The Influence of Teleworking As A New Horizon for Business Implementation
Based on a survey carried out by the International Telework Association and Council (ITAC), there are a projected 28 million Americans who contribute to a close to one fifth of the working population that work from home, or on the move, from a telecaster designed for these kind of situations. According to Fetto & Gardyn, (2002), this represents close to a 18% increase in the American telecommuters from 2000. According to a recent survey carried out by Telecommute Connecticut (2002) indicated that close to 9 million European telecommuters exist and this figure was greatly expected to grow to close to 16 million of the European workforce by the year 2005.
Basis of Teleworking
Teleworking can be defined by numerous co-relating terms that all server purpose to describing the nature of the work. It can be referred to as working-at-a-distance, home-working, off-site workers, remote working or telecommuting and these are all considered terms that are used to bear the notion that work is not someplace you go but rather, it is something you do (Baruch, 2001). Under the various definitions and tags, the issue remains slightly vague based on the number of telecommuters in existence today. The study behind measuring the Impact and workplace flexibility of teleworking defined the act as a plan in which workforce carry out their duties off-site for some part of their working hours. The scene in which the employee does the job may be part of an employee’s home, a remote location outside ordinary office confinements, a satellite office or on mobile.
Varieties of Teleworking
Previous study in February 2000 by the Work Trends shows that 62% of individuals who have the ability to telecommute take the chance to at least once a week where a lower percentage of 37 have chosen the option not to telework entirely. As such, it can be determined that numerous factors influence teleworking arrangements within given organization and among individuals.
Teleworking programs have the option of being full or part-time, formal or informal based on the terms of agreement between employee and organization. Individuals who choose to telework full-time tend to conduct their work on an off-site usually in a site other than their employers office with little to none facial interaction with co-workers or managers. As such, the individuals who do so on a part-time basis conduct their workload in part in the office and have more interaction with mangers and co-workers on a regulated basis. Though the regularity that teleworking is buttressed across various organizations is constantly changing, there is an indication that the optimal teleworking arrangements occur when the employees telecommute for less than 3 days a week. It was also deemed necessary to limit or reduce the number of successive days that a worker did not work in-office. This method has been proved to help create a mode of social interaction and also allows for the proper preparation of interactions and meetings and with various co-workers and clients.
Formal teleworking plans are defined by a bond based between the employer and employee that clearly detail the conditions of an employee’s teleworking arrangement. This given contract is bound to included information based on the particular days an employee individual will work off