Topics: Making the Move Benefits of Telecommuting Who is telecommuting now? Who Should Telecommute? Setting up a Remote Office Managing Telecommuters The Telecommuter Conclusions Notes Reinventing the Workplace: An Introduction to Telecommuting If you always thought yours was the kind of job that could never lead to working at home, just wait. You might be trading in that agonizing commute for a home office sooner than you think. Recent surveys show that more companies are now telling their employees to "go home" than ever before. Telecommuting, the practice of "traveling" to the office by way of a telephone line, is by no means a new idea; in fact the word itself is nearly a quarter of a century old. The terms telecommute and telework were coined during a 1973 research project at USC by Jack Nilles, now head of JALA Associates, the Los Angeles-based consulting group. Nilles has remained a champion of the work-at-home model ever since. After witnessing more than twenty years of advancements in personal computing and communications technologies, he now predicts that the number of telecommuters worldwide will increase tenfold over the next two decades, bringing the number up from an estimated 20 million today to 200 million in the year 2016.1 Making the Move For most companies, the decision to implement a telecommuting program is not an easy one. In general, employees want to get started long before management does because employee benefits seem so much more apparent. Avoiding rush hour traffic, getting more quiet time to complete concentration-intensive projects, having the opportunity for greater flexibility in child care or elder care, and saving money on expenses such as lunches, gasoline, or train passes all add up to an appealing package for most workers. And unless you regularly attend appointments outside the office, every telecommuting day is a casual day. Benefits of Telecommuting Increased Productivity But a well-planned and managed telecommuting program is by no means beneficial for employees alone. Employer benefits of telecommuting extend far beyond the fact that it tends to make employees very happy—no trivial matter in itself if you measure your management’s success in terms of office productivity and morale. Surveys of both workers and managers at companies with formal telecommuting programs consistently show impressive satisfaction rates, in the 90 percent range.2 Increased productivity and savings on the cost of physical office space are commonly cited as the biggest gains, and the enhanced corporate image associated with telecommuting is often credited with improved recruiting and employee retention. Companies with telecommuting programs regularly experience increases in worker productivity. In a 1993 AT&T survey of companies with telecommuting workers, 63 percent of managers said their telecommuting employees showed an increase in productivity.3 Telecommuting workers themselves reported an average 21 percent increase in productivity, and 76 percent of telecommuters felt they accomplished more when they worked at home. In addition, 61 percent of the telecommuters surveyed indicated a decrease in work-related stress.4 Telecommuters witness an increase in their productivity not only on their work-at-home days, but also throughout the rest of their work week. According to a post-telecommuting survey conducted by Smart Valley, Inc., a Silicon Valley-based telecommuting project, respondents felt approximately 25 percent more productive on work-at-home days, with an overall 20 percent increase in productivity for the week.5 Extending the Company’s Reach Not all telecommuters work at home. Many employees in sales, consulting, or other customer service positions use the mobility that telecommuting provides to keep in contact with office resources while travelling to customer sites. These workers, often distinguished from traditional work-at-home telecommuters as road warriors, make it possible for companies to cover larger territories than ever before. A recent survey of companies with road warrior employees showed that 57 percent of respondent companies experienced increased revenues as a direct result of adding mobile workers to the staff. Other benefits cited were faster customer response, more effective customer support, improved corporate communications, increased sales, and an increased number of companies visited on sales calls.6 Adding mobile workers to a team of other telecommuting and office-based employees breaks down geographic barriers and enables companies to develop into national--even global--virtual corporations. A virtual corporation strategy ensures that a company can be literally anywhere, responding to every client’s needs quickly and effectively. Real Estate Savings Because rent and operating costs constitute a significant portion of many companies’ annual expenditures, the opportunity that telecommuting presents for trimming down physical space requirements is worth exploring. The potential savings generated by eliminating one average 8x8 cubicle plus one downtown parking space has been estimated at more than $2000 per employee per year.7 When up to 25 percent of the staff work remotely on any given day, whether at home or on the road, a space-saving maneuver called hoteling becomes a viable option. As the name suggests, hoteling facilities provide shared workspaces, complete with all of the necessary business equipment, where workers literally check in and out as needed. Reclaiming the Commute Traffic jams are not only the individual commuter’s problem. U.S. companies stand to lose up to 56 million work weeks this year, worth approximately $26 billion, if only half of the 108 million employees who drive to work are held up just 10 minutes each day in traffic.8 What happens to the time telecommuters once spent behind the wheel? In addition to avoiding losses associated with employee travel time, telecommuting companies often benefit by reclaiming a significant portion of their employees’ previous commuting time as productive