Telecommuting - Still a Balancing Act?

Todd France

When John Feery, vice president of human resources for Manufactured Home Communities, Chicago, IL, joined the company, a handful of employees were telecommuting. Management had recognized that telecommuting could be a good benefit for employees and tasked Feery with developing a formal policy for telecommuting.

Feery canvassed Chicago area employers to look at their policies on telecommuting. He developed guidelines based on what was working for these companies and input from MHC management. MHC's program works like this: When employees are interested in a telecommuting arrangement, they write up a proposal for their supervisor. HR and the supervisor look at why the employee is requesting the arrangement and how it's going to affect their work in their office. They also consider whether the employee has the adequate space requirements at home.

"We need to make sure that the work home space is safe and the employee can adequately work at home and concentrate on the function of their job in the home," says Feery.

Arrangements are approved on a 12-month basis and employees have to go into the office at least three days per week. So that managers can monitor performance, employees below the vice president level are asked to keep a log of what they are working on and how the time is spent. They submit this report to their supervisor at the end of each week. Other requirements include meeting vendors only at the office and checking into the office at least four times a day. Employees are responsible for their own equipment and for installing the necessary telephone lines. MHC provides support in setting up connections to the office, providing the necessary software and covering charges associated with maintaining the software.

MHC has 1300 employees in 26 states, but the telecommuting policy is directed toward the 70 employees who work at corporate headquarters only, says Feery, who anticipates entertaining more requests for telecommuting. MHC's workforce, he says, is young and many are in the beginning stages of starting their families.

Like MHC, other companies have found that telecommuting is a great way to attract and keep good workers. Typically, a telecommuting program begins when a valued employee with the needed equipment asks to start working part of his or her week out of the home. The company then connects the employee with the office.

Three factors are leading the growth of telecommuting, according to Joanne Pratt, president of Joanne H. Pratt Associates and director of research for a survey for the International Telework Association and Council: More and more people are using the Internet at both work and at home; technology such as cell phones, notebook computers and other gadgets have made it easy for employees to work anywhere and any time; and American workers want to take more control over their work and personal lives.

"Telework is increasingly being recognized not as a luxury, but as a necessary component of the evolving structure of modern work patterns that are essential for helping employees better balance work and home life," says Pratt.

Balancing Work and Family

OSHA FORMALIZES HOME-BASED WORK The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will not inspect home offices for violations of federal safety and health rules, nor does it expect employers to. "OSHA respects the privacy of people's homes, and we expect that employers will too," said Charles N. Jeffress, OSHA administrator. OSHA released Home-Based Worksites directive 2-0.125 on February 25, 2000. It states that "OSHA will not hold employers liable for employees' home offices, and does not expect employers to inspect the home offices of their employees." However, OSHA still holds that "employers are responsible in home work sites for hazards caused by materials, equipment, or work processes which the employer provides or requires to be used in an employee's home."

Making Telecommuting Work

For telecommuting programs to work, managers and supervisors must buy into the concept. Managers need to feel confident that employees will get the work done. Telecommuting is not appropriate for every employee. Whether or not an employee can telecommute should be based on the nature of the job and the track record of the employee, says Brown of Prime Retail. He recalls a recent study of a financial services firm that offered the telecommuting option to all employees. Many decided to stick with commuting to the office because they found they needed the discipline of going to an office every day.

Looking at job function and the personality of the employee is critical to making a telecommuting program successful, agrees Stephen L. Schilling, president of TeleCommute Solutions Inc., an Atlanta-based company that helps corporations set up telecommuting programs. In the June 1999 issue of HRFocus, Schilling outlines the following guidelines for employers to keep in mind when determining what job lends itself to a telecommuting arrangement. He groups employees in the following categories.

Mobile workers: These include sales people, technical customer service personnel, consultants and auditors. For many of these workers who spend most of their times at customer offices, telecommuting is business as usual.

That's the case with leasing employees and sales representatives at the Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), one of the oldest REITs in the country. PREIT has 975 employees and manages retail and apartment property. All sales people based out of the Philadelphia headquarters have cell phones and laptops, says Judy Baker, the human resources director for PREIT. This is much more convenient for them because they travel often and are out of the office a lot.

Although much of the communication is done by e-mail, the sales reps have frequent meetings in the office since face-to-face contact is important to touching base and establishing a team atmosphere. The sales reps have used the laptops for several years and communicate with the office via faxes, phone calls and the Internet.

WHO IS OFFERING TELECOMMUTING? The prevalence of telecommuting arrangements varies widely by size of employer and by industry. Percentage of employers offering telecommuting by number of employees Over 5,000 employees (56 percent) 2501. 5000 employees (47 percent) 1001. 2500 employees (33 percent) 501. 1,000 employees (22 percent) 251. 500 employees (23 percent) 100. 250 employees (23 percent) Less than 100 employees (27 percent) Source: 1999 Benefits Survey, Society for Human Resource Management. (Based on responses of 742 human resource professionals.)

Full-time data workers: Managed health care claims processors, insurance processors and credit card customer service personnel fall into this category. These workers can often work at home and function as they would in an office, because their responsibilities are almost entirely computer and telephone oriented.

Part-time telecommuters: Management and professionals who require some office resources and collaborative work are in this category. Telecommuting part-time can increase their efficiency by allowing them some flexibility in deciding what work arrangements best suit their needs.

Although it appears that few REITs have formal policies on telecommuting, those that do have instituted part-time arrangements for full-time employees.

In addition to the job itself being suitable for telecommuting, the employee must have the right temperament and qualities to make the arrangement click. Schilling suggests that employees need to have the following personality traits:

Self-motivation: Good candidates for telecommuting are good at setting routines and meeting deadlines.

High level of job knowledge and skills: Employees should feel confident that they will be able to troubleshoot if they run into a problem.

High performance: Telecommuters should be top performers. Some companies limit telework to those employees with specific ratings on their last performance reviews.

Other important traits include independence and confidence, ability to handle solitude, time management skills and organization and concentration.

With the right employee, a clear understanding and agreement between the manager and the employee on how the work will get done and how it will be monitored, Schilling points out that telecommuting benefits not only employees, but offers employers the following benefits as well:

Money saved on office space: Employees can communicate with the company and their customers remotely by telephone, computer or other technologies. But to realize savings, successful telecommuting programs require orientation, management support, careful selection of manager/supervisors and telecommuters, training for participants and their peers, monitoring and evaluation.

Better customer service: By having greater flexibility, telecommuters can often respond more promptly to customer needs. Both employees and the company have more employment options because location is no longer the concern.

Attracting valued employees: If potential and existing employees view telecommuting as an added benefit, they are less likely to switch jobs, reducing recruiting and training efforts.

In fact, the last benefit is what Feery of MHC sees as the number one advantage of offering telecommuting to employees.

"The major benefit is that we don't lose a number of key people," says Feery. Those who have participated do so because of a desire to balance family and personal life, he says. By telecommuting they are able to meet their obligations as a new parent.

"We are able to retain them and get the value of their knowledge and their skills. Additionally, in today's competitive job market, Feery believes that offering telecommuting can help REITs make themselves attractive to prospective employees. "I think it's been useful for us because telecommuting is not being offered widely in the REIT industry," he says. "Offering the telecommuting option can give you a competitive advantage in attracting good people to work for you."