Teleworking, telecommuting, or mobile employment. Whatever you call it, it’s impossible to ignore the impact that telecommuting is having on the current workplace. Once, telecommuting was shrugged off as a trend for millennials and digital brands. Now, 25% of the US workforce telecommutes part of the time.
What’s more, in the UK, predictions suggest that 50% of employees will be telecommuting or working remotely by this time next year (2020). The ability to work from outside of the office has transformed the business landscape as we know it, becoming one of the biggest transformation drivers of all time.
Despite this, many employers still aren’t sure whether a telecommuting strategy is right for them. If you’re still curious about the concept of telecommuting, and you’re keen to find out more, you’ve come to the right place. Here, you’ll learn everything you need to know about the life of a telecommuter.
People who telecommute take a different approach to the standard work schedule than those living the nine-to-five office life. According to Global Workplace Analytics, this concept is becoming increasingly appealing, with telecommuting numbers growing by 115% since 2005.
The same study also found that 36% of people would choose the option to telework over a pay rise, and up to 90% of employees would like the opportunity to telework “sometimes.” Driven by the demand for work-life balance, telecommuting is a working strategy that allows employees to operate outside of the office, often using the same tools and software that they would access in the traditional workplace.
The rise of cloud technology and team collaboration software has made it easier than ever for staff members to access the solutions they need from wherever they are, with nothing but an internet connection. In the age of teleworking, there’s no need to invest in a long and boring commute to and from work. Instead, telecommuters can operate wherever they are using smartphones, desktops, and laptops.
What’s more, the number of available work from home jobs is growing. As technology continues to evolve, everyone from accountants to customer support agents is discovering that they can be just as productive without a desk as they are with one.
Although teleworkers can do their jobs from anywhere, they still get the same benefits as employees who work within the office, including a regular wage, and access to state-of-the-art software, usually delivered over the cloud. This means that employees can start working from home without any loss in productivity or performance, provided that they have a good internet connection.
Studies are beginning to show that remote work and telecommuting could make employees more productive. Gallup found that employees feel more engaged by their work when they’re able to work off-site.
All an employee needs to become a teleworker is access to the internet, an account with the right business software and collaboration tools, and the right attitude. Rather than traveling to the office each day, these remote working employees can instead “travel” to the workplace through remote telecommunication links – keeping in touch with coworkers via video conferencing, instant messaging, and audio calls.
Studies are beginning to show that remote work and telecommuting could make employees more productive. Click To Tweet
Occasionally, a teleworker might travel to work to attend meetings and touch base with their employer, but more often than not, work will be performed from home, or another location convenient to the employee. This new method of working is so popular that participants of a UK study said that they believe traditional commuting will be extinct by 2036.
Allowing employees the option to work from home is becoming an increasingly common part of the human resources discussion for many workplaces. Businesses are discovering that the opportunity to telework can lead to more engaged employees, happier staff members, and reduced turnover. However, there are pros and cons to any transformative business strategy.
For instance, while telecommuting might give an employee access to better work/life balance by reducing the amount of time they spend commuting each morning, it can also lead to problems with that same balance caused by an inability to separate work and personal life.
The benefits of teleworking are significant for modern employees.
When you have a telecommuting job that allows you to work from home, you don’t need to spend a fortune on getting to and from work each day. Instead, you can walk a few feet from your bedroom to your spare room office and get straight to work. That also means that you spend less time rushing around on a morning trying to get ready. When you’re working from home you can:
It’s not just the employees that benefit from telecommuting strategies either. Companies that allow their employees to work from home also gain access to numerous advantages, including:
Unfortunately, telework won’t be the right solution for every person or even every business.
Just as the option for remote working can offer benefits to the modern workforce, it can also have downsides when it’s used in the wrong environment. For instance, work from home jobs and telecommuting can lead to the following issues for employees:
For employers, the drawbacks of telecommuting can also be significant. In some cases:
Not every job will be suitable for someone who wants to work from home.
Employees in a brick and mortar store need to be on-hand to provide face-to-face interactions with customers and look after the store. Security guards and police officers need to be available in-person to respond instantly to breaches and unpredictable actions. What’s more, plenty of employees that need to use their hands at work to deal with things like engineering and product maintenance can’t necessarily telecommute.