work time. Participants in the 1994 AT&T telecommuting survey identified the most frequent uses of the time freed up by avoiding traffic as more time spent with family (32 percent), time used to complete more work (29 percent), time to complete personal errands (21 percent), and more time for personal recreation (6 percent). The remaining 12 percent of respondents claimed they didn’t know what happened to the time they gained.9 Social and Environmental Factors In addition to its potential for increased productivity and cost savings, telecommuting is viewed by many employers as a quality-of-life issue. The telecommuting movement is a natural extension of increasing employer awareness of a broader range of quality-of-life concerns. Other common concerns include flex time, on-site child care, compressed work weeks, casual-dress days, domestic partner benefits, and on-site fitness centers.10 Telecommuting has environmental benefits as well. The vast number of workers who currently drive to work each day consume billions of gallons of gasoline and produce billions of pounds of pollution every year. The 1994 Clean Air Act specifically targets telecommuting, along with car pooling and company-sponsored transportation, as areas where U.S. companies can help to reduce the number of cars on the road each day. The U.S. Department of Transportation projects that by the year 2002 as many as 15 million workers will telecommute at least part of the time, an increase expected to save more than one billion gallons of gasoline per year.11 Who is telecommuting now? Although telecommuters are found in a wide variety of industries, telecommuting remains predictably more common among high-tech companies. A 1995 survey showed that 29 percent of the responding companies had programs or policies in place to encourage telecommuting. Broken down by industry, percentages were highest—up to 44 percent—among technology and research companies. The lowest percentages were among nonprofit organizations, dropping to 16 percent.12 But other industries are catching up. Up to 80 percent of Fortune 1000 companies are expected to have a telecommuting program in place within the next two to three years.13 And telecommuting is not just for large companies. Many smaller organizations find that telecommuting offers the solution they need to stay within a tight operating budget while expanding their services. In a telecommuting office, customer service coverage hours can be extended and whole new shifts can be instituted with virtually no change in facilities. Who Should Telecommute? Information workers, such as computer programmers, engineers, writers, graphic designers, sales representatives, business analysts, accountants, and so on are widely considered the best candidates for telecommuting. These workers represent a significant portion of the U.S. workforce. The Congressional Office of Technology Assessment currently classifies about half of U.S. jobs, or 73.3 million workers, as information handling jobs. By 2002, the number of information jobs is expected to increase to 85.5 million, or 59 percent of the workforce—a gain of 650 percent over a ten year period.14 Work patterns of information workers indicate that more than 50 percent of tasks performed while in the office are performed by a single employee working alone or on the phone.15 Information workers, by the nature of their jobs, need significant amounts of time alone or outside of the office in order to complete tasks effectively. In a traditional office setting, these employees often experience difficulty in acquiring the sizable blocks of undisturbed time that they require. For many information workers the natural disruptions of a busy office environment may eventually result in decreased job performance, a problem that employers can help to alleviate by putting telecommuting policies into action. Few jobs are generally considered appropriate for telecommuting on a full-time basis. Most information workers require regular meetings to check in with coworkers, keeping projects on track. Telecommuting on a regular part-time basis, perhaps two or three days each week, allows employees the time they need for concentration-intensive work while still providing ample opportunity for meeting with coworkers in person. Part-time telecommuting arrangements also allow employers to effectively control the number of people in the office at any given time. Setting up a Remote Office Both the company’s IS department and the individual telecommuter will participate in setting up the equipment needed for telecommuting. The majority of work involved in providing remote access capability to telecommuters, however, will fall on the company’s network administrator. Employees who already own a modem and a computer similar to their office PC have often already fulfilled 90 percent of their equipment responsibilities. Many companies provide telecommuters with a loaned PC; others implement a computer purchase-assistance program to help new telecommuters get set up at home. Depending on the kind of work that the company does and on each individual telecommuter’s workload, remote workers will want to be able to use email, access files on the office LAN, browse the Internet, connect to a mainframe or other host systems via a terminal emulator, as well as a variety of other routine computing tasks. Printing needs should be determined on a case-by-case basis. Many telecommuters, especially those who are only out of the office one or two days a week, will not need their own printer at home or at the remote office site. They can simply print their projects the next day that they are in the office. However, employees who spend a majority of their time working remotely, or those who often need to produce materials from an off-site location will need to add a printer to their list of home-based equipment needs. The IS department will be responsible for selecting a remote access server appropriate for the company’s remote access needs. Adding a remote access server to the