Although teleworking benefits society in multiple ways, including economic, environmental, and personal aspects it arouses certain concerns.

Teleworking

Technology has made it possible for a worker to stay at home but be connected to the office by telephone, computer, modem, fax or e-mail. This type of arrangement is often called 'teleworking' (or 'telecommuting') and people who adopt it are called ‘teleworkers’ or telecommuters’.

Teleworkers are people who work for companies, but not in companies. They do company work at home, usually on computers. So teleworking is about moving the work to the workers, instead of moving the workers to the workplace.

Teleworkers communicate with their supervisors using such communication tools as telephone, computer, modem, fax, Internet teleconferencing, e-mail or IM (instant messaging). They usually transfer information from their own computer to the office computer by electronic means.

Nowadays it is becoming more and more common for people to do at least some of their regular work from home instead of going into the office and the number of teleworkers is increasing. There are many reasons for this increase as teleworking offers benefits to communities, employers, and employees.

For communities, teleworking may offer fuller employment (by increasing the employability of circumstantially marginalized groups such as work at home parents, the disabled, retirees, and people living in remote areas), reducing traffic congestion and traffic accidents, relieving pressure on transportation infrastructure, reducing greenhouse gases, reducing energy use, improving disaster preparedness, and reducing vulnerability to terrorism.

For companies, teleworking expands the talent pool, reduces running costs (heating, lighting, air-conditioning, rent, and car parks), increases productivity, reduces energy usage, reduces the spread of illness, reduces turnover and absenteeism, improves employee retention, improves employee morale. Teleworking offers possibilities for increased service and internationalisation, since teleworkers in different time zones can ensure that a company is virtually open for business around the clock. Teleworking has also enabled offshore outsourcing.

Teleworkers may find that teleworking improves work-life balance, it provides more flexibility with organization of daily tasks (better personal time management), it is cost saving (not having to spend as much on vehicle fuel and maintenance or public transport, lunches, work clothes and more), it is time saving (the equivalent of 15 to 25 workdays a year – time they would have otherwise spent commuting), it is less stressful than working in the office (lower work-family conflict), gives higher job satisfaction.

Although teleworking benefits society in multiple ways, including economic, environmental, and personal aspects it arouses certain concerns.

Management needs to recognize the communication barriers that teleworkers experience. Some employees may feel socially isolated. The feeling of alienation from coworkers can be very difficult for the teleworker. Not all employees can be self motivated, self-disciplined, competent and able to work with little supervision. The job should be clearly defined as well as its objectives. Performance measures should be thorough and apparent.

Lack of separation between home and work, more distractions from family, potential for excessive working hours, less awareness of changes in company, fear of being under-managed or "out of sight, out of mind" are also potential problems for a teleworker.

Remote working is not suitable for all types of job. Managers in teleworking receive fewer promotions due to the lack of direct contact they need. From that aspect, teleworking seems to work best for professionals such as engineers.

Managers need to be aware that although overhead decreases, the cost of technology becomes greater. Use of non-standard software can create problems. Setting up security and virtual private networks increase the demands for IT.

Old-line managers are accustomed to managing by observation and not necessarily by results. This causes a serious obstacle in organizations attempting to adopt teleworking. Liability and workers' compensation can become serious issues as well. Companies considering teleworking should be sure to check on local legal issues, union issues, and zoning laws. Teleworking should incorporate training and development that includes evaluation, simulation programs, team meetings, written materials, and forums. Operational and administrative support should be redesigned to support the virtual office environment. Facilities need to be coordinated properly in order to support the virtual office and technical support should be coordinated properly. The conclusion for managers working within teleworking organizations is that new approaches to evaluating, educating, organizing, and informing workers should be adopted.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 975