However, jobs that are beginning to take on more of a digital essence, like accounting, marketing, social media advertising, graphic design, online customer service and more are all perfectly suited to the telecommuter. If your employees rely exclusively on online tools or software that they can access over the cloud, then they can probably take advantage of teleworking. Some of the most common kinds of remote and work from home jobs include:
If your business is well-suited to discover the benefits of remote work and telecommuting, then the first thing you’ll need to do is make sure that you have the right policy in place to improve your chances of high-quality results from teleworkers.
Jobs that are beginning to take on more of a digital essence, like accounting, marketing, social media advertising, graphic design, online customer service and more are all perfectly suited to the telecommuter. Click To Tweet
The option to work from home can be a dream come true for employees and employers alike. However, just like any new policy in the business world, remote working can suffer when employees don’t have any guidelines to follow.
A telecommuting policy reduces the risk of issues with employees failing to live up to employer standards, or vice versa. With your plan, you can ensure that team members are getting the support and guidance they need to excel in the modern workplace, while also increasing your chances of valuable business outcomes.
Just like a strategy for BYOD solutions or flexible working, telecommuting polices outline:
Allowing employees to work from home is an excellent way to attract and retain top talent in today’s competitive marketplace. However, there are factors to consider when you want to give your team the freedom to work beyond the office.
A telecommuting policy is all about putting a formal plan in place that helps you to keep track of your workforce and ensure that both parties are getting the most out of their telework strategy. Here are some of the things you should do when you’re creating a remote working or telecommuter policy for your team.
Start by setting clear and reasonable expectations on who should be allowed to telework and under what conditions. Ask yourself how many days a week people should be permitted to work away from the office, and what kind of requests they’ll need to make. Ensure that your employees know which hours they’ll be expected to be available in for conference calls, video collaboration, and other forms of teamwork over the cloud.
Additionally, ensure that your employees are aware of the consistent level and quality of work that you expect to receive from them when they’re telecommuting. Stress employee accountability and let your team members know that telecommuting privileges may be revoked if work isn’t getting done.
Working remotely can be the key to higher productivity in the workplace. However, if you decide that you’re going to allow your team members to start working at home as part of a telecommute campaign, it’s worth remembering that the interpersonal dynamics are likely to be different. Interactions won’t happen around the office, but over instant chat, voice, and video.
Make sure that your team members are aware of the importance of good communication. Create a strategy to keep them immersed in the company culture with regular face-to-face video conferencing. Open up an opportunity to chat about things outside of the workplace in team collaboration tools. Additionally, make sure that your employees know how to properly schedule meetings with colleagues when they need more in-depth conversations.
Technology is the lifeblood of the teleworking revolution. Without the right tools and digital innovations, it would be impossible for people to get things done outside of the office. Make sure that you have the right remote work tools in place to support your average teleworker. For instance, think carefully about what the average person would need to work from home.
This might include providing access to team productivity software over the cloud, data storage, and backup solutions, and even more advanced computing hardware. Most importantly, make sure that your employees have access to team collaboration tools that will allow them to work effectively as a group, even when they’re not face-to-face with their colleagues.
Finally, remember that just because your team members are working from home, doesn’t mean that all of the security and privacy threats of the modern workplace will suddenly disappear. Just like in the office environment, criminals can still try to make their way into your team member’s software and accounts when they’re working remotely too.
Ensure that you have the right strategies in place to protect the sensitive information and tools that your employees are working with. This could mean implementing regular security training for your teleworkers or asking them to commit to updating their firewalls and two-factor authentication strategies regularly. It could also mean investing in tools that offer high-level encryption and security services.
Crucially, before businesses can jump head-first into telecommuting strategies, they need to understand that there’s a difference between supporting a teleworker with work from home jobs and investing in remote working. Remote work and telecommuting are two terms that are often used interchangeably, but there is a difference between the two.
Remote work means that employees can work from anywhere, at any time, without a manager or administrator looking over their shoulder. Businesses generally spend a lot less time supervising and supporting people in remote working positions. Often, these individuals can even work in other countries around the world.
Remote workers may also be hired and managed entirely over the internet. There’s a good chance that they’ll never visit the office in person. Although the same can be said for Telecommuters, there’s more of an opportunity for team leaders to invite a teleworker to visit the office in person.