network may mean an investment in software, hardware, or most often, some combination of the two. The remote access server will handle both the incoming calls of telecommuters connecting to the office LAN and the outgoing calls of in-office employees connecting to online services, such as BBSs or ISPs. Improvements in remote access technologies over the years have led to a current generation of products that install and configure easily and allow fast and flexible access for remote users. In light of rapid advances in remote access technology and current trends for the revision of traditional office culture, decisions about the company’s remote access capabilities should be made with an eye for easy, affordable expansion whenever possible. From the telecommuter’s side, a standard analog phone line and a modem constitute the most basic communications link available. Standard phone service provides a sufficient means of connection to the office for most telecommuters. However, certain employees who regularly handle very large amounts of data from a remote site may wish to investigate their options for higher speed communications links such as ISDN service, which can transfer data at speeds approximately five times faster than a standard analog line, or even dedicated lines in a branch office scenario. In such cases, telecommuters and managers will have to work closely with IS staff and local telecommunications providers to arrive at the best arrangement. In most cases today, telecommuters establish a remote node connection to the office LAN. In a remote node connection, the home PC that a telecommuter uses to dial in to the office LAN is added as a new member of the network. The remote PC becomes another workstation, or node on the network, complete with the telecommuting user’s full network privileges, just as if he or she were logged on to any computer in the office. In a remote node scenario, the network actually grows, comprising more workstations with each additional telecommuter that logs on from a remote location. These telecommuters can handle data just as they would on their PCs in the office, obtaining and storing files either on their own workstations or at some location on the network. Applications run on the telecommuter’s home PC, thereby speeding up application performance and creating a true client/server environment. Some telecommuters still connect to their office computer by way of remote control, a somewhat older, and now lesser used method of remote access. In a remote control situation, the telecommuter connects to the network and uses his or her home computer as a tool to take control of a specific PC installed on the network, usually that employee’s own workstation in the office. This method of remote access yields a much slower connection, as the applications that the telecommuter uses run on the office computer and must be continuously transmitted over the line. Remote control does not add to the network, rather it decreases the PCs available inside the office because each remote user monopolizes one workstation for the entire duration of the connection. As a result of today’s graphical user interfaces and large desktop applications, remote control is not generally considered an efficient method of connection for most telecommuters. The integration of telephony into remote access systems brings telecommuting to new levels of possibility. New products on the market allow simultaneous voice, fax, and data over a single, analog phone line, making telecommuting an even simpler and more appealing option for many employers. Fully integrated telephony allows telecommuters to work from virtually anywhere, according to any schedule, without putting a wrinkle in their accessibility. This increased ease of access ensures that clients or customers will always be able to reach the telecommuter and will never have to keep track of different phone numbers, schedules, branch office locations, and so on. In addition, an employee’s existing phone service can be used immediately to gain access to all office resources effectively without requiring any additions or changes to home phone lines. Adding remote access capability to any company’s network is a complicated prospect. Installing new equipment, configuring software, and putting security mechanisms into place all require careful planning and effort. But an important goal in setting up a telecommuting-friendly system, as in any network planning, should be to render the system’s complexity transparent to the end user. From the telecommuter’s perspective, the easier telecommuting is, the better. With the proper preparation and a minimal amount of training, telecommuters can get to work and become productive almost immediately on their first day outside of the office. Naturally, the more convenient the company’s telecommuting arrangements are, the more likely it is that the program will be a success. Managing Telecommuters Devising a management approach to telecommuting need not be as difficult as many companies fear. No manager spends every moment of the work day with the entire staff in his or her direct sight, and none would probably want to. The same kinds of project management, work distribution, and trust that go into managing the traditional, in-office staff must be adapted to encompass the emerging telecommuting staff. In many cases, especially where workers are just beginning to telecommute, the telecommuting staff is made up almost entirely of existing employees. Since these are not new employees, relationships already exist and work patterns have been established, both of which make the manager’s job a little easier. Unexpected issues will certainly arise when workers begin to telecommute, especially as they get adjusted to the changes in their schedule and environment. Coworkers who remain in the office full-time will also experience changes that should not be overlooked. This period of adjustment can provide a useful opportunity for companies to rethink and refresh older office policies. Managers