Local companies learn to negotiate the trend toward telecommuting
Pittsburgh Business Times - by Tim Schooley
For time and convenience, nothing can beat that morning commute from the bed to the kitchen to the desk. Nearly 20 million Americans who now are now teleworkers will tell you that.
Because a computer and phone are now often more needed than an employee's presence at a company location, an industry trade association expected the home to become the home office for 25 percent of the American work force by 2004 -- if not full time, on a regular basis.
Yet it's a trend that most companies are still learning to negotiate and a practice that's as much of a headache as a tool for workplace managers.
After all, how can anyone know whether those staffers have their noses to the grindstone or if they're just playing high-tech hooky?
"The perception is, `I don't really know that they're working,' " said consultant Debra Dinnocenzo.
"To me, it highlights the weaknesses in a lot of organizations that they don't have results-based management systems."
Ms. Dinnocenzo is a Wexford-based consultant and author of the book, "101 Tips for Telecommuters."
After a career working for such firms as Development Dimensions International and Dayton Power and Light Co., Ms. Dinnocenzo has also spend years practicing what she preaches out of her home-based office.
She advises companies to develop written policies for telework, with clear expectations and a guidelines.
For some professions, job expectations are easier to establish: salespeople have defined goals; IT professionals can be judged by the amount of code they write; and customer service representatives can handle a set number of calls per hour.
"The reality is, the studies that have been done indicate an improvement in productivity when employees telework," said Ms. Dinnocenzo.
"People generally find they get much more done because they can think and work without the distractions of the office," she added.
Indeed, a recent study by the Kensington Technology Group revealed a 30 percent increase in productivity among the teleworkers it surveyed.
A trade group called the International Telework Association & Council (ITAC) also claims its study revealed that employees who telework can save their employers $10,000 each in reduced absenteeism and job retention costs.
Besides such industry studies, the anecdotal evidence of the benefits to be had from teleworking continues to stream in.
Pacific Bell estimated that it would save $20 million in office leasing from space that would otherwise be needed for telecommuters over a five-year span.
The Federal government estimated that 40 percent of 800,000 U.S. government jobs were "telecommutable" and expects its number of teleworkers to rise to nearly 160,000 by 2002.
And just recently, Putnam Investments, a Boston-based mutual fund company, unveiled plans to create as many as 400 new jobs in Maine and Vermont by opening so-called virtual offices -- PR-speak for telecomuters.
Still considered a rare move for a large company, Putnam plans to implement such a broad-based telecommuting program because Maine and Vermont are both states without large population centers, a fact that translates into a long commute for employees who might otherwise work in a bricks-and-mortar office.
So where does the Pittsburgh market stand in its use of telework?
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