Introduction
Most people today have opted to working from home, telework. Working in so many companies in the US has shifted from the normal physical space, office, to working from home. This has been termed as a strategy for companies to reduce costs regarding real-estate because most of the employees will be working from their homes and not from the company premises. The paper will discuss several aspects regarding teleworking for instance who teleworks. Another aspect will be on how these companies should create an effective environment for telework employees. Finally, we will look at why telework is growing over years. Therefore, telework will grow successfully if the company is able to identify who will work remotely and crate an effective environment for teleworking.
Who Teleworks?
Identifying who teleworks is a challenge for many companies globally. Most of the employees working as teleworkers are contractors hence it is difficult to account for them. Therefore, estimating the size of the population working as teleworkers vary depending on the methodology used (Wilkie, 3). A recent research that was done has showed a tremendous increase in the number of teleworkers globally. The research has shown that women teleworking are more than men, 51%, and men are 49%. These estimates also indicate that the majority teleworkers are 42 years and below. Therefore, typically in the US a teleworker is possibly a female of age 42.
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The other people who telework are clerical professionals. In a survey that was done, most of the full-time employees that telework are men, 57%, at a younger age, while those that work part time and telework are female estimated to be 75%, and are somehow older. However, getting these statistics is a very big challenge considering the working conditions for the teleworkers, working from home. Therefore, several scholars have tried to come up with ways in which they can identify teleworkers, such as, their traits and factors that predict a likelihood of one becoming a teleworker. When looking at the traits, job suitability takes the highest percentage as an indicator for a possible teleworker. These job traits include limited face-to-face interaction and controlling of working pace individually (Wilkie, 3). Therefore, sales marketing, information and knowledge workers qualify to be teleworkers since their job does not require one to be physically present to work.
The most recent research has indicated that apart from job details, individual traits also have the greatest impact of one becoming a teleworker. For instance, a sample that was taken in San Diego city showed that the highest percentage of employees are information workers (Wilkie, 3). Most information workers are assumed to be ideal for teleworking, however the research recorded that their individual’s choice to telework is affected by perceiving the job unsuitable. Majority of the workers believe that their work is done better when they are in an office. Therefore, job suitability perceptions affect individual’s choice to work away from office.
How to Create an Effective Teleworking Environment
The most important factor that can make telework to be successful is providing in-depth training and required tools. Matt Brosseau, a chief technology officer at Instant Alliance suggests that it is important to have the right tools for remote working like computers, systems to be used and the internet to have a successful telework environment (Radu, 2). The employees who prefer to work from home must undergo a thorough training on how to access the internet, security measures to follow, and what systems to use in communicating with the company. He claims that if you let employees to work remotely without proper training then you are at risk of having tech problems arising from these workers. But doing the training before allowing them to work remotely will minimize the problems they might encounter. With proper training, 98% of the managers have concluded that teleworking has no negative impacts on the company. Therefore, proper training and having the right working tools makes telework to be successful.
Apart from that, the other manager, Eisenhauer working for Axero Solutions believes that the most influencing factor that will make telework successful is having access to information. He has 24 employees working from their homes and his response to telework is positive. He also suggests that, it is important to have a collaboration software used to communicate with other employees outside emails. The collaboration software enables employees who work remotely to have a better way they can contact other employees with information they need to work (Radu, 2). Hence, proper communication with other employees is another key factor that will make telework successful.
Teleworking is growing, despite not Accepted Globally
Teleworking is becoming more popular every day because of availability of a reliable internet connection. Some of the industries accepting remote working include military, mathematics and technology, entertainment, art and design, financial services, media, sports and personal care (Diane, 1). These companies have also cited a different management practice to be at the forefront of telework success. These companies have reported that working remotely has several advantages like cost saving on working space, employee retention, and having more productive and focused employees. For instance, imagine having a company with 1,000 employees, this company requires a large working space but if half of those employees work remotely, then the company’s asset costs will decrease. Also, to have a more productive workforce, the company has to offer their employees what they want, working from home. Therefore, it is important to embrace telework in those departments that do not require an office in order to work.
On top of that, Reynolds a career specialist has identified remote working to be important to the companies since it opens them to a wider pool of talent to choose from instead of sticking to one geographical area. For instance, a company is able to get more qualified and talented employees working for them since they are allowed to work from any place (Diane, 1). Technology serves as an important factor in the hiring process. Hence, more qualified and talented employees will be attracted from all over the world to work in a company that allows telecommuting. Therefore, technology can be used to access qualified and talented employees easily.
Conclusion
In summary, companies need to identify those who are eligible to work remotely before they accept their approach to work from their homes. After identifying the employees who can telework, they also need to create an effective teleworking environment for their employees. This is done by offering a proper training on how to use the teleworking technology and providing the necessary tools like computers and reliable internet. Despite the available challenges, telework has grown tremendously over years. This has been attributed to the fact that companies have saved a lot by letting their employees work remotely. Therefore, telework will grow successfully if the company is able to identify who will work remotely and crate an effective environment for teleworking.
References
Bailey, D. E. (2002). A review of telework research: Findings, new directions, and lessons for the study of modern work. . Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior , 383- 400.
Radu, S. (2019, 2 14). Telecommuting is growing, but still not unanimously embraced . Retrieved from US News: https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/articles/2018-02-16/telecommuting-is-growing-but-still-not-unanimously-embraced
Wilkie, D. (2019, 2 14). How to Create an Effective Telecommuting Program . Retrieved from HR Magazine: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0615-how-to-create-an-effective-telecommuting-program.aspx
