ARTICLES

00-09    Developing an Effective Telecommuting Program

-- Linda Gravett, Ph.D.

In this era of tight labor markets when retention of good employees is a challenge, to say the least, companies are exploring options such as telecommuting in an effort to stay competitive. I’ve had experience as a telecommuter, managing telecommuters, and consulting with companies who are developing telecommuting programs.  In this article I’d like to share some of the success stories, potential pitfalls, and specific recommendations to assist your organization in its efforts to establish a telecommuting work option.  For purposes of this article, I’m defining telecommuting as a flexible work option that provides participants with the opportunity to work a mixture of days in the office and out of the office.

In the event you’re uncertain about the benefits of telecommuting for your organization, let me provide some reasons to consider telecommuting.

One benefit is flexibility for your workforce.  From time to time, employees are faced with challenges such as only having one car in a dual-career household or having an opportunity to place their children in an excellent day care center that’s close to home but not to the workplace.  Instead of spending work hours being stressed out and distracted by logistics, telecommuters can spend that time being productive.

Over the past five years, I’ve interviewed 5,000 workers and asked them, “What are workplace options that entice you to accept a position?” and “What factors keep you loyal to a company?”  From the responses I received, it’s clear that flexible work options such as telecommuting are an excellent recruiting and retention tool.  Fifty-seven percept of the survey respondents indicated that they would prefer to stay with their current company but they planned to move on because the company didn’t have flexible work hours or options.

If office space is at a premium in your organization, telecommuting affords you the opportunity to maximize limited space.  Along with job sharing, telecommuting is an excellent way to maintain the productivity level you require while providing flexibility for the workforce.

Companies that I’ve worked with over the past few years that have implemented telecommuting have reported that telecommuters’ productivity, both qualitatively and quantitatively, has increased.  This result is partly related to employees having fewer distractions and more time that is focused exclusively on their work.  As a person with telecommuting experience, I can affirm that my creativity and energy level is much higher when I’m in casual surroundings.

I recommend that you try telecommuting on a pilot basis prior to rolling out the program organization wide.  If you select positions that lend themselves to off site work, such as customer service reps, and carefully choose employees who have self discipline and organization skills, the pilot has a good chance to succeed.

As a planning tool, I believe it’s important to consider these potential pitfalls:

A planning team that can address the potential pitfalls should consist of a Human Resources representative, Information Technology representative, and Customer Service representative.  Concerns such as how phone calls will be forwarded to telecommuters, what happens if an employee has an accident in his or her home office, and how much “face time” should telecommuters have in the company are important questions to consider.

There are some patterns across companies that have successful telecommuting programs in place. 

American Express pulled together a planning team and developed objectives, selection criteria for telecommuters, and success measures prior to implementation.  Their results were:

American Express selected positions to pilot such as Credit Agents, Telephone Service, and Reservations because the place they were working wasn’t as important as the work they were doing.

Iams also recently pulled together a planning team to develop a pilot program to ensure that telecommuting, one of several work flexibility options, is successful.  They brought together the pilot group of telecommuters and their managers to cover the objectives of the telecommuting program; review the written telecommuting policy; surface potential pitfalls and brainstorm solutions; address how safety, performance evaluations, and Worker’s Compensation matters would be handled; and advise telecommuters who to contact with questions about phone problems or computer glitches.

Successful companies have found that careful planning – and some information passed on to telecommuters about setting up a home office and organizing their time efficiently – have generated positive results.  If you’d like to receive a checklist for employees on organizing a home office, please contact me at Linda@gravett.com.

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