Advantages to Implementing a Telecommuting Program

Research has shown that the benefits of a properly implemented telecommuting program are many and diverse. A well-designed telecommuting program can improve employee and manager morale by reducing stress, improving productivity, reducing absenteeism, and lowering an organization's overhead, among other positive factors.

Whether telecommuting can work for an organization or not has been the focus of numerous studies for over twenty years. Not until the comprehensive and widely reported November, 2007 study by Gejendran and Harrison published in the Journal of Applied Psychology was a complete understanding of the positive factors involved with telecommuting presented to the public.

The Gejendran and Harrison study found, "Telecommuting has a clear upside: small but favorable effects on perceived autonomy, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and stress. Contrary to expectations in both academic and practitioner literatures, telecommuting also has no straightforward, damaging effects on the quality of workplace relationships or perceived career prospects." ["The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown About Telecommuting," Journal of Applied Psychology, v. 92, n. 6]

A trial program at IBM involving 300 computer programmers established that home-based workers were more productive. [Bell Communications Research, "Telecommunications Infrastructure: Analysis of its Economic Impacts," April, 1990]. The city of Portland invested six months in a telecommuting pilot program that resulted in happier employees and higher productivity ["City of Portland Gives Telecommuting a Thumbs Up Following a Six-Month Test.".] Similar positive experiences have been reported from U.S. West and Novell.

Potential Advantages

1. Reduce the number of cars traveling to a work site. An employee can save thousands in travel expenses a year.

2. Reduce number of interruptionsand alleviate stress means larger blocks of concentrated thought devoted to a task, thus the task may get done faster with higher quality and less stress.

3. Decrease in overhead can save thousands a year in office space, maintenance, and technical support.

4. Increase productivity and reduce absenteeism. Most telecommuters and managers of telecommuters find that the productivity of employees who telecommute increases significantly. Companies like U.S. West have declared as much as a 40% increase in productivity by telecommuters. ["Telecommuting," HR Computing Newsletter, October, 1994, v.1. n. 1, pp. 1-8.] Statistics show that in 1992 over 3 billion dollars in productivity was lost due to employees needing to stay home and attend to family matters. [TRP 2000, City and County of Denver, by Judy Rapp-Guadagnoli, August 1994.]

5. Increased planning skills and improved communication. Work groups with telecommuters find they are more organized and reduce the need for emergency meetings. Regularly scheduled meetings help everyone keep up-to-date on the status of the projects, discuss technical issues, facilitate brain storming, and assist each other with organizational issues.

6. Build trust between the manager and telecommuter. When a responsible employee is given the opportunity to telecommute, that employee will take extra steps to insure that he/she is able to continue telecommuting. He/she is appreciative of the trust the manager is displaying when the opportunity is presented. As the program progresses, both manager and telecommuter build on their trust in each other since they both want to telecommuting to have continued success.

7. A positive recruiting and retention vehicle. The positive aspects of the telecommuting program will encourage employees to be part of the staff and stay with the staff.

8. Increased employee morale. Employees that feel they are trusted will be happier when working with an organization that embraces telecommuting. ["Implementing a Telecommuter Program for OSI," City of Denver, 1996, in-house report, Grassnick/Craig]

Establishing a Telecommuter Agreement

Companies that have reported successful results from telecommuting have written a Telecommuter Agreement that is signed by the employee and a representative of the company. An example agreement should include:
• Training expectations
• How to establish and maintain minimum technology requirements such as equipment hardware and configuration
• How to connect to the organization's telecommuting network
• Insurance, health, and safety
• How and when to contact management
• Description of performance evaluation
• Requirements for "clocking" in and out

Sources:

Bell Communications Research, "Telecommunications Infrastructure: Analysis of its Economic Impacts," April, 1990.

Gejendran and Harrison. "The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown About Telecommuting," Journal of Applied Psychology, v. 92, n. 6.

"City of Portland Gives Telecommuting a Thumbs Up Following a Six-Month Test." http://www.portlandonline.com/index.cfm?mode=search&search_action=SearchResults

Rapp-Guadagnoli, Judy. TRP 2000, City and County of Denver, August 1994.

Grassnick and Craig. "Implementing a Telecommuter Program for OSI," City and County of Denver, 1996, in-house report.