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Telecommuting
(September 12, 2008)
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Employer, Employee Relationship
Companies may consider offering telecommuting to retain and attract
employees as well as reduce carbon emissions by decreasing or
eliminating the need for traveling to an office. One of the driving
forces for companies to offer telecommuting is so they can retain
quality workers who want flexibility to be with their families. Many
employers do not care when the employee completes their work, just so
that the work is completed; hours become less important, while results
become more important. Many employers can get hung up on whether an
employee came to work at 8:01 or 8:10; it may not be important if the
employee gets his or her work completed.
If a company would like to test telecommuting, some suggest creating a
pilot program by offering part-time telecommuting to current employees
who the company believes will succeed. Start employees gradually by
working half the time at home and half the time in their current office.
Some people miss the social interaction with co-workers; even branch
office employees can feel the same isolation. Hold employees in the
pilot program responsible for the same outcome measures as regular
employees, which will allow an employer to measure effectiveness and
outcomes.
Many employers will draft a contract with the employee so he or she will
know the costs associated with telecommuting as well as an employer’s
output expectations. A company may prefer the employee devote a specific
amount of space in their home toward his or her office and to use this
space solely for related business.
The background noise associated with working from home does not seem to
turn off clients; telecommuting is so common it has become acceptable.
Also some employees prefer to dress in work attire when working from
home to keep them on task.
Many companies use VPN to dial in where web browsers connect to a
headquartered server. In some instances the employee pays for the cable
connection for a VPN connection to the company’s server, but uses a
corporate owned laptop. There may be an opportunity for many sites with
a small amount of users to start a cooperative to combine their buying
power in order to negotiate lower connection fees for their employees.
Technology now offers low-cost ways for telecommuters to maintain the
same work extension at home by forwarding their calls to their cell
phones. It is important to some companies with part-time telecommuters
to always be in the same location.
On the other hand, full-time telecommuters may decrease the need for
office space. One location decreased their office capacity from 18 sites
to 15 sites resulting in significant annual overhead cost savings.
Security
There doesn’t seem to be any unique security concerns relating to
telecommuting. There is likely the same amount of risk whether the
employee is at work or at home. Some company’s have clauses in the
employee’s contract covering information security. In addition digital
rights can be assigned to specific files in case an employee resigns and
the employer wants to restrict access after he or she leaves employment.
Staying Connected
It is extremely important to offer employees the right tools to allow
for easy communication. Depending on the communication needed,
telecommuters may use instant messaging, land-line phones, cell phones
or e-mail.
Skype offers an opportunity for a business to lower their telephone
costs associated with telecommuting. It can be used for traveling
telecommuters who need to call in to the home office. One company was
able to save $20,000 per month by using Skype. It can also be used for
conference calling, and is described as the most useful service for
international calling. Related telecommunication savings solutions are
offered by companies like COBITE and Vonage.
Some conference call users suggest keeping participants to a minimum.
When there are too many sites to keep track of on a conference call it
is easy for one site to control the conversation and minimize feedback
from others. Moderators are key to facilitating communication from all
participants. Some business find it helpful to have a policy that if
some of the people invited to the conference call are in the same
building, have them call in separately anyway so that none of the
participants have a face-to-face advantage or side conversations. While
on the other hand, a company may want to give an international client
additional time between topics to have side conversations in their own
language to make sure everything is understood and no further questions
remain.
Instant messaging is a great tool when an employee would like an instant
answer. Some companies use iChat on Mac and there doesn’t seem to be any
security concerns.
Time Management
Today it seems there are more things to do with less time and
telecommuting has been a way for some employees to get away from the
office to get work done more efficiently. Some employees work better
without some of the distractions that may be in an office.
There’s an assumption sometimes that telecommuting lets employees get
away with not doing much work, but most telecommuting employees will
tell you that they work more telecommuting than when they reported to
work in the traditional office environment. It all depends on an
employee’s work ethic, some people need the structure of set office
hours, while others may be present at the office and unproductive.
University of Akron Telecommuting Trends
Many professors telecommute already, by being able to dial in remotely
to access their work information from home. Many only come in to teach
class and offer office hours.
The College of Business hasn’t had much success at distance learning; it
requires a significant amount of resources in order to make it
successful. This hasn’t affected enrollment yet, it has increased
significantly in 2008.
International Issues
At times there are barriers to communicating with international clients
using conference calling. Cultural social norms specific to their region
may encourage clients to answer in ways that tell you they understand
when actually they do not. It is very helpful to develop the habit of
always following up international communications with some form of
written communication. International clients often get a clearer message
from reading and listening.
Unfortunately, there are no reliable real-time translation software
solutions available. Current products often miss local dialect nuances.
Similarly, video conferencing at this time seems to be slow and
unreliable for effective communication.
Northeast Ohio
Some may view Northeast Ohio as less open to telecommuting, but really
it may come down to what business problems need to be solved. In Los
Angeles and other large urban cities, corporations have had to be more
creative and likely do not have the same retention issues. It seems
other cities offer telecommuting to attract talent.
Tax Implications
Since each telecommuting case is unique it is suggested that a
professional tax advisor be consulted before assuming it is safe to
include a deduction for a home office to your itemized tax deductions.
There are tests that the IRS uses in order to determine if this cost is
deductible. These types of deductions are frequently audited.
Generation X
A lot of young, new employees are hired in with expectations of flexible
work hours and want to use their own computers for work purposes. Newer
companies may be more accepting of these expectations.
This summary was prepared by Sara Lucas, The
University of Akron
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