ALT-7 How to Build a Case for Telecommuting
One of the cornerstones of good business is encapsulated by the word "efficiency". Whether it be efficiency of production, efficiency of sales or efficiency of whatever, the prize often goes to the company which cracks efficiency more effectively than its competitors.
Telecommuting is one of those areas through which efficiencies are increasingly being found. Obviously, it doesn't follow that all areas of work are fit for the telecommuting treatment - even if the time will soon be upon us where we can build things in a factory on the other side of the world controlling the machinery to do it from the comforts of home, we are still some way off that. But many services can be performed by telecommuting, with commensurate gains for the employer.
To house people in an office takes floor-space. It also requires heating, lighting, employer liability insurance, wastage and so on. If these jobs are performed from where people live, rather than at the central location of the office, then the need for some of these items is diminished. Obviously, the lighting needed for one person will do for many - but then if there are fewer occupants in an office, then the office could be smaller, meaning a reduction in the heating and lighting requirements. Employer liability insurance could also, conceivably, be cut because, if there are fewer people to cover, then there is less risk and, consequently, less cost.
Naturally, there are some people who, working from home, will take the opportunity to work only minimal hours - but there's a way around that, which world-beating businesses like IBM, McDonalds and FedEx have been using for decades. That way is: to measure by results. We all know how stressful it is to be micro-managed by a supervisor who checks every little thing that we do - and it's the same for everyone. Psychologically, it freaks us out, because we are human, and we make mistakes, and having an officious gaffer breathing literally down our necks as we perform this task or that gives us no room for error - and as a result, we make more. If we measure by results, however, we get the performance we are looking for with a lot less stress. Of course, to measure by results, the person producing those results needs to be trustworthy, but then that should, if a firm's HR department is any good, be dealt with at interview - or even application - stage. By and large, though, what a firm usually finds is that those they have entrusted with working from home, repay that trust in multiples - for the simple reason that that's how psychology works. To illustrate using the corollary example, a person who is kept on a tight reign and not trusted will grow resentful in almost all cases.
Then there's the question of travel. The daily commute into the office is - unless the employee is lucky enough to be practically living over the shop - a stressful experience, whether by car or public transport. Cars, because the traffic for most people is horrendous, especially in cities; and as driving is a stressful activity nowadays, it doesn't fit the employee with a good frame of mind with which to start the working day. Public transport is, in most cases, beyond a joke: late trains, cancelled trains, crowded buses - even more stressful than the car!
Naturally, when one is working at home, one can be overtaken by domestic events - but again, if the employer gives the employee responsibility, then it is for the employee to make good on the faith placed in him. Here, too, the firm can help.
Obviously, this is a brief but honest sketch of the pitfalls and benefits of telecommuting - in so being, it should convince any employer that, type of work permitting, it can do wonders for any firm's bottom-line.
