More Employers Adopting the Concept of Telecommuting
Just a few short years ago, telecommuting was a uncommon benefit for some people. Employers were reluctant to relinquish the impression that employees required watching, and that income online really meant a day of watching soap operas, devouring chocolate bars, and catching up on the laundry. The conventional 9-to-5 in the office was the accepted measure for assuring that employees were where they were allowed to be and doing what they were supposed to do. For most, proof of productiveness was quantified by hours in the office, rather than by results.
However, with the aid of laptops, PDAs, and high speed internet, the practice of quantifying productiveness with time seems to be taking a few hits. Progressively employers have begun to recognize the benefits of telecommuting : lower operating expenses, less infrastructure, more productive workers, and greater memory. Some who already had programs in place for a few are expanding the programs they have to include more employees. Large employers such as the federal government are setting new criteria for telecommuting by adopting the concept rather than rejecting it. There’s even a new term for it now that covers not just those working from home, but those working on the road, or from satellite or client offices – “telework.”.
Telework is viewed favorably enough that the federal government, through its Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and the General Services Administration (GSA), carries on an annual survey of its own offices to ensure that telework opportunities are offered to workers as appropriate, and that the number of employees allowed to telework continues to rise. Telework Centers are maintained as satellite office space for teleworkers, and there are extensive policies governing the use of telework as a work option. Both agencies joined together to create a joint website dedicated to their telework programs. The desire of the OPM and the GSA to accept and utilize teleworking seems to be successful, too – the quantity of federal employees allowed to telework at least part time has increased by nearly 40 percent since the surveys began in 2001.
The federal government is often the forerunner in espousing new insights on the American manpower, and with the Fed setting the pace for making telework an satisfactory means of conducting business, it’s logical to conclude that the American workplace as a whole may adopt the same outlook. For some industries, it could mean a whole new definition of what it means to “go to work.”.
As attracting as it may sound, however, there are those who find telework to be less than they had wanted for. Interestingly enough, this dissatisfaction is n’t coming from the employers, but from employees who find themselves lonely and feeling disconnected from the office culture. Granted, it’s not a majority, but for some, telework brings a sense of feeling “left out,” perhaps to the extent of missing opportunities for promotion, or to influence the thoughts of others with a workable presence in the office. For a few, they just miss the construction of an office and find working at home to be more distracting than inspiring. Some employers willingly welcome these folks back into the fold, while others address this by providing resources, support, and training to their telework forces that help them adapt to working from home, enable them to make better use of technology, and understand how to participate effectively and fruitfully in an electronic environment.
Today, there are more than 12 million Americans who telework full time, and another 10 million who telework part time. However, given the various nature of the workplace, telework won’t be an alternative for many types of businesses but for sure, it’s becoming a much more viable option for jobs that entail computer work, thinking, or perhaps working with numbers. You won’t see manufacturers sending their product assemblers home to put things together, but you may see their accountants working at home a few days a month… or a week. Telework is n’t such a strange concept anymore. It may have once been thought of as an inefficient approach to managing work life balance, but modern workplaces now know that happy, less-stressed employees means employees that stay longer and get more done – and cost them less in the long run.