with telecommuting employees will have a two-fold responsibility: managing remote employees and managing the technology that they require. Finding the right managers to handle new challenges associated with telecommuting is as important as selecting the right employees for the program. Below are some basic guidelines for managing telecommuters and the telecommuting program: Take the time to plan the program in detail. A successful telecommuting program requires putting policy in place before workers begin to disappear mysteriously from their desks. Devise good methods of communications and access, and make sure telecommuters form good habits of letting coworkers know when they plan to work outside the office. Work closely with IS staff to determine how telecommuters will access office resources. Telecommuting will not feel like an improved work day if your employees spend the day encountering difficulties with the technology. Determine what equipment telecommuters will need at home and establish what portion the company will provide and under what conditions. Some companies draft a formal, written employee/employer telecommuting agreement in which the particulars of telecommuting policy are outlined. At the very least, it is a good idea to offer training or orientation sessions before sending employees home to work. These sessions give both managers and employees a chance to make expectations clear and to address any concerns they may have. Wherever possible, telecommuting should be voluntary on an individual basis. Each employee’s life is comprised of unique circumstances, and everyone will not necessarily have a home life or space conducive to working at home. Forcing employees to telecommute when they are unable to make adequate arrangements with family or roommates may add to, rather than reduce, work-related stress. Establish core hometime for each employee. Whether or not your employees have the kind of jobs that allow them to accomplish tasks on a flexible schedule, they should be accessible during a regular, reliable window of time each day. Encourage telecommuters to logon frequently during the day, even if they are working offline, to check and respond to email. In general, telecommuters feel it necessary to check their voice mail and email more frequently when they are working remotely than they do when working in the office. Make the transition easy for both telecommuters and their coworkers by encouraging frequent communication. In the beginning, coworkers may be hesitant to contact telecommuters at home, feeling that their question is not important enough to disturb someone at home. Establish a general rule that anything important enough to merit walking down the hall to someone’s office during the course of a regular workday is important enough to merit picking up the phone and calling a telecommuter. Reinforce to the entire staff that telecommuters are actively working during the day, even though they are no longer in the office full time, and should be contacted whenever necessary during their core time. Meet often with your telecommuters when they are in the office to discuss any problems or concerns and to keep everyone in touch with office news. Telecommuters often feel "out of the loop" when they begin, and an extra effort may be necessary to prevent some workers from feeling isolated. These meetings are also a good time to check on telecommuters’ access needs. The technology needs of remote workers should be constantly reevaluated. Finally, be the type of manager who evaluates employee performance in terms of results, for both telecommuters and in-office workers. Trust is an important part of making telecommuting work for your entire department. While it is true that you will no longer be able to see directly how much time a telecommuter puts into each project, the quality of completed work will, as always, provide evidence of how well the program is working. In general, telecommuters feel a great responsibility to perform well in order to prove the arrangement beneficial for both company and worker. The Telecommuter Once the telecommuting program is ready for launch, a large group of willing volunteers usually emerges, ready to try their hand at alternative work arrangements. Selecting the right employees to pilot the telecommuting program is crucial. Their levels of success will set a natural precedent for performance and will influence the rest of the company’s attitudes toward telecommuting. Most employees with information-handling jobs should consider their positions well-suited to working remotely, but a host of other factors must be taken into consideration when deciding which staff members should telecommute. Employees and managers should work together to evaluate each telecommuting candidate’s personal work styles, previous job performance, and time management skills, examining both strengths and weaknesses for an accurate indication of how well they will be able to incorporate telecommuting into their work week. In general, employees who are efficient and productive in the office should perform similarly anywhere. But working at home takes a little extra self discipline. The flexibility that telecommuting affords must be balanced carefully against the distractions of family needs, housework, and other personal errands. For many workers, the first day of telecommuting can feel a lot like the first day of a new job. Seasoned employees will find that the regular in-office schedule that they have known for years is suddenly up for revision. The following guidelines can help to ensure a successful telecommuting work day: Keep in touch. Telecommuting employees should understand and use the communication tools that they have at their disposal. Staying in touch by phone or email on telecommuting days will help to ease the transition and keep projects on target as coworkers become accustomed to new office schedules. Accessibility is key in order to maintain good working relationships between employees. Your coworkers who remain in the