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QUICK BRIEF
Telecommuting
In most major cities, throughout the
world traffic congestion is making travelling to and from work, or visiting
clients, difficult for many business professionals. In many rural
locations, visiting head office, or distant clients, is difficult because
of the distances and amount of travel involved.
For many people in service related
businesses there is no need to visit the office or clients every day, with
its communing problems. The increased use of computers, modern
telecommunications, together with broadband internet access, remote
computer access, together with the increasing
use of the video and audio conferencing, allows many people to work from home, or telecommute.
Telecommuting, presents a new set of
challenges to home workers, their managers and peers. However, care
must be taken to ensure that telecommuting is established correctly.
-
Managers,
co-workers and family must all support the new way of working .
-
The
home must provide a suitable environment for working
-
Telecommuters
must have a suitable place to work, which conforms with relevant
safety and security requirements
-
Telecommuters
must have access to appropriate technology, and know how to use it
effectively
-
Individuals
must have the mindset to work from home, with good motivation and not
need the social elements of and office
-
The
work itself must be capable of being undertaken at home
If all of these
elements are not available, any trials may fail, with disastrous results
for the home worker, the teams involved and the future of telecommuting in
the organisation.
Whilst telecommuters may work at home, this need
not be in isolation.
- Regular, on site, visits should be made to the base
office
- Networking arrangements with peers should be
encouraged
- Site visits can be made directly to clients.
- Physical meetings can take place at convenient
locations, outside of the base office
- Work and social messages should be exchanged as part
of e-mail and telephone conversations
Once
the elements for home working are available, a productive work
pattern can be achieved. Work loads should be agreed, in advance,
during office or client meetings. The work itself is done at home,
using computers, or appropriate technology. Further information is gained from the internet, remote computer
access, or telephone discussions. Once complete, the work is e-mailed back
to the
the office, for comment, or approval. Site meetings will discuss the
recent work and agree future work.
If you need
help with assessing your telecommuting needs, or wish to find out how Migrators
can help you implement / improve telecommuting, within your organisation please contact our specialist
consultants, by
email at virtual@migrators.co.uk,
or by telephone on + 44 79 73 167 005.
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