

With the cost, environmental and productivity benefits well documented, McCarthy said that firms committed to offering home working options should now reassure staff that embracing home working will have no impact on job security.

"There are no technical barriers to home working anymore, whether it is successful or not all comes down to the culture of the organisation," said McCarthy. "Executives need to offer staff reassurance that the company is in favour of home working and that they don’t need to hang their jacket on the back of their office chair every morning."