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Teleworking
New Technologies Help Employees Go Virtual
March 2011
Watch List
• New technologies like Virtual Private Networks, Voice over Internet Protocol, and desktop virtu-alization are allowing greater numbers and more types of employees to telework.
• In recent years, severe weather events and the threat of the H1N1 flu pandemic caused massive business shutdowns. Many companies now have telework options to ensure continuity of opera-tions during such events.
• Rising gas prices and increased awareness of environmental issues are pushing more organi-zations to consider telework policies.
• Some organizations are encouraging some or all of their employees to work virtually so as to reduce or eliminate real estate, equipment, and energy costs.
Key Takeaways
• Telework, a term that encompasses telecommut-ing and mobile worktelecommut-ing, refers to an employee’s use of telecommunication technology to work at a location apart from the company office.
• Major benefits of teleworking include greater employee satisfaction and retention, reduced environmental footprint, increased employee pro-ductivity, and decreased overhead costs.
• At a minimum, companies should have policies and infrastructure in place to allow for ad hoc teleworking in order to maintain continuity of operations.
Related Reports
• Managing Teleworkers • Webinar Development & Use • Cloud Computing
Executive Summary
Teleworking, or using telecommunication technol-ogy to work outside the office, is a growing trend. The term teleworking is more comprehensive than the more commonly used telecommuting, which usually implies that the employee is tied to a home office rather than the company office. New mobile technol-ogy allows people to work at any time and anywhere, however, and several factors are influencing the growth of teleworking, including the economic reces-sion, high fuel prices, employees’ demand for a greater work-life balance, and the existence of new technol-ogy that makes teleworking a viable option for more types of employees.
Teleworking provides many benefits to both employ-ees and employers. Employemploy-ees who telework report increased job satisfaction and individual productiv-ity. Companies with teleworking programs report increased overall productivity from teleworking employees as well as reduced overhead costs. A fur-ther benefit to both individuals and companies is the environmental advantage of teleworking: with the average worker driving 22 miles each way, a reduction in commuters equals dramatically reduced green-house gas emissions.
Teleworking can be implemented on an ad hoc basis or a more formal basis. At a bare minimum, a policy that promotes ad hoc teleworking will help maintain continuity of operations, allowing crucial work to continue even during inclement weather or times when fears of a pandemic flu keep the majority of workers home. Allowing for ad hoc teleworking also increases employee productivity by giving them a
way to continue working even if an appointment or household emergency interrupts their day. With more employees teleworking on a more formal schedule, companies can reap the benefits of signifi-cantly reduced real estate, equipment, and energy costs. Taken to its logical conclusion, some compa-nies are staffed with only teleworkers; the whole office has gone virtual.
Although some people have teleworked for many years, in the past it was only an option for frequent business travelers or those “knowledge workers” whose work could be done from any basic computer. However, new technology like Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service and Unified Communi-cations (UC) software are allowing a greater range of employees to work from home. Virtual Private Net-works (VPNs) permit employees to securely access company resources from their personal computers, while desktop virtualization allows IT departments to more easily deploy the appropriate resources to each employee. The basis for all these resources is the wide-spread access to broadband internet.
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TeleworkingBusiness Options and Best Practices
Telework Basics
The terms teleworker, telecommuter, virtual worker,
and mobile worker are often used interchangeably,
and there is indeed much overlap among them. In general, the term telework encompasses the many flexible work arrangements that allow employees to do some or all of their work in a location other than the company office. Telecommuting usually implies working from home to avoid traveling to the office, while mobile working infers working from a café, library, business center, or other public area. The concept of the virtual worker simply indicates that the employee is taking advantage of technologies that make it possible to be “virtually” in the office without being there physically.
Telework is a growing trend in the United States. According to the Telework Trendlines 2009 report
from WorldatWork, “The number of employee tele-commuters in the U.S. increased 39 percent, from 12.4 million in 2006 to 17.2 million in 2008” (Telework Trendlines, 2009). That number also represents an increase of 74 percent since 2005. In addition, the study determined that the most common places for teleworking are an employee’s home or car, and a customer or client’s place of business. Restaurants and libraries are declining in popularity as places to work.
