I make the starting assumption that his terms of employment state his normal place of work. I'd first look at the nature of the role - if he is a Business Development Coordinator, I imagine that this involves regular f2f interaction with commercial, sales and marketing roles in the organisation as well as with some client or customers? ( implication ..if the role is not suitable for remote working recommend that the request is declined) Secondly, I'd look at if there are parts of the role that can be carried out remotely and if so could this be complete shifts ? Thirdly, I would look to understand the reasons for the request so soon into his employment with your company/organisation ( has he already earned his spurs and proved his capability to deliver the value you'd expect from the role). Fourthly establish whether such a remote working is required on a temporary or permanent basis - eg to support someone in temporary need of care. Fifthly - does your organisation actually want to have in place a remote working policy - if so ...why and how many roles are suited to such an arrangement? Remote working tends to work best once a high level of trust has been built up between the employee and the company - difficult to see how this can be the case after only a few months work. Once the trust is there managing performance for someone working remotely is less critical. Nevertheless, I don't see performance management being significantly different to someone working in on site - the key difference is that weekly or regular progress meetings with line manager is a remote rather than f2f connection. Sorry to be a bit vague ...what's critical in deciding what to recommend to the leader is understanding the reason for the employee's request.

in addition to Kevin's advise you might find ACAS helpful www.acas.org.uk/index.aspx. Employees have a statutory right to request flexible working after 26 weeks service.

Personally, I encourage managers to view flexible working positively. The vast majority of our staff work at least one day a week at home. We even have some staff who are based at home with occasional visits to the office. Technology has made remote working possible and as Kevin says, the person and manager don't need to be in the same room for performance to be managed.

In reply to Kevin Elvidge:

Hi Kevin, thanks for your input.

In reply to Andrea Lechner:

Hi Andrea, thanks for your response. In my country there is no such statutory rights but my organisation is willing to do with best-fit practice.