office need to feel that they can reach you quickly and easily, even when you are not physically working in the building. Establish a system for letting others know where and when you can be reached, and try not to deviate from the schedule you have set. Be sure to let someone in the office know when your plans for the day change unexpectedly. Refine your time-management skills. Working at home can make the day seem long for workers who are used to frequent interruptions or distractions in the office, and some employees are overwhelmed by the lack of structure that comes with working at home. Schedule breaks from your work at regular intervals, and decide on a time for lunch in the morning when you get started. Sketching out a rough timeline for the day’s activities often provides telecommuters with just enough self-imposed structure to keep their work on schedule and to fill the day productively. Develop a task-oriented work-style. The time that many tasks, even the most routine, take to complete while working at home will differ from the time they took to complete in the office. For a new telecommuter, these differences can make scheduling the day difficult. If you do not already approach your work from a task-oriented or goal-focused perspective, you will find that it is imperative to do so while telecommuting. Many new telecommuters worry about motivation. In the comfort of your own home, the potential for temptations to draw you away from work may be great. All of the effort that you put into planning your day won’t work if you don’t stick to your plans. Find a routine or system that works for you. Use the flexibility that working at home affords to your advantage, and reward yourself when you complete tasks. Take advantage of the comforts of home: walk the dog during your usual coffee break, schedule a play break with the kids, mow the lawn during lunch, and so on. Establish both physical and mental boundaries for working at home. Unless telecommuters make an effort to separate office space from home space and work time from personal time, they may begin to feel that they are always at work. In order to avoid burnout, keep your work as separate from your personal life as possible. Optimally, telecommuters should set up a separate room that they use only for working. However, if an entire room is not possible, then some mental boundaries will have to be imposed. Remember that you have "clocked out" after five or when your project for the day has been completed. Coworkers should also be mindful of the fact that they are contacting you at your home and should keep calls within the times that you have established unless a real emergency arises. It is important to define the parameters of your work to family members or roommates who are at home during your work day. Most often, telecommuting will not free you up for full-time childcare. Explain the boundaries that you set for yourself to family members and others who share your living space. Isolation is perhaps the most common complaint of new telecommuters. It is easy for employees to feel that they have fallen "out of the loop" once they are not in the office everyday. Try to remedy this problem by discussing your telecommuting experiences regularly with others in the office. Coworkers who do not telecommute may not recognize when you are feeling left behind. You may find it necessary to increase the degree of contact that you have with other employees as everyone adjusts to new the work arrangements. Most importantly, make sure that others feel comfortable about contacting you when you are not in the office. Conclusions The benefits of telecommuting, for both employer and employee, are impressive. And the list grows longer as technologies and employee skill develop. New scalable and affordable remote access solutions make telecommuting a feasible alternative for companies of any size. Everyday more companies join in the movement to revise the traditional office environment that they fostered in the past. Telecommuting’s promise of savings in real estate costs, improved productivity and employee morale, and decreased absenteeism have piqued the interest of management in virtually every industry. These companies view telecommuting as an effective incentive for retaining existing high-quality employees as well as attracting new ones. And the need to make business mobile in order to remain competitive becomes more apparent everyday. Notes 1.Geoffrey Nairn, "Teleworker Army will Grow to 200m Worldwide by Year 2016," Financial Times Survey Edition, 8 January 1997, 10. 2.Ross W. Manire, "Remote Access: the ‘drive to work’ in the Information Age," Telecommunications, January 1997, 50. 3.Randall A. Shields, "Survey finds that telecommuting benefits bottom line," AT&T, 22 September 1993. 4.Burke Stinson, "AT&T releases results of Telecommuting Day survey," AT&T, 20 September 1994. 5.Smart Valley, Inc., "Final Pilot Results & Appendix," Smart Valley Telecommuting Pilot Project, 1994, 17. 6.Infonetics Research, Inc., The Real Cost of Remote Access, September 1995. 7.Richard C. Cooper, "Telecommuting: the good, the bad and the particulars," Supervision, February 1996, 10. 8.Eileen Davis, "Have Modem: won’t travel," Management Review, April 1995. 9.Burke Stinson, "AT&T releases results of Telecommuting Day survey," AT&T, 20 September 1994. 10.Sally Roberts, "Employers See Value in Work/Family Benefits," Business Insurance, 1 July 1996, 3. 11.Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, Saving Energy in U.S. Transportation, U.S. Government Printing Office, 15 July 1994, 20. 12.Eileen Davis, "Have Modem: won’t travel," Management Review, April 1995, 7. 13.Ross W. Manire, "Remote Access: the ‘drive to work’ in the Information Age," Telecommunications, January 1997, 50. 14.Congressional Office of Technology Assessment, Saving Energy in U.S. Transportation, U.S. Government Printing Office, 15 July 1994, 241. 15.Smart Valley, Inc., "Final Pilot Results & Appendix," Smart Valley Telecommuting Pilot Project, 1994, a6.