Comments on: Top 5 reasons to let employees telecommute

By: I don’t want much but I know I want it « Marenated

I don’t want much but I know I want it « Marenated — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:35:44 +0000

[...] to impress. But the world being what it is and the technology available to many professionals, giving your workers the option to work from home is like a [...]

By: Cate

Cate — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:36:14 +0000

I have worked at home for more than 6 years; both as baseline employee and as corporate level. I helped create a mentor program for the company, which was implemented. From creation to implementation, as always, changes happen. What I have learned from this is that while it sounds great to people to work from home, the reality of it is not so great. For the low to mid level worker. The self-discipline is one issue. The other issue is the isolation and still another are the interruptions. Even the most goal-directed person has difficulty. For the rest of the population, they end up terminating at some point. There is still a gap between the mid and upper level corporate employee and the lower level worker. Corporate employees tend to adjust to working at home and have the self discipline to make it work if only because of the nature of their jobs. I spend half the week in meetings on the phone and virtual conference rooms with the corporate office and the other half filling out spread sheets, emailing, and conferencing with the employees assigned to me. By and large, humans are not solitary creatures; even the most anti-social of people need human contact. The average employee needs to have some contact, support, feedback, from coworkers and supervisors, and the isolation does not promote successful employment. When I train people, all via virtual conference rooms, email, and conference calls, the intermittant contact, plus support and teaching these workers how to use the tools the compay provides and advising them on strategies to promote success and production, then as a rule, retention increases. I think that companies who utilize home-based workers, need to also teach these people how to work at home; not just give them the tools and expect that all will work out. The bottom line is that people want/need some contact; they need feedback, and they need to feel valued and want to be loyal to their company. If that company utilizes a whole-team/person approach to training and implementing it across the board in a telecommuting environment, then there will be huge success not only for the lower level worker but for the company itself. I think that if companies who deal with this type of work force want to stay competative, they need to do more than supply tools and train people in them, they need to support and nurture them as well.

By: Hello. My name is … » Archive » links for 2008-03-05

Hello. My name is … » Archive » links for 2008-03-05 — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 00:29:55 +0000

[...] Top 5 reasons to let employees telecommute (tags: telecommuting career work) [...]

By: Priya Singh

Priya Singh — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 19:43:32 +0000

It seems obvious there are numerous benefits to telecommuting. I think most employees value the autonomy to handle their own workload at a pace that works for them. That just leads to employees being happier and all companies want happy employees that are engaged because it makes them more productive. More companies should give their employees the option to telecommute and of course support their employees in whatever way necessary in order to make it a positive experience!

By: zak

zak — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 17:48:27 +0000

It wouldn’t hurt to point out the cost savings of telecommuting as well; employers seem to like cutting corners where they can.

http://weblog.infoworld.com/sustainableit/archives/2007/06/telecommuting_c.html

By: Rebecca

Rebecca — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 21:38:36 +0000

I work from home three days a week. I get a lot more done at home because I don’t chat with coworkers or customers, but chatting with those people is a source of essential information. So I like the balance of telecommuting and onsite work.
I do the very dull things (like routine link requests from vendors and directories, for example) onsite, and the thought-intensive things at home.

By: Ask the CHO: Overwork

Ask the CHO: Overwork — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:23:18 +0000

[...] Top 5 reasons to let employees telecommute [...]

By: Alexander

Alexander — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:40:36 +0000

Ask M: Thanks – good to know it can work, even when you get to the office as rarely as you do. And I guess the office offers one set of distractions (phone calls, co-workers, etc) and your home offers another (family, TV, doing the dishes) …

Kuri: Heh – this just shows how annoying it is to have an explicit policy stating one thing – when the reality is the exact opposite. Maybe this study could convince some of the managers to try it?

Ben: I never got that particular argument. If we can’t make it good for everyone, we should all suffer equally… Where does that come from? I realize it’s simple… but it ain’t exactly smart.

Maybe you could offer the office-bound people something else that would make them happy..?

Matt: “if you’re good enough to telecommute you’re good enough to come in to the office” … That makes absolutely zero sense. Whatøs the thinking behind it?

Jon: That’s fantastic! I love how you make this work.

Deirdré: That’s excellent use of the tools that exist out there. There are so many ways of staying in touch today.

I suspect that for many managers, it’s a matter of trusting that “even if I can’t see my people working, they still are.” And that leap some managers just can’t make…

Michael: Good point. And in any case, it’s about the results, not the hours.

Smix: Four-hour commute? Ouch!

And I agree – making this work takes
1) The right attitude from management
2) The right tools that allow you to work remotely

And maybe also
3) Employees who actually want to work remotely

but it doesn’t seem like there’s a shortage of those :o)

Amy: Try! Throw this study at them if it helps :o)

Matt: Thanks for the perspective. I have no experience with these kinds of studies. Is there somewhere I can go to learn more on how to read them and what to watch for?

budding gardener: Sounds like working from home occasionally would be good for you AND the company. Give it a whirl – I’d love to know how it goes.

By: budding gardener

budding gardener — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:06:07 +0000

I have, on occasion, worked from home. Usually, this was when i was either sick or had friends visiting from out of town. I normally work in a small, open office where all the employees can see and hear each other easily. This can be really distracting when the developers are arguing over code and one of our sales staff is wound up talking with a potential client. I find it really hard to concentrate. On the days when I work from home, it usually takes me about half as long to get the same amount of work done.

My company has no policies about telecommuting, although my particular job duties are such that I could do my work from any place I had an outlet and a wireless connection. I have thought about asking to work from home one day a week, partly to give myself one guaranteed productive day a week, and partly to give myself a day free from office politics and the usual drama (sadly, my boss is something of a drama queen). If I could, I would probably work from home ever other day, as that would be plenty of time to keep up with what the other people in the office are doing, and to make it to any meetings that might be required. Fortunately, we don’t have very many ad-hoc meetings.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:29:12 +0000

It’s nice reading this study, but at the same time, you should be careful with meta-analysis, and recognize that it isn’t primary work being done. Meta-analysis studies have a tendency of being off in major ways. Having read the methodology described in the study, it’s fair enough in some areas of comparison, and makes me cringe in others, but that’s typical for any meta-analysis. Just be cautious with these kinds of studies.

Deirdré Straughan (“commuting some days versus all days”), the study compared other studies some of which measured the difference between working partially from home during a week, and all the time from home, so there are studies, and this study tried to include those finding as well. Generally, the study saw improvement for more days off, but I don’t know if I’d characterize the difference as huge, but it was greater.

Ask M (“managing remotely”), I work for a small company where the majority of people working together aren’t in the same time zone, if even the same country (between company employees and our clients too). Managing remotely is all about communication and expectations. I’d say it like this:

When can I get a hold of person X, and when can I expect to hear back from person X if I can’t get a hold of them now? When can I expect to see results from person X, and how do I actually see those results?

You ask those same questions when you’re 5 feet from the person or 5,000 miles from the person. The key is open communication and established expectations between both persons. My company does it over phones or email primarly, which really isn’t much different from large companies I’ve worked for where you boss is in the next building, but still close enough to see daily. In most cases, it’s all your mental state.

Personally, I prefer coming into an office. I can’t work at home. It’s too much of a relaxed environment with too many distractions. Right now, I’m more productive in an office space, but I’ve found that most people I work with are more productive when they don’t coming into the office. Still, I take advantage of a flexible work schedule even if I’m in the office normally, so I really encourage others to work from home to make sure I can protect my own flexibility even if I’m not doing it the way they are.