It can also be employed as a strategic talent management initiative that improves employee attraction, engagement and retention while reducing costs for both the firm and the workers. Of course, there are some jobs that are not conducive to telework, such as positions that require an on-site presence.
But others are more location flexible, and some jobs have elements of both—they require on-site availability on some days, but they also include duties that can be conducted at home, such as report writing or customer service interactions that take place over email and phone. Managers who dismiss telecommuting because not every position in their department is telework-friendly may be losing out on the broader organizational benefits of telework.
About 43 percent of U. That percentage is up from 39 percent in , which indicates a moderate but steady increase in teleworking. As telecommuting becomes more popular, the average amount of time each teleworker spends at home or in another remote location increases.
The percentage of U. The number of employees who work remotely 40 to 80 percent of the time has also slightly increased, while the number of employees working remotely less than 20 percent of the time has decreased.
In addition, in more than half of the largest U. Employee Workforce. Telecommuting has grown far faster than any other commuting mode, according to the study, which was issued by FlexJobs and Global Workplace. One of the drivers of the growth of telework has been the U. In , the U. Telework Enhancement Act became law, and it required the head of each executive agency to establish and implement a policy under which employees could be authorized to telework.
The U. General Services Administration GSA serves as the lead agency for the government's initiative; in its latest annual report to Congress, GSA said that federal teleworking continues to increase, with participation growing to 46 percent from 39 percent of eligible employees from to Another telework driver is the increasing pressure from younger workers for more work options.
With developments like advanced cloud services, technology continues to evolve and offer more reliable support for remote work, Arnold adds. Nonetheless, barriers remain. Often, this management resistance simply boils down to lack of trust, says Kate Lister, president of Global Workplace Analytics. Ironically, she adds, being in sight does not always mean being productive; workplace studies show that the majority of both cat videos and pornography are viewed in the office during working hours.
One of the first tasks for those who plan to manage teleworkers is deciding who on staff may be eligible for telework. Overall, Gallup has found that a little over half of U.
In addition, some employees, regardless of position requirements, simply do not want to telecommute. However, those holding jobs with part-time on-site requirements may be eligible. Lister cites the example of a group of park rangers she worked with. Although they spent much time patrolling the park, they also had administrative responsibilities such as report writing, allowing many to successfully telecommute part time. For guidance, some organizations use the model of concentrative versus collaborative work, Lister explains.
Concentrative work, which is best conducted alone and without interruptions, can be done well remotely; collaborative work, such as meetings and group projects, is often best tackled in the firm's office, with other team members present.
Once it is decided who might be working remotely, teleworking managers should keep in mind the following best practices, which come from various experts:. A teleworking policy should be developed by the entire team. To set the tone and foster confidence before a new teleworking program begins, managers should engage in dialogue with their teams and address any questions about teleworking.
Asking team members to discuss and achieve consensus on solutions to these questions can help the team become more invested in making a teleworking initiative a success. While the specific answers will differ for each organization, managers should be prepared for questions such as:.
If more than one employee is telecommuting, treat telework as a team activity rather than an individual one, whenever possible. Develop a team schedule, rather than an independent schedule, and a teleworking system that is consistent with the needs of the department and organization. This may mean that if an important team meeting needs to be held in person, employees normally scheduled to telework that day may have to come to the office on a scheduled telework day.
Virtual presence. Instant messaging systems can be used by team members to check in each morning, and change status when they will be away from the computer for more than a few minutes. Using a rotating system, one team member can also lead a virtual water cooler chat with a question or comment for team members to respond to once or twice a day. Transparent communication tools like shared calendars can also be useful. In addition, advanced collaboration tools such as video conferencing may also be considered.
Customer service. If your team members interact with customers, make sure service-level support requirements in communicating with customers are clearly defined. All team members need to agree to meet the same service levels to ensure transparency to the customer.
Commit with each other to an acceptable response period for email inquiries or phone calls. IT support. A common reason for teleworking dissatisfaction is IT failure. By , more than , U. This number is only expected to grow as a result of the increasingly global nature of our economic and employment systems. Although the public has a generally positive view of telecommuting, it is less clear what science has to say about its benefits and drawbacks.
Studies examining telecommuting have been conducted across a wide range of disciplines, often using different — and non-comparable — definitions of what telecommuting actually is. In a review of the research, the authors find that telecommuting is associated with many benefits for employees, such as increased job satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job performance and lower work stress and exhaustion.
However, those who work primarily out of the office may face isolation from, and reduced levels of knowledge sharing with, colleagues. One key aspect uncovered through this review is that the impact of telecommuting on employees depends on many different factors, such as the amount of time spent telecommuting, the personal characteristics of the worker, and the structure of the organization.
Telecommuting seems to confer the most benefits when practiced to a moderate degree. Telecommuting may, therefore, be a poor choice for those who have trouble setting their own schedule or motivating themselves to work. Face-to-face contact may also be more vital in certain types of workplaces where in-person contact is beneficial for innovation and creativity.
Telecommuting can be good for employees, especially if organizations work to ensure the success of such programs.
Telecommuters should be provided with appropriate technology so that they can effectively complete their work from outside the office while staying in close connection with in-office colleagues. Finally, candidates for telework should be chosen carefully, as not all employees will have the self-regulatory skills to work in a non-office environment.
In a commentary accompanying this report, Kenneth Matos and Ellen Galinsky of the Families and Work Institute note that with the rise in global markets, employers are no longer asking whether they will allow telecommuting but want to know how to do it right. We attempt to sift through the divergent and at times conflicting literature to develop an overall sense of the status of our scientific findings, in an effort to identify not only what we know and what we think we know about telecommuting, but also what we must yet learn to fully understand this increasingly important work mode.
After a brief review of the history of telecommuting and its prevalence, we begin by discussing the definitional challenges inherent within existing literature and offer a comprehensive definition of telecommuting rooted in existing research.
Our review starts by highlighting the need to interpret existing findings with an understanding of how the extent of telecommuting practiced by participants in a study is likely to alter conclusions that may be drawn. We then review telecommuting's implications for employees' work-family issues, attitudes, and work outcomes, including job satisfaction, organizational commitment and identification, stress, performance, wages, withdrawal behaviors, and firm-level metrics.
Our article continues by discussing research findings concerning salient contextual issues that might influence or alter the impact of telecommuting, including the nature of the work performed while telecommuting, interpersonal processes such as knowledge sharing and innovation, and additional considerations that include motives for telecommuting such as family responsibilities.
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