IT managers have been encouraged to support more flexible working practices with the advent today of National Work from Home Day, although others have warned of potential security risks if home workers are not adequately protected.

An estimated five million people are expected to spend the day working from home – the highest number since the initiative started three years ago. It kicks off Work Wise Week, which aims to promote smarter working practices.

Tony Shen, chief executive of enterprise comms vendor Aastra, argued that firms should use Work Wise Week as an opportunity to test run remote remote working practices.

"Remote working is not a trust thing but a matter of confidence," he argued. "Business leaders are driving this – it's here to stay … but it will depend on the nature of your work and where geographically you're based."

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said in a statement that employees can concentrate better on their work and avoid stressful commutes by being given more flexibility to work from home.

"Time saved can be spent on things not normally possible during the working day, like collecting the kids early from school, he added. "Employers benefit because their staff feel more relaxed and trusted and are likely to get more work done."

But others warned firms must extend their security policies and technologies to their home workers if they are to mitigate the risk of an attack on corporate systems.

Security vendor ScanSafe advised IT managers to ensure all desktop agents are running up to date code and signatures, and to extend acceptable usage policies and enforce them through content security tools.

Meanwhile, the burden on IT managers looks set to increase significantly with the government today launching new plans to extend flexible working rights to all parents with children under the age of 16. Currently only parents with children under six years old or who are disabled can legally claim flexible working hours.