Working from home may seem like a dream to many - no rush-hour traffic, minimal interruptions, more time for family and friends, less stress.
For some that dream has become a reality. Between 15,000 and 115,000 now work from home all or some of the time, using computers, phones and fax machines. For time-pressured employees battling the traffic, the benefits of teleworking are evident. Companies, too, are realising that teleworking allows them to attract and retain skilled staff in an increasingly tight labour market and it also helps to reduce overheads and fixed costs.
For managers, however, learning to manage workers from a distance can be unnerving. Many fear employees will spend the day glued to the TV screen and that the job will never get done. At a deeper level, middle managers worry that they may be seen as non-essential if their work teams are not visible to senior management. Out of sight, out of mind, they fret.
"Given a choice between having someone sitting at a desk 10 ft away or 10 km away, the vast majority of managers will choose someone close by. The concept of teleworking is beginning to seep into the market but there is a huge disparity between those who would like to telework and managers who will consider it," says Mr John Brady, manager of information services with Enterprise Ireland, which will introduce an e-working (teleworking) awareness campaign for businesses in coming months.
The reason for the lacklustre response from managers is that most feel threatened if they cannot see what their staff are doing, says Ms Riona Carroll, executive officer with Telework Ireland, a professional association representing teleworkers and telecentres.
"Managers tend to feel more comfortable if they can see what's going on. They feel more in control. We say managers managing teleworkers should use management-by-objectives rather than management-by-time. That way, if the work met the agreed objectives, it would be deemed to be done," she says.
Teleworking is not suitable for all workers, nor for all jobs. "One of a manager's first tasks is to define the type of work that can be done from home. For us, it needs to be project work with clear measures of performance," says Mr Mike Davidson, head of marketing and business development at Eircom's corporate customer unit.
Each of Mr Davidson's 17-member team works from home an average of two days a week, writing marketing and communications briefs. The rest of the time is spent at the office in meetings and brainstorming sessions.
"The advantages are increased productivity, usually by about 25 per cent, a more motivated workforce, and the opportunity to keep key people who might be going through lifestyle changes. I also tell people when I'm interviewing that we have a telework option. It's one of the selling points at the job interview," says Mr Davidson.
For their part, managers must keep their teleworkers motivated and feeling part of the company, maintain team culture, set clear objectives and tasks, and ensure there is no resentment from office-based staff towards the teleworkers.
"With teleworking the people management aspect becomes much more important," says Mr Davidson. "If you're not making sure they keep motivated and that ideas are being exchanged, then productivity will drop off. You need to be a manager that trusts your people. In the past, people clocked in. Now, management requires far more trust and a focus on deliverables, not working hours."
Mr Kevin Sweeney, general manager of Agilent Technologies, the former test equipment and measurement arm of Hewlett Packard, has become an enthusiastic supporter of teleworking, after trying it himself some years ago. Tired of the long commute from his home in Meath to the office in Blackrock, he installed a second phone line at home and began working once or twice a week from there.
"I found two things. If the job has a fair amount of information transfer - reading, preparing content, e-mail, phone-work - then it lends itself to a teleworking environment. But the individual teleworker must be self-motivated and able to prioritise their time."
As part of the experiment, Mr Sweeney measured his own productivity and found it had risen by 27 per cent, confirming in his mind the benefits of teleworking to the company and to the individual. Thirteen of Agilent's 18 sales and support staff and about half of Hewlett Packard's sales force now telework.
But Mr Sweeney cautions about managing teleworkers. "If you're watching people all the time, you get an idea of their strengths and weaknesses. If they're remote, you have to be more proactive."
Being proactive means regular meetings and contacts with staff to monitor performance and deal with problems, and being accessible and interruptible by phone, he says.
A strategic decision by top management to support teleworking is also essential. Technology companies tend to be more willing to experiment with new ways of working, perhaps because they are more familiar with the technology and have a greater need to attract and retain staff. In most large, traditional organisations, the decision to allow teleworking is usually made on a case-by-case basis, if at all. VHI, for instance, has only 10 out of about 500 staff working from home.
With the cost of equipping a home office estimated below £5,000, the technology issues could turn out to be the easiest to resolve. Changing management attitudes to teleworking will be the major hurdle.
