Overview
The work from home option often called telecommuting is not an easy sell to employers who have used a work model that has consisted of employees commuting daily during the work week. The fears that employees won't do the assigned tasks and not continue communicating with co-workers is a concern. The work goals should be defined as specifically as possible whether you work from home part-time or full time at the office each day. There is no other way to measure effectiveness, however telecommuting has been implemented at companies across the country with success. The technology available is cost effective and promotes workplace collaborative communication. Telecommuting offers a lot of advantages to both employees and employers.
The significant advantages of allowing employees to work from home include decreased costs to employers and employees, increased employee focus and less traffic on the roads. The technology is already in place at homes with high speed internet lines and laptops with docking stations. In addition the corporate infrastructure already has the proven Firewall and VPN technology to allow secure networking with RSA token sign on authentication. There is FREE web conference software available with white board, VoIP and web camera features allowing meetings from anywhere. The web conferencing is an always on service promoting collaboration along departments. You could setup daily or weekly meetings and send out invites as easy as emailing.
I would caution against allowing full-time telecommuting across the board. Some jobs such as technical writers and programmers telcommute now however weekly meetings and an office visit should still be mandatory. Consider the job functions and determine what would works best considering the company business model and goals. In any case at least a couple days of work from home should work for most employees. The corporate work space could be assigned/shared accordingly. Give the employees a trial run and fine tune any problems with implementation.
Telecommute Advantages:
Office Space Costs
Significantly less office work space would be needed per employee and the associated monthly maintenance, parking and utility costs would decrease with a work space sharing model.
Salary Costs
Offer work from home as an option to new candidates. The attractiveness of telecommuting could allow slightly lower salaries due to the cost savings realized by employees.
Decreased Travel Costs
Decrease travel expenses for distant employees with the use of free web conference software that is web camera and VoIP ready with white board features. The time and money employees would save not commuting everyday would be astounding. Less traffic on the roads in your communities always helps in many ways.
Company Existing Infrastructure
VPN/ASA and Firewall technology has already been implemented and well tested at companies across the country. The secure encrypted VPN clients are easy to deploy on any laptop and have been implemented for many years. Most employees already have high speed internet in their homes.
Employee Morale
Employees could work from home off hours getting the job done and spending more time with family. In addition there are real savings in car maintenance and the cost of gasoline everyday. There is often increased employee focus with fewer distractions and more accomplished during the day and evening. In some cases marginal sick days could be spent doing some work at home instead of bringing it to work.
Some Consideration:
- There must be a designated work at home place with no distractions.
- High speed reliable internet is important.
- People should meet at least twice a week at the office.
Shaun Hummel is the author of Network Planning and Design Guide and http://www.CiscoDesignBooks.com featuring Networking Books, eBooks, Certifications, Articles and Design Tools.
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