Telecommuting – should you or shouldn’t you?

Wondering what all the fuss over telecommuting is all about?

  • How big is it — really (and why)?
  • What’s in it for you?
  • Why should — or shouldn’t — you consider telecommuting for yourself or your company?

Telecommuting – the Debate Is Hot & Getting Hotter

Recent telecommuting snippets and statistics are rife with contradictions….

Telecommuting — Some Basic Facts

Whether today’s headlines are lauding or lambasting the telecommuting trend, these three facts are clear

  1. Telecommuting is growing.  Given rampant disagreement on what to consider telecommuting, participation figures range from 3 – 37+%.
  2. Telecommuting saves money– for both companies and employees*
  3. Technology enables team members across town or across the globe to work together; the expectation is those tools will continue to improve.

If you don’t get on board or at least understand the role of telecommuting, you may go the way of the dinosaur.  

Why?

  1. There’s a growing gap between hiring needs and available talent, more and more of which can be done remotely
  2. Remote workersare often more productive
  3. Telecommuting offershuge potential cost savings, for companies and workers

Telecommuting & the Talent War

The Talent War is Real. Talent-management savvy employers recognize telecommuting’s potential to provide them with a competitive edge.  Whether it’s for global teams, attracting talent to high cost-of-living areas, an expected perk or retaining legacy knowledge while Millennials and GenXers struggle to fill the gap, telecommuting is becoming increasingly important for tapping top talent.

How Viable Is Telecommuting?

According to GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com,

  • 50% of the US workforce holds a job that is compatible with at least partial telework
  • Approximately 20-25% of the workforce teleworks at some frequency
  • 80% to 90% of the US workforce says they would like to telework at least part-time. Two to three days a week seems to be the sweet spot that allows for a balance of concentrative work (at home) and collaborative work (at the office).

What’s Telecommuting’s ROI?

From a financial perspective, telecommuting is a win for both employers and employees.  Per GlobalWorkplaceAnalytics.com, if those with compatible jobs and a desire to work from home did so just half the time (roughly the national average for those who do so regularly) the national savings would total over $700 Billion a year including:

  • A typical business would save $11,000 per person per year
  • Telecommuters would save between $2,000 and $7,000 a year

How did telecommuting gain such force?

Technology and distributed work forces made telecommuting both viable and advantageous.

“As soon as we went fully paperless – 10 to 12 years ago — employees started telecommuting from home 2-3 days a week,” recalls John Doe.   John Doe (who prefers anonymity) is a remote manager employed by a top worldwide accounting firm.   John’s clients are international.  His staff is a mix of US and overseas-based.  He also works remotely.  “For the team that is largely consultative, traveling Monday through Thursday, an office is irrelevant. They are mostly at the client site. Everything is online.”

Telecommuting Improves Productivity

Telecommuting cuts down on employee commute time and distractions, http://bit.ly/2iVMESM, belief is telecommuting improves productivity.

Kelly Jo Horton, Chief Technology Officer of startup Intersekt Solutions works at home half the time as well as managing a remote team.  She likes the way telecommuting gives her the ability to control her workflow. “When I have a project on my plate that requires focused time, I might get up at 5 am and work straight through until 9 or 10. It eliminates that break to get dressed and in the car that otherwise disrupts my flow.”

Telecommuting: Key Candidate Perk & “Talent War” Tool

Whether for “flow” or flexibility, telecommuting is considered an important perk for a growing portion of key employees and candidates.

  • Telecommuters are 50 percent less likely to quit their job.  http://bit.ly/2fyVE4h
  • Telecommuting provides flexibility to accommodate family demands and travel. Flexjobs.com (http://bit.ly/2uJtDc7) reports that telecommuters were more likely to say they had enough time to spend with their families.  Ability to accommodate travel however ranked highest among the draws to telecommuting amongst employees.
  • Retaining legacy knowledge is an increasing concern, http://wapo.st/2vWOz4s. A Washington Post story revealed that “10,000 boomers are retiring daily…. We expect this trend to continue… to have a significant effect on our workloads.”
  • John Doe’s company uses telecommuting to address this issue.  “When we’re faced with letting a senior person with huge amounts of institutional knowledge go, instead, to keep them on board we find a way to use technology to make it work.”

When Telecommuting Goes Too Far

Yet there are some clouds of concern regarding telecommuting’s long-term impact on the workplace – a counter-trend.

Research reveals some merits to their telecommuting concerns http://bit.ly/2uTFoNl.  Recent telecommuting study George Mason and Boston College conducted found that high levels of off-site work could have “a highly negative and contagious effect on the office environment.” 

When telecommuting becomes too pervasive in a workplace, because everyone else was staying home, the value of coming into the office wasn’t worth it to many employees.  People stopped coming in. When companies reach a tipping point, people who worked at an office felt just as isolated as those who worked remotely.

Could remote workforces reach the point where the least distracting place to work is the office – because no one else is there?

Why One Leading-Edge Tech Company Discourages Telecommuting

A Senior Leader at a  Portland Tech Company (who prefers to remain anonymous) says her company supports working remotely on occasion when personal issues require it, yet embraces her company’s overall view that telecommuting is not their preferred work mode, but the exception.  She explains,

“There are many documented benefits to sitting close to people you are working with and I see it in action every day!  As a proponent of Agile development practices, one of its tenets is co-location of team members. No matter how far technology develops in support of virtual togetherness, it doesn’t come close to capturing the value of getting people together IRL (in real life), in the same room, working through a problem together. Solving challenging technical problems benefits from co-location because of the low barrier to communication and ability to easily work together on problem solving.  We find that it strengthens our teams and the social interaction leads to us enjoying the workplace more – there is a reason we emphasize eating together in the lunchroom!”

When Is Telecommuting Right for You?

For certain positions, not offering at least occasional telecommuting may become more the exception than the rule.  In most cases, for data-driven jobs, telecommuting is here to stay. Whether telecommuting works for you as a job seeker, for certain departments within a company, or for the company as a whole, is a resounding, “It depends.”

For job seekers/employees — if your job is data driven and not location dependent (such as software engineer or accountant vs. hospital staff or hospitality/restaurant staff) look for companies that support at least part-time telecommuting. Telecommuting as a choice is considered a talent-attracting perk, but not a “right” or even a good-for-corporate no-brainer.

For employers — Top talent attraction, cost savings, strategy for retaining institutional knowledge are very good reasons for implementing or maintaining at least partial telecommuting policies.  But the end result can range from the best team from around the world, to the sad sound of one hand, no longer clapping.  Like most trends, its success or failure depends on hiring the right team and managing them well.

Still not sure if telecommuting’s right for you or your team?

Even if it is — what does it take to do it right?

Watch for the next post….

Telecommuting – community, tools and communication 

 

Telecommunting – should you or shouldn’t you?

Connie Dorigan, Founder and Director of Recruiting, sees the food processing industry as the link between good living and good people. She’s the west coast’s most experienced and trusted food processing recruiter. She also provides Executive and Career Coaching and lots of free job search tools. Once you’ve connected with Connie, you’ll always be connected.

© 2018 Connie Dorigan. All rights reserved.

This is a general interest article and does not constitute specific or legal advice.

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