You may not be ready to run your business in your pajamas and bedroom slippers, but you probably have heard about how telecommuting (working from home) can increase productivity, save money, and even lead to happier, more loyal employees. It’s a great option when weather “events” (as the local weathermen dub them) make going to the office challenging. Even the federal government has jumped on the telecommuting bandwagon when the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 was signed into law late last year.

Telecommuting makes sense from a lot of angles, but success depends on the role, your type of business, your corporate culture, and the personality of the particular employee.

How do you know who will make the ideal virtual employee? Ask yourself these key questions:

• Does the position lend itself to telework? How much face-to-face interaction is required? Even if the position requires meetings once or twice a week, that can be accomplished via teleconferences or Skype. Some companies take telecommuting to extremes.  You wouldn’t think that a receptionist who greets your clients is a candidate for telecommuting, but some businesses use video software and large monitors with cameras to greet people coming in the front door. This might not be for you, but it shows that tools have progressed so that just about anything is possible. The more likely candidates for telecommuting are those who do not require as much face-time. 
• How is this person’s current work performance? Does s/he meet deadlines and work without constant supervision and direction? If this isn’t happening at the office, it’s probably not going to happen in telecommuting.
• How do you assess productivity? If you’re the type of boss who can only tell if your employees are doing their jobs by seeing them working, then telecommuting will likely never work for you.  Still, if you want to give it a shot, you’ll have to come up with some other way to gauge performance. Once you do, you should implement it while the person is still working at the office. Then you‘ll have a baseline to measure against when he or she starts telecommuting. The telecommuting positions that work best are based on milestones and deliverables, not tracking the number of hours worked.  
• Is a hybrid approach the best option? Telecommuting is not an all-or-nothing proposition. Some companies have found that associates who work from home one to three days each week and then come to the office for meetings and face-time strike the right balance.

Making it Work

Once you have decided if a particular employee is a candidate for telecommuting, you must determine if s/he can work as a telecommuter. Are the tools in place to ensure that s/he has access to all of the necessary resources the job requires? Some questions to ask:

• Do you have a digital document management system in place?
• What about computer requirements and other telecommunications gear?
• Will you provide everything the employee will need or will you expect them to “plug in” using his or her own devices? 

Network Alliance has a simple answer: remote desktop access. Telecommuting does not require any real heavy investment in hardware. For the most part, you need a computer, Internet access, a phone and perhaps a scanner or fax—equipment that your employee may already have at home. Leverage that equipment with a remote desktop solution, and you never have to worry about security, as all of your firm’s sensitive data remains within your company’s network.  Telecommuters just turn on their home computers and their office desktop appears instantly!

In fact, “BYOC” is bringing a whole new spin to telecommuting. Not a fraternal organization of telecommuters, “Bring Your Own Computer” encourages key employees to use their own PCs, tablets, notebooks, or smartphones. All that’s required is some form of secure corporate desktop, like the one Network Alliance provides, running alongside their personal IT applications.

Our team “walks the walk” where telecommuting is concerned. All Network Alliance team members are able to work from home, and most of our associates do so at least one day (or more) each week. Because of our remote desktop access and phone set-up, our clients can’t tell the difference. After all, they only care there’s someone there to answer their questions or help with their challenges. We have metrics in place to measure productivity and make certain that we get the job done, no matter where we are. Our reviews from our Client Satisfaction Report let us know that team members are getting the job done, no matter where they are.

The public-private partnership, Telework Exchange, offers a number of tools and sample agreements that state and federal agencies are using but they could likely be adapted for business use, too.

If you’re interested in learning more about our service that helps you make the jump to telecommuting, just give us a call.