During these times of economic recession, many companies face the prospect of either closing their doors, operating only part-time, or laying off large percentages of employees. By giving employees the ability to telework, however, organizations can reduce their overhead costs substantially and still
working employees. Using technologies such as Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), and Web conferencing, employees can conduct business in a “business-as-usual” way. Teleworking is not a new concept; in fact, it has been around since the early 1970s, when a NASA scientist coined the term and conducted a study on its viability. Although the 1973 feasibility study came in response to high-traffic commuting in southern California, tele-commuting did not gain popularity until the personal computers (PCs) of the 1980s gave employees access to office resources while they were away from the office. Since then, the concept of telecommuting has changed significantly as technologies have improved. In the 1990s, widespread broadband internet access gave remote employees access to e-mail and office networks. As security and virtualization became more sophisticated, employees were able to mimic office environments on their home computers. Today, wire-less internet access and internet-enabled phones allow workers to be truly mobile, working anywhere and at any time.
In recent years, severe storms and the threat of the H1N1 flu pandemic shut down many offices and kept people from work, ultimately costing billions of dol-lars in lost productivity (Pandemic Planning, 2009). Companies that had a teleworking policy and infra-structure in place, however, enabled their employees to access the resources they needed to continue to work productively.
Even in the absence of large-scale emergencies, the exigencies of daily life often keep workers out of the office for issues such as doctor’s appointments, sick children, and household crises. For such “accidental” or ad hoc telecommuters, the ability to telework
As technology makes it possible for increasing numbers of employees to telework, it is important for organizations to have a thoughtful telework-ing policy. Regardless of whether teleworktelework-ing happens on an ad hoc basis or a more ongoing basis, the policy itself should never be ad hoc.
Many companies explain that the reason they started a teleworking policy was because an employee requested it (Alverson, 1998). Once one employee is allowed to telework, however, com-panies should be prepared with a set of criteria and practices that can be applied to all
employ-What Technologies Enable Telework?
Technology Description
Phone The most basic of technologies, a regular land-line phone, is a fixture in most homes, and over 80% of the U.S. population now has at least one mobile phone. Even the most casual teleworkers need access to a reliable phone, and for the regularly scheduled teleworker, this phone may need to have increased functional-ity. For instance, telecommuters who primarily work from home and use their home phone line need to ensure that colleagues or clients can reach them in a consis-tent and appropriate way. This means that other family members should not have access to the phone during business hours. Similarly, the voicemail associated with the phone should contain a work-oriented outgoing message, not a family message. The same guidelines apply to mobile phones: If they are being used for work, they should have a professional outgoing message, and employees should be aware of background noise. Employees should also be wary of using the phone in inappropri-ate locations, such as a bar or a sporting event.
Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) Phone
One way to avoid confusion over employee use of personal phones while working remotely is to offer Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service. Also known as Internet telephony, VoIP refers to the technology that allows users to make and receive phone calls via broadband or wireless internet access. Some mobile phones offer VoIP capability, while employees who work only at home may access VoIP directly from their PCs, through a specific VoIP-enabled phone, or through an analog telephone adapter (ATA). VoIP ties the employee’s phone to the company’s phone system so that callers can dial a company-based phone number to reach the employee or leave a voicemail on the company-based system. A caller can also reach the company opera-tor or other extension through the company’s existing system; no one need know that the employee is not in the office. Another benefit is that VoIP gives the company much more control over the phone system.
Fax Fax (short for facsimile) capability is not a necessity for all mobile workers on a daily basis. In certain fields, however, such as accountancy and real estate, signatures may need to be faxed several times a day. While fax capability used to entail installing a separate piece of equipment with a separate phone line, internet faxing (e-faxing) now delivers faxes via e-mail, which users can then print and sign if necessary.
