To Telecommute or Not to Telecommute?

You are a small business owner, with a limited amount of office space for employees — or perhaps you have a valuable prospective employee that needs to work from a home office. The easy solution would be to allow them to telecommute. How do you manage a telecommuting work environment so that everyone involved benefits?

Telecommuting can offer many advantages. Business owners reap the benefits of lower real estate costs and utility expenses — not to mention a more accommodating work environment that boosts employee morale. For employees, telecommuting can offer better time utilization, improve work-life balance, and lower commuting expenses. All the parties involved, however, need to have a critical understanding of each other’s expectations in a telecommuting environment — an often difficult task.

Laying the Ground Rules

Telecommuting isn’t for everyone, so it is imperative that a business owner formulate a clear set of guidelines articulating where telecommuting is a viable option. Sales or business development managers who are frequently on the road may benefit from the flexibility of working remotely, as would writers, designers and programmers. If a company identifies an extremely qualified and talented individual who is unwilling to relocate, telecommuting can also serve as the convincing factor for them to take the job.
On the other hand, telecommuting may not be right for positions that require constant teamwork, involve highly sensitive information or specialized equipment that can’t leave the office, or require hands-on training or frequent face-to-face customer interaction.

It is also important to clearly articulate to on-site employees the reason an individual works off-site (and why others can’t). Their buy-in can be crucial in creating a cooperative workforce.

Business owners should determine up front the hours during which the employee will be expected to be available, how quickly telecommuters should respond to needs from the office, how often they will check in and visit the office, and to what extent telephone conferences will be held (weekly, biweekly, etc.)

Empower With Technology

Once expectations are established, business owners need to empower telecommuting employees with the tools and motivation necessary for them to continue their best performance.

First, it is vital that the telecommuting employee have broadband Internet access and a reliable landline/ cellular phone, computer and perhaps a PDA. But since today’s technology has blurred the lines between faxes, voice mails, e-mails and phone calls, it is often most effective for small businesses to engage highly integrated and collaborative technologies, especially since they are often priced at an affordable level for small business owners. Unified communications technology is the most popular and effective means to integrate voice, fax and e-mail data, with product options available at extremely affordable rates for small businesses. Some forms of unified communications also incorporate VoIP, requiring the employee to have additional capabilities.

Telecommuting employees should also be given an appropriate level of access to the company’s intranet system to obtain necessary data and files, which, of course, doesn’t come without the challenge of security issues.

Monitor and Evaluate — and Create Virtual Water Coolers
To ensure success, a business owner must continuously monitor the performance of a telecommuting employee and share both positive and negative feedback. Institute a reporting policy up front to check in every day, every week or at the most appropriate level for your business. Set firm deadlines for projects that include a cushion of time for review and modification if necessary.

Since telecommuting employees aren’t included in the day-to-day hustle at the office, they can begin to feel distant from the company. Motivate them to work as part of the team by including them on all company-wide e-mails, conferencing them in to staff meetings, and encouraging onsite employees to maintain communications with their off-site counterparts. If the employee is within driving distance from the office, hold a weekly or monthly meeting to talk face-to-face about projects and concerns. Or, if financially feasible, fly a remote employee to your headquarters every so often to reconnect with the staff.

Remember the expectations established earlier; they will come in handy to assess if an employee’s productivity, responsiveness, and quality of work has deteriorated, stayed the same, or, in fact, improved as a result of telecommuting. Reward improved productivity but address weakening performance immediately.

Telecommuting can be an extremely viable and profitable option for many small businesses. But well-managed expectations, the right technology and the appropriate security and evaluation measures are crucial to establishing an environment of trust and turning this modern business option into a strategy for success.