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How wonderful would it be to work from home every day? Sometimes what looks to be a blessing may just be a curse. Taking the leap to work remotely requires time, patience, and a lot of research to be successful. What kind of answers do you need before you make a commitment to telecommuting? Can you maintain a constant flow of communication? Where would you save money? Do you have the desire to put forth the additional effort it would take to advance within your field? Telecommuting is a significant process because it requires massive amounts of communication, it may or may not save employers/employees money, and it requires additional effort to effectively train home-based employees, so they are aware of their work expectations.
Working remotely is a huge step for both employees and employers. If there is no communication, the entire setup will fail. Employers need to strive to keep an open line of communication readily open for their home-based employees. “You have to have regular times for discussion and brainstorming and you have to make sure people are in the loop”-Ellen Galinsky (Wilkie, 1). Galinsky is the president of the Families and Work Institute based in New York. Originally, Galinsky was opposed to the idea of remote employees but was ultimately faced with a difficult decision when presented with the perfect employee for the job, who couldn’t relocate. Without regular interaction, working remotely becomes impersonal. You cannot work productively if you do not have a clear understanding of events that are happenings at your home office. Galinksy’s original thoughts on remote work are shared among her higher-level peers with 25% of managers in a recent poll citing mistrust due to the inability to monitor their employees firsthand, though 75% said they trust their employees completely and had no issues with any productivity of their at-home employees (Global Workplace Analytics, 2).
How wonderful would it be to work from home every day? Sometimes what looks to be a blessing may just be a curse. Taking the leap to work remotely requires time, patience, and a lot of research to be successful. What kind of answers do you need before you make a commitment to telecommuting? Can you maintain a constant flow of communication? Where would you save money? Do you have the desire to put forth the additional effort it would take to advance within your field? Telecommuting is a significant process because it requires massive amounts of communication, it may or may not save employers/employees money, and it requires additional effort to effectively train home-based employees, so they are aware of their work expectations.
Working remotely is a huge step for both employees and employers. If there is no communication, the entire setup will fail. Employers need to strive to keep an open line of communication readily open for their home-based employees. “You have to have regular times for discussion and brainstorming and you have to make sure people are in the loop”-Ellen Galinsky (Wilkie, 1). Galinsky is the president of the Families and Work Institute based in New York. Originally, Galinsky was opposed to the idea of remote employees but was ultimately faced with a difficult decision when presented with the perfect employee for the job, who couldn’t relocate. Without regular interaction, working remotely becomes impersonal. You cannot work productively if you do not have a clear understanding of events that are happenings at your home office. Galinksy’s original thoughts on remote work are shared among her higher-level peers with 25% of managers in a recent poll citing mistrust due to the inability to monitor their employees firsthand, though 75% said they trust their employees completely and had no issues with any productivity of their at-home employees (Global Workplace Analytics, 2).
Communication is key to success in anything, but it changes to a necessity when faced with a situation where you cannot be face-to-face all the time. There are many factors that people take for granted, facial expressions, tone, and how to best present things so both employee and employer understand what’s needed and wanted for both sides. There is a higher rate of successful work-from-home situations among those who strive to build a relationship with their telecommuting employees through occasional face-to-face meetings, increase video meetings, and virtual outings (Global Workplace Analytics, 3). Working from home does not eliminate the need for basic human interaction. You must stay connected and put forth additional effort to stay up to date on what is going on.
The cost of working from home is a largely speculated thing. It can save money on a lot of fronts for the employee, with most of the savings being the cost of commuting. The biggest question remaining revolves around the employers. Do employers save money in the long run? According to The Telework Coalition, employers save costs on real estate, facilities, direct labor, business travel, and other overhead expenses; notably liability and health insurance (TelCoa, 4). One of the most notable concerns is over employee at-home safety. If one were to be injured at home would employers be held liable due to OSHA guidelines? There is plenty of speculation but no concrete studies or evidence to show if this is a viable concern or not.
A more recent study into telecommuting provided some more solid numbers in terms of data. As of March 2016, GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com states the national savings would total over $700 Billion a year. Those savings were totaled based on the business, the employee, and the government’s savings (Global Workplace Analytics, 3). The data included the strain on traditional commuting on our government infrastructure and environmental impact. The savings just continue to add up the more the numbers are run and with the increasing options available for remote workers, the government is offering up grants and incentives for employers to offer telecommuting options (Global Workplace Analytics, 2). With an increasing amount of work-from-home options coming forward, there will be additional savings coming from all fronts.
One of the most commonly asked questions revolving around working from home is job expectations. Without a clear standard provided, work-at-home employees tend to slide farther down in the production number as evidenced by iHire LLC’s recent experiment with sending its employees home with the technology needed to do their job but also giving them unlimited paid time off. The productivity numbers plummeted, and sales were way down. After setting a sales quota and a clearer directive of the overall expectations, PTO requests went down, and productivity went up (Wilkie, 1). Success is based on communication, and communication is necessary to effectively direct employees to their actual job.
There is a lot of concern that working from home hurts your chances of advancement within a company. Do you miss out on opportunities for advancement because you simply are not there? A study of Ctrip’s 16,000 employees found that the promotion rate for telecommuters at the travel agency was reduced by about 50 percent (Wilkie, 1). While others feel like, with proper management, career advancement is not an issue for them (Global Workplace Analytics, 2). A lot of that data depends on the actual job that the employee does. Some jobs require more one on one time, with adequate amounts of communication, while other jobs tend to be more hands-off.
Based on the data, all the questions asked are a resounding yes. Money and energy are saved for all parties involved and if you have clear and proper communication, you can easily advance your productivity and promotion. Telecommuting won’t be for everyone, but for those who are seriously considering it, there were way fewer negatives than positives.
Sources
- Dana Wilkie. June 1, 2015. How To Create an Effective Telecommuting Program. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0615-how-to-create-an-effective-telecommuting-program.aspx
- Global Workplace Analytics. No date. Costs and Benefits. http://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/resources/costs-benefits
- Global Workplace Analytics. 2018. Latest Telecommuting Statistics. http://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/telecommuting-statistics
- TelCoa. May 2, 2011. TelCoa’s Top 10 Reasons to Telework. http://www.telcoa.org/about-us/telcoas-top-10-reasons-to-telework/
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