Broadband Internet Connection
A broadband internet connection may be the single biggest factor that allows employees to work remotely. The dial-up modems of the early 1990s allowed data to be transmitted at a rate of only 56 kilobits per second (kbit/s), thus limit-ing the amount of data that employees could access. Today, broadband access rates of 700+ kbit/s allow for many of the necessary technologies described in this section, including VoIP, cloud computing, instant messaging, web conferenc-ing, and virtual private networks.
Wireless Fiber Internet Access (Wi-Fi)
Wi-Fi internet helps mobile workers be truly mobile, giving them access to e-mail, files, and other work resources while away from the office or even their home com-puter. Wi-Fi access points in airports, cafes, and malls keep employees constantly connected, and although this continuous availability is not for everyone, it can be very important for some.
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TeleworkingWhat Technologies Enable Telework? (continued) Technology Description
Smartphones Smartphones are mobile phones with extra functionality, such as internet, file reading and writing, and calendar. Most smartphones synchronize (synch) with desktop or mainframe computers, so users can access their information on the go.
Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)
The Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an e-mail platform that allows a user to access his or her e-mail account from multiple locations and see the same data. Whereas with the Post Office Protocol (POP), messages are downloaded to the user’s computer and stay there, with IMAP, the messages (and folders, saved mail, and other settings) reside on a server until the user deletes them. IMAP is a key feature for mobility of user data.
Cloud
Computing Cloud computing is a service model for providing computing resources like applica-tions, storage, and infrastructure via the internet. With files and other data accessible through internet-based services, employees don’t need to worry about taking their work with them because they can log into their Cloud computing site from any com-puter and access their files remotely.
Desktop
Virtualization With traditional computing, all software and files are installed directly to a user’s com-puter, where he or she can access them. With desktop virtualization, the resources exist on a central server, and the user logs in to the server to access those resources virtually. Desktop virtualization gives IT departments a simple way to provide employees with the resources they need without having to physically access the remote computers. For com-panies with a large percentage of teleworking employees, desktop virtualization is one of the crucial factors that enable IT departments to support remote staff.
Instant
Messaging (IM) Once the province of teenagers socializing with each other, Instant Messaging (IM) has become a staple of teleworking. It substitutes for “over-the-cubicle” conversations between workers who need quick answers to pertinent questions by providing real-time, text-based chat capability. It can also be tracked and monitored by managers; many managers cite IM as a way to check up on teleworking employees and make sure they are working productively and staying on task.
Virtual Private
Network (VPN) Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) offer remote employees a way to access their company’s private network via the public internet. Since most companies’ networks are protected by a firewall, the VPN provides a secure, encrypted channel to company resources.
Web
Conferencing A web conference uses internet-based communication tools like VoIP, video, virtual white boards, chat rooms, screen sharing, and polls or surveys to mimic the features of a live conference.
Web 2.0 Tools Web 2.0 describes web-based applications that promote networking and sharing infor-mation. Web 2.0 tools like blogs, wikis, virtual worlds, and social networking sites give employees an unprecedented way to interact with their peers both within and outside their companies. As teleworkers become a larger part of the workforce, Web 2.0 tools create a “virtual water cooler:” a place where employees can share information that is critical to their jobs while also building their community.
Unified Communica-tions (UC)
Unified Communications (UC) integrates multiple communication modalities – voicemail, e-mail, fax, mobile phone, presence – into one system, with information relayed over sev-eral systems. For instance, a caller can call one number to reach a teleworking employee,
ees. Some state and municipal governments offer subsidies for individual teleworkers or for telework initiatives, while the federal government mandates that all of its departments have telework programs.
Who can Telework?
Teleworking has long been necessary for employ-ees whose work requires them to do a significant amount of travel. Sales representatives, trainers, and technical installers do most of their work remotely. For these road warriors, who may spend months at a time out of the office, being able to telework effectively and productively is crucial. In the past, these workers had to utilize the business centers of hotels or rent services from “telework centers” or “tel-ecenters.” Today, however, many of the technologies discussed above have enabled them to truly take their work on the road and be as productive out of the office as they are in it.
