Telecommuting | Mike McRitchie | Resume and LinkedIn Profile Writer

The working world is changing. In the old days, it was all about a traditional office and a 9 -5 routine. Not so anymore. Now, more and more companies are embracing a more progressive line of thinking, moving to flexible hours and, even more so, telecommuting. The internet has changed a lot about the world, and with there no longer a need for people to be in the same room to work together, telecommuting has become increasingly popular. And the good news? It can boost employee productivity. Below, we take a look at how to gently ease in this way of working to your company.

Telecommuting

Start Slowly

There are benefits to having your workers work from home, but only if it’s handled correctly. Don’t jump all in at once; if you just ask your workers to stay at home tomorrow, then your company is going to quickly be in chaos! Instead, start slowly. Have the employees who you know don’t need to be on site work at home one day a week, and see how it goes. Once you’re getting into the rhythm, then you’ll be able to have more employees working from home, for more days in the week.

Have the Right Infrastructure

The internet enables you to have telecommuting options for your employees, but it’ll only work if you have the right infrastructure in place. You may need to integrate VoIP solutions, video conference call software, and cloud storage into your business, in order to communicate effectively. If you have all the right pieces in place, then you’ll be able to create a fluid working environment – regardless of where your workers are completing their tasks.

Connecting with Employees

Your workers may produce better work if they work at home, but a company relies on more than just the effectiveness of its workers; to reach its highest level, there needs to be a “team” dynamic. As such, you’ll want to spend time connecting with your workers, even if they conduct most of their work out of the office. Have them work onsite at least once a week, and also hold meetings face to face. There can be benefits to getting all your workers together for social drinks, too – people much prefer to work at companies where it feels like they have friends. If none of your workers ever see each other, then this won’t be able to happen!

Trust Your Workers

Some bosses are hesitant when it comes to telecommuting. They think that their workers are just going to sit around! If you’ve hired correctly, then you should trust your workers. And that’s the beginning and end of it.

Review and Update

Telecommuting can be great for your business, but it’s not going to be perfect from day one. You’ll need to review and tweak the system if it’s going to bring the boosts that it’s capable of delivering. Keep an eye on how it’s working, and then make the changes as and when needed. It’ll work in the long run!

It all started innocently enough.

Email, cell phones, VPN.

The flexibility of working from home allowed employees to be productive outside of the office and recapture their life. Avoiding horrible commutes and getting to spend more time with friends and family without the office tether.

And for employers it was a great recruiting tool. Flexible schedules or work-from-home options.

But this is something personally experienced the benefits of (getting more productivity from employees) and also the costs (less teamwork, more frustrations, and a lonely office).

This New York Times article shows why the office has become a wasteland and why more companies are starting to outlaw working from home options.

Telecommuting Can Make the Office a Lonely Place, a Study Says

Have you seen this in action?

When trying to plan office space needs, if used to be enough to count your staff and add a certain percentage for growth.

Now you have to figure in how many people will be working flexible schedules (who can use shared cubicles), figure out the max, min, and average days in the office for each person so you can get a viable count.

But you also have to think about how you handle the teamwork aspect or team meetings.

In a sales team they are already used to the once a week in office meeting. Then the rest of their day is outside the office.

But with clerical and project staff, web meetings and email collaboration often doesn’t get the same results as when the team is in the office and building ideas and relationships together.

You may have seen email discussions go sideways. But when everyone is in the same office, particularly in close proximity to their coworkers, collaboration and positive results spring forth more often.

So how are you approaching your office situation? Are there days when it is a ghost town and people end of leaving early to go home and work where there are people and distractions to help them avoid the office loneliness?

And are you working to get people in the office at the same time so they build those relationships and positive interactions more often?

It’s a brave new world we’re in. Time to figure out how to make it work for you.