Much has been written over the past several months about the
pending death of telecommuting.
Companies and their management have been taking steps to reduce if not
totally curtail telecommuting by employees across the USA
History
Three big reasons drove telecommuting going back to the
early 1990s. The first was to reduce
traffic congestion and pollution. In
many cases this was a mandate by state, county and local governments to the
largest employers. One of my former
companies, AT&T, was in the vanguard for this very reason. Secondly, companies were looking to reduce
overhead. Telecommuting mean less office
space, lower overheads...and a healthier bottom line. Finally, in the battle for the best and the
brightest, companies used telecommuting as benefit to new and younger employees
– just like “casual Fridays” and eventually casual working environments.
A New Supervisory Dilemma
Most executives, middle management and supervisors learned
their craft under the watchful gaze of their bosses over the years. They managed, to a large degree as they had
been managed. Perhaps with the exception
of sales people and service people “in the field” (with customers), most
employees sat in offices for company locations near their supervisors. Meetings and daily face-to-face interaction
were a way of life. With telecommuting,
all of this changed – much to the discomfort of most bosses at all levels. All of a sudden their employees were working
from home rather than the office.
Meetings became conference calls.
Team meetings were often quarterly, if that often. Globalization and remote or virtual “teams”
added to the complexity of the situation.
Benefits
In addition to reducing pollution, reducing overheads and
improving employee satisfaction, most studies about telecommuting found that
employees working from home actually worked MORE than when they worked from an
office. Additionally, they had fewer
“sick days” and they had higher satisfaction levels with the companies. Higher satisfaction often translated into
lower turnover – further reducing costs (hiring and training).
The “Bad Apples”
As with any benefit or privilege, some employees took advantage
of telecommuting. They used it as an
opportunity to avoid daycare for children (often against company policy). They used telecommuting as a chance to run a
home business in addition to their regular job – and on company time if not
resources. Employees spend hours
shopping on-line, looking at porn or just doing as little as possible until
they had a “deliverable” to the boss.
Finally, some employees used telecommuting as an excuse to withdraw from
their company culture – not meeting co-workers, only communicating with their
boss as required and rarely showing up in the office.
The Answer
The ideal answer for any company is to not “throw out the
baby with the bathwater”. They can
continue to reduce pollution, keep overheads low and maintain high levels of
satisfaction. It is up to bosses to be
clear about telecommuting rules and responsibilities. These are sometimes called “telecommuting
agreements”. One example is coming into
the office one day per week and to participate in essential meetings and
conference calls. Employees too have
responsibilities. Maintaining “face
time” with their supervisors, delivering on all performance objectives and
building a professional network within and beyond the company environment are
all essential. Additionally, many
employees schedule weekly or monthly updates with their supervisors to review
roles, responsibilities, project status, quality of deliverables and
priorities. These meetings produce
dividends for both the supervisor – at any level – and the employee.
Telecommuting is not yet dead. But unless companies and employees step up to
the challenges and needs created by telecommuting, it may soon go the way of
manual typing pools and company defined benefit pensions.
George F. Franks, III is the President and Principal Consultant of Franks Consulting Group which offers career, leadership, business and non-profit consulting services. George can be contacted by e-mail at franksconsultinggroup@gmail.com or via his web site:
No comments:
Post a Comment