Aside from those employees whose extensive travel requires teleworking, telecommuting was usually lim-ited to “knowledge workers” — individuals who work with information, not with the physical production of goods or services. Knowledge workers include writers, researchers, and analysts. However, recent technolo-gies such as VoIP, VPNs and Cloud computing have made it possible for companies to broaden the defini-tion of which fields are suitable for teleworking. Call center employees, who were once limited to a room full of phones and cubicles, are now part of a new wave of teleworking employees. Nonetheless, there are certain workers for whom teleworking will never be an option. Assembly workers, grocery clerks, secu-rity guards, and other similar positions will never be able to replace their physical presence with a virtual one.
Benefits of Teleworking
Increased Productivity
According to a 2007 survey by the Computing
Tech-nology Industry Association (CompTIA), 67 percent of companies cite greater employee productivity as a result of implementing telecommuting initiatives (Krasne, 2009). In fact, most proponents of telework cite increased productivity as one of the major driv-ers of the movement. Certainly, omitting the morning and afternoon commute can add several hours to an employee’s day, and many telecommuters state that they use this extra time for catching up on e-mails, calendar issues, and other administrative tasks. Some simply use the longer day to work longer hours, while others use the extra time to create more flexibility for family or personal time. Apart from the time gained by bypassing the daily commute, many employees feel that they can work more efficiently away from the distractions of the office. Whether it is a quiet room at home or an isolated corner of a café, non-office envi-ronments may help employees work more effectively. And as discussed above, the ability to telework allows workers to work from home when they cannot get to the office.
Environmental Responsibility
Another major driver of many organizations’ telework initiatives is the desire to be more environ-mentally conscious. Rising fuel costs, coupled with an increased awareness of climate change issues, are pushing people to consider the efficacy of com-muting. According to a 2007 study by the Consumer Electronics Association, if the 53 million people who could telecommute were to start telecommuting just one day per week, it would result in an 8 percent reduction in U.S. energy consumption. According to the study, the 2007 telecommuting rates alone were equivalent to taking two million cars off the road, or saving enough energy to power one million homes (Martin, 2008). Individual companies with effective telecommuting policies have earned the right to flaunt their reduced environmental foot-print. Software giant Cisco, for example, reported that its large-scale telework program prevented approximately 47,330 metric tons of greenhouse gas
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Teleworkingemissions from being released (Wolchack, 2009).
Reduced Overhead Costs
While companies that are entirely virtual have sig-nificantly reduced overhead costs, implementing teleworking on a smaller scale can still help compa-nies reap the benefits of lower real estate, equipment, and energy costs. Experts suggest that “companies can reduce operating costs by 40 percent per person by letting them telecommute” (Marquez, 2008). In order to see these savings, however, organizations must have a formal telework policy and know, on a given day, how many people will be in the office. The practice of “hot desking,” or setting up shared work-station spaces for revolving employees, can allow companies to reduce their infrastructure while still maintaining the same staffing levels. For instance, if a 100-person company has a policy that leads to 25 employees teleworking each day, the company can occupy office space that is 25 percent smaller. Such calculations cannot work if teleworking only hap-pens on an ad hoc basis.
Employee Satisfaction and Retention
The least quantifiable but perhaps most important reason to promote teleworking is employee satisfac-tion and retensatisfac-tion. Happy employees exhibit less stress-related illnesses, are more productive, and have less job turnover. A 2006 study from Penn State University that examined 20 years of research on teleworking (and other flexible work arrangements) found that when employees have more control over their work environments, they report higher job satisfaction and less motivation to leave the com-pany. They also boast higher performance ratings (Gajendran and Harrison, 2006). Although some
Acronyms
HR: Human Resources IM: Instant Messaging IT: Information Technology UC: Unified Communications VoIP: Voice over Internet Protocol VPN: Virtual Private Network
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