As more employees seek alternative work arrangements such as telecommuting, employers are struggling to balance the desire to accommodate employee requests with a severe lack of trust in their employees.

“Even so, the telecommuting trend is set to increase due to technology that enables people to perform their jobs outside of the office walls,” said Campbell Dobbin, CEO of Intranet DASHBOARD. “This ability offers employees a lot more flexibility in terms of how and where they work.”Telecommuting trend is on the rise
A 2006 Gartner and Deloitte survey revealed that telecommuting practices are set to increase, with 100 million corporate employees expected to be working from home at least one day a month by 2008.

The 2007 Telecommuting Survey released by Intranet DASHBOARD showed that two-thirds of American organizations support the concept of telecommuting and 72 percent of the 390 survey respondents see telecommuting increasing in popularity over the next five years.

Telecommuting benefits employers and employees alike. U.S.executives who participated in the Telecommuting Survey identified a significant savings to be had in infrastructure costs, absenteeism and productivity. And, employees stand to benefit from the option to telecommute as well. According to the survey, 83 percent of participants said teleworking is considered an incentive or perk for staff, and 65 percent responded that flexible schedules are more important as an incentive to motivate and retain staff over an increase of base compensation, monetary bonuses, equity incentives or rewards programs.

Similar results were revealed in an Information Technology Association of America survey, which revealed that 36 percent of respondents would choose telecommuting over a pay raise. “There are a number of benefi ts for telecommuting; organizations that offer the flexibility to telecommute are seeing more efficient and productive employees, in addition to reducing absenteeism and reducing office overheads for those staff that regularly telecommute,” said Dobbin. “This is a far cry from the positives those who lack trust in telecommuting can point to.”
Telecommuting policy is a good idea. A good way to ensure that telecommuting employees know what is expected of them is to outline it in the form of a policy. A policy will make clear what is expected of the employee and, in the alternative, what actions will not be tolerated.

According to Dobbin, a telecommuting policy should outline:

• what is expected of the employee when they choose to telecommute;
• job performance expectations whilst telecommuting;
• risk management of commercially sensitive information in the context of the telecommuting environment; and
• expectations in regards to insurance and
• safety to corporate and private property.

It is easy to track the production of employees who work in your organization’s office, but how do you track the productivity of employees who work from an alternative location? “It goes back to the same management principles that would be expected if the employee was in the offi ce,” said Dobbin. You should ask, “What are the performance measures in place for that employee?” and “What work or projects should they be focused on?”

“There are checks and balances available to track when an employee logs on or off the network or is “online,” or to track how much time an employee spends on their corporate intranet,” he continued.

“Because this “big brother” approach won’t work for all organizations, you should encourage your managers to continue to communicate with their telecommutingsubordinates, to ascertain how, and at what pace, work is being performed, that it is submitted to the same standard that is expected of them and that the employees is actually getting the work done.”

Dobbin suggests an open and communicative approach to managing telecommuters will make an organization more likely to see the benefi ts of telecommuting.

Problem: lack of trust
Companies are forfeiting telecommuting productivity benefi ts because they lack trust in their employees, according to results of the Telecommuting Survey. The survey shows 70 percent of respondents are restricted from teleworking, and that the major reason telecommuting is not more prevalent in the U.S. workforce is due to upper management’s lack of trust in employees and concerns regarding reduced productivity.

Management’s concerns trump employees’ desire to have the option,” said Dobbin.
According to the Telecommuting Survey, management’s largest concerns with telecommuting are lack of employee productivity, while document safety, bandwidth issues and IT infrastructure costs followed as concerns.

“Organizations are facing a “fear factor,”” said Dobbin. “This fear of the unknown drives concerns for lack of productivity by employees that telecommute and the lack of trust in telecommuting in general. However, as we are seeing from the organizations that do offer telecommuting, the productivity gains are one of the many benefi ts that are being seen, which is a complete contradiction to the fear that is holding organizations back.”

The concerns of employers, managers and non-telecommuting employees about the productivity of those who do telecommute need to be discussed in an open forum.

“Consider having your organization open a dialogue about what is expected from telecommuting worker so that everyone is on the same page,” said Dobbin.

Regaining lost trust. Telecommuting employees in whom you have lost trust will likely seek to regain that trust. “Revisit your organization’s clear objectives as outlined in your policy,” said Dobbin. “Remind the employee what is expected of him or her and then decide whether or not you want to allow for a second chance. In the meantime, a telecommuting employee who can perform their role and deliver what is expected of them is on the right track to re-building trust.”

Give telecommuting employees access
According to Dobbin, it’s a really exciting time to be in today’s information era. “The ability to have flexibility in the workplace and give employees the opportunity to telecommute is a huge step forward,” she said. “Organizations that give access to their telecommuting employees through intranet systems such as Intranet DASHBOARD, provide a form for sharing information that is pertinent to those in and out of the office. Access also provides telecommuting employees with the opportunity to use social networking and corporate culture building. This is a key factor in attracting and retaining employees and also increase employee performance.”

Source: Interview conducted by CCH, a Wolters Kluwer company, of Campbell Dobbin, CEO of Intranet DASHBOARD.