Thinking Outside the Cubicle

You probably have teleworkers in your office already; you just don’t know it. Any time an employee attends a meeting over his cellphone, phones a colleague instead of walking to her office or e-mails a business proposal from the cottage, they’re doing it.
Teleworking incorporates flexibility in terms of where people park their rears, instead of their cars, every day. It can save money, office space, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stress. However, to properly implement it, you need a fool-proof strategy to keep the sleepwalkers from logging in travel expenses from their living rooms.

by Noemi LoPinto

WHY BOTHER?
The average teleworker will only spend a day or two working outside of the office, contrary to most people’s assumptions, says Bob Fortier, president of the Canadian Telework Association. But that alone can have a significant impact on costs. “You save on transportation costs, on fuel and time,” says Fortier. “If you’re living in a large city, it’s not unusual to spend an hour commuting each way. That’s equal to 12 full workweeks a year.” If you have fewer employees spending their mornings chewing on steering wheels, it can lead to a rise in productivity.

ASSESS THE OBSTACLES
The technology probably already exists to allow your employees full access to company records and databases from outside the office. E-mail is ubiquitous and commonly used; teleconferencing and videoconferencing can be used to present visuals, and the security features may already exist to prevent intellectual theft. Management resistance is usually the biggest challenge, says Fortier. They are the ones dealing with remote workers. Develop a formal program and a business case. Develop corporate objectives and make sure the organizational culture is ready. Get buy-in from managers and then assess your administrative requirements, such as whether or not to provide employees with portable computers.

BUILD A FRAMEWORK
Effective policy guidelines will enable everyone to understand the administrative, legal and financial requirements involved before anything goes forward. You need a selection criteria and tips for managing people from home safely. There are people who should not be teleworking. As a rule of thumb, someone who is already a management issue is a poor fit. But, in some cases, the added flexibility can ease personality conflicts and turn a resentful, anti-social employee into a workhorse. Well-developed guidelines will help managers understand the circumstances under which they can turn down employees who request it. It’s not enough to send a memo to everybody, says Fortier.

TRACK THE RESULTS
Let’s say you got into teleworking to reduce employee absenteeism or stress levels. These are two objectives worth tracking. After you’ve let the program run for a while, evaluate it to make sure those objectives have been achieved. If they haven’t, make adjustments. “You document the results, make the necessary changes, implement them, evaluate and adjust again,” says Fortier. “If you want to do it right, that’s the way to do it.”

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