07/ 11/ 2008
by Jeffrey Moses
In the coming months and years, the skyrocketing price of gas will encourage more and more small businesses to set up telecommuting programs for employees. When employees can work effectively from home and contribute to the overall profitability of the company, everyone benefits. The employees reduce gas costs, the company saves on utility costs and reduced need for office space, and reduced fuel emissions benefit the environment. Plus, when employees work from home, eliminating commutes to the office enables the company to keep up with the rising cost of gas without increasing salaries.
All of these benefits are predicated upon the assumption that telecommuting employees can adhere to company objectives, work within a team structure from a distance, and meet established goals and deadlines.
To ensure that telecommuting employees maintain these standards, management must find ways to organize and monitor their work. This organization and management should not be set up after telecommuting programs are begun. Rather, the parameters for management of telecommuting employees should be established before the implementation process. Flexibility of course needs to be maintained as the program proceeds, but the groundwork should be set before the first employee or team begins working from a distance.
Toward this end, the following guidelines should be considered:
Telecommuting employees should not work in a vacuum. They need to know from the beginning how they fit in with the company's ultimate goals.
Employees working at a distance should always have tangible projects with specific time frames, benchmarks to measure ongoing progress and regular management reviews. Management should never wait for a telecommuter to finish a project before review. Managers need to evaluate projects at various, pre-determined stages.
To accomplish this, telecommuters should know exactly how they are going to report their progress. Effective channels of communication need to be set up between management and telecommuters. Telephone and e-mail are the logical choices, with appropriate security in place so proprietary work will not be put at risk. Normally, telecommuting employees should meet by phone at least every week or two with team members, team leaders and supervisors.
It's important to set up regular work hours for telecommuters. There are many time-wasting distractions and temptations when working from home. Telecommuting employees need to realize that their work hours should be just as focused as if they were working at the office.
Few employees will have ideal office space at home prior to beginning telecommuting. Since having ideal workspace in the home will be important for success of the program, the company should work with employees in setting up everything they'll need to work effectively and undisturbed.
Few things in the workplace are as conducive to maintaining productivity as regular face-to-face meetings with coworkers and supervisors. Therefore, schedules should be set up whenever possible for telecommuting employees to visit the workplace and take part in meetings.
It's rare for telecommuters to work exclusively from home. Normally, an employee might work a few days a week from home and spend other days in the office. This aspect of the telecommuting program usually works itself out as the program proceeds.
When employees split their week between home and office, their physical desk space at the office must be considered. It would seem a waste of space and company finances to maintain a dedicated office or cubicle area for employees who work from home a significant amount of time. Toward this end, specific "designated desk space" could be established, so employees who come in one or two days a week will alternate with other telecommuters. At the start, juggling desks may seem difficult to employees used to having their own permanent space. Eventually employees get accustomed to the flexibility and learn to bring everything they need when they come in.
One of the great benefits of telecommuting is that when working from a settled, quiet environment such as a home office, a great deal can be accomplished in short amount of time. When effective telecommuting programs are established, a company may find that overall profitability increases. This is the natural result of employees increasing productivity without a significant increase in salary.
