Considerations When Using Telecommuting As An Alternative To Time Off
Telecommuting: A Growing Phenomenon
While most employees travel to their employer’s facilities to work, evolving information technologies are enabling more and more people to work effectively from home. With proper equipment, many functions associated with sales and service positions can be accomplished without the necessity of traveling to the central office. The vast number of employers who have benefited from implementing a telecommuting program has created a ripple effect. Each year more and more companies are either implementing a program or expanding an existing one. In fact, AT&T, one of the first major American companies to formally promote telecommuting, now has over half of its U.S.-based managers working out of their homes. Moreover, a study of Fortune 1,000 companies reveals that twenty-five percent of big businesses employ workers who regularly telecommute.
Ten years ago the number of nationwide telecommuters was less than 5 million. Now that figure approximates 15 million and is expected to double in the next ten years. Technology and increasing support by companies are the two major reasons for the steady increase in telecommuters. With a booming job market and high employee turnover becoming commonplace, employers are taking seriously concepts such as telecommuting.
Although telecommuting has a number of important benefits to employers, employees, and society in general, there are pitfalls and traps as well. Employers should carefully consider the advantages, disadvantages and risks before implementing a telecommuting policy or program. This section outlines some of the more important items of consideration.
Reaping The Benefits
The advantages that telecommuting offers has caused it to become increasingly prevalent in the American workplace. Specifically, employers have found that telecommuting:
Increases Productivity: Many companies report productivity increases with telecommuting, reasoning that work schedules can be arranged to take advantage of the employee’s most productive work periods.
Reduces Overhead: By requiring sales and service personnel to telecommute, organizations have actually reduced their office space requirements, and, consequently, their rents.
Improves Recruitment and Retention: The labor market today is tighter than ever, particularly in the technology industry. The expense of recruiting a new employee, including direct recruiting costs, personnel administration and payroll costs can be very high. Employees benefit from the flexibility that telecommuting provides. In fact, it creates incentives for employees to remain with the company, thereby increasing the retention rate and decreasing recruiting costs. Moreover, telecommuting allows the company to increase its base of potential employees, since the geographic location of available candidates greatly expands. Finally, telecommuting is also a mechanism for recruiting persons with disabilities. Many individuals who are excluded from the work force solely on the basis of their inability to commute to and from an office, can work very effectively under a telecommuting arrangement.
Decreases Absenteeism: Many absences occur due to an employee not being able to come to work for reasons including illness, pregnancy or emergency. A Wall Street Journal article estimated "that a day’s absence of a clerical worker costs, in addition to wages, "up to 100 dollars in reduced efficiency and increased supervisory workload." Considering the number of absences that occur in the workplace over the course of a year, these costs are far from trivial. Telecommuters are less likely to use sick days for their own minor illnesses. Rather than take sick time and be unproductive for the entire day, telecommuters often find that the opportunity to work at home allows projects to proceed (without risking the health of their office mates).
Telecommuting is also useful in minimizing the impacts of other uncontrollable events such as extremely inclement weather, highway construction, or special events (e.g., Operation Telecommute ‘96 was developed to provide relief to downtown Atlanta’s workforce which faced enormous traffic congestion during the Olympic games, and after some of California’s major earthquakes many companies established telecommuting arrangements for employees because conditions physically prevented or hindered travel to the corporate center).
Decreases Payroll Costs: There are a number of obvious savings a teleworker has most directly the cost savings from not having to travel to and from the workplace. Savings are also realized by the avoidance of the expense of midday meals at work and having to buy expensive clothing, such as business suits.
Benefits Society: Telecommuting can be an important means to reduce air pollution and traffic congestion and to reduce the high costs of highway commuting. In addition, relocating work into the home means that many families who now see each other only a limited number of hours each day could benefit from the arrangement.
Murphy's Law: If There Can Be A Disadvantage There Will Be
Despite the many advantages of telecommuting, some disadvantages also exist. In making a management decision about whether or not to implement a program, consideration should be made to the disadvantages which could arise:
Monitoring Problems: The most common concern expressed by managers is that if they can’t see their employees, they have no way of knowing if they are actually working. One response to that is—even when an employee can be seen, a supervisor can’t be certain that the employee is working. To effectively manage a telecommuting employee, the supervisor must manage what the telecommuter produces. When managers focus on results instead of attendance, telecommuting can thrive.
Safety Concerns/Liability Issues: What if a child trips over the computer cord and gets hurt? What if the worker spills coffee in his/her lap? These questions are not easily answered. Usually, the employee remains liable for injuries to third parties on the employee’s premises. Otherwise, Workers’ Compensation generally covers job related accidents occurring when the employee is working at home.
Inability to Fully Complete Tasks: The employee may have difficulty completing work assignments because he/she does not have access to the necessary equipment (i.e. photocopier or fax machine).
Feelings of Isolation: Although the employee has chosen to work at home, feelings of desolation may occur since the employee no longer has daily contact with co-workers. According to some adversaries, telecommuters face a difficult challenge of separating their work from their personal lives. In conventional working life, commuting can be an advantage, providing a barrier between work and home and offering the opportunity to adjust mentally at the beginning and ending of each working day. Telecommuters do not have this facility—though there was a tale of a male home-based telecommuter who left the front door of his house every morning dressed in a work suit, walked around the side of the building and reentered the house by a side door!
Societal Harm: It can be argued that telecommuting causes a loss of jobs and revenue. For instance, the demand for bus drivers and toll collectors may decrease as fewer employees travel to work. However, while some jobs may be lost as a result of telecommuting, its increasing use along with developing technology are certain to create new jobs opportunities to replace those lost.
Implementing A Program
From an organizational standpoint, telecommuting should be justified if the costs are balanced by the benefits. If, as is most often the case, the benefits exceed the costs, telecommuting should be actively promoted.
The prospects for telecommuting depend on the setting in which it is applied. Important considerations include the type of employer, work force, and characteristics of the industry. Information industries such as accounting, data processing, and programming are more amenable to telecommuting than production lines or construction. A telecommuting job should consist of activities that can be 1) measured; 2) completed independently; 3) are portable to a non-office environment; and 4) do not need special equipment that is only at the work site.
Telecommuting is not appropriate for every worker. Since work produced, not hours worked, is the standard by which telecommuters are judged, a potential candidate must have a proven track record that shows initiative and an ability to work without supervision. He/She must be a trustworthy employee, whose work is more independent than others.
Thus, it is essential to address the following issues before implementing a telecommuting program:
Who can telecommute? Consider employees who hold positions with functions/tasks which can be performed away from the central work location and who have demonstrated satisfactory work performance.
Consider position responsibilities: Are there functions/tasks which can be performed at home? Does it involve writing, reading, research, editing, data entry, or word processing? Does the position require use of equipment or services that are only available at the central work location? Does it require use of confidential files that cannot be taken from the central work location?
Frequency: It may be best to begin with a minimum telecommuting assignment for the employee (e.g., one day a week) and then increase program usage when and if it becomes productive to do so.
Measuring performance: To effectively manage a telecommuting employee, the employer must manage the work produced. The employer must decide what tasks the employee will be performing, and when each of those tasks should be completed. Goals/timelines should be discussed with the employee.
Telecommuting arrangements should be clearly articulated through a written contract between the employee and the employer, or a written, comprehensive telecommuting policy should be established.