Like a remote worker, teleworkers also do most of their work outside of the office, although they’ll often need to work and reside in a specific region, country, or state. These people generally need to be available at particular times of the day for team-building strategies, team meetings, and other purposes. It’s not uncommon for a business leader to ask a telecommuter to come and visit the office at least one day a month.
The biggest difference between remote work and telecommuting is that with telecommuting, the people involved with the company are often closer to home. Remote workers are more likely to be hired from locations further afield.
The purpose of both remote working and telecommuting tends to be similar. Employers offer teleworking roles to access greater productivity and engagement from their team members. On the other hand, employees look towards work from home jobs so that they can obtain a better work/life balance. According to one study conducted by Fidelity, the majority of younger generation employees like millennials would happily take a pay cut if it meant that they could achieve better work-life balance.
So, what is work-life balance?
In simple terms, it’s the ability to make your career fit around the other aspects of your life that are important to you, like family time, or personal responsibilities. Remote jobs and teleworking generally ensure that people can spend more time with their families and enjoying meaningful moments with loved ones. The benefits of work-life balance include everything from greater job satisfaction to reduced stress and higher happiness levels.
However, achieving work-life balance isn’t simple – even with a teleworking role.
Despite what most people believe, working remotely or having the option to work from home doesn’t automatically deliver work-life balance. According to studies from the sociologists at the University of Texas and Iowa, the average teleworker often works longer hours than peers who operate from the office.
The research found that staff members who were working some of the time remotely were less able to disconnect from their workplaces when they were done for the day. Some of the biggest challenges that people experience when it comes to figuring out how to work from home and enjoy a better work-life balance include:
For many people, the opportunity to work without a manager hanging over their shoulder is a great thing. However, other employees find that it’s challenging to stay motivated without someone to push them. Certain employees simply won’t be disciplined enough to maintain work-life balance as a remote or teleworking employee.
When you’re surrounded by the comforts of home, it’s difficult to convince yourself that you need to work hard just to earn a wage. The only way to ensure that you can stay motivated while teleworking is to ensure that you’re doing work that you’re passionate about and implement a routine that keeps you focused on the task at hand.
Another problem that people face when it comes to achieving work-life balance is knowing how to draw the line between work and personal time. After all, it’s all too easy to stay logged into the workplace when you can check your emails or log into your team collaboration software from your phone.
For telecommuters to avoid burning themselves out, they need to know how to define the boundaries between when they’re at work, and when they’re enjoying life outside of their career. Presence features on collaboration apps and do not disturb features can be helpful with this.
With no standards to live up to in a social situation, employees who telework can begin to lose track of their self-care. Some staff members end up snacking all day because there’s no-one to stop them around the house. They can also struggle with things like showering regularly, exercising and achieving changing out of their pajamas.
The best way for telecommuters to make sure that they’re not overlooking self-care is for them to set a schedule that they follow each day. Creating a routine that involves getting dressed for work, having a morning shower, and even fitting a regular lunch into the routine is crucial.
Ultimately, while telecommuting comes with a ton of benefits for the right people, it also comes with challenges that employees need to think about too.
The importance of work-life balance in the modern world doesn’t just mean that employers need to think more carefully about offering the kind of flexible working solutions that their team members want. It also means that employees need to understand how to look after themselves when working remotely or teleworking.
With a teleworking strategy, employees can access better work/life balance, while employers get all the benefits of reduced overheads, less turnover, and stronger productivity. Click To Tweet
If you’re pursuing work from home jobs, make sure you’re looking after your work-life balance by:
As the world of work continues to evolve, driven by the demands of new generations, the rise of innovative technology and the appearance of new roles, teleworking can’t be overlooked.
Today, it’s the businesses that know how to give their employees the freedom that they need in the form of work from home opportunities and flexible schedules that attract the most talent. What’s more, these companies are also the ones that generally create the most productive, engaged, and dedicated employees too.
With a teleworking strategy, employees can access better work/life balance, while employers get all the benefits of reduced overheads, less turnover, and stronger productivity. However, there are challenges and roadblocks that need to be overcome on the path to telecommuting success. Not every business or person will be well-suited to this roadmap.
Make sure that before you dive head-first into telecommuting, you know what it means to you and your workers, what kind of benefits you can access, what tools you need, and what you can do to keep risks and challenges to a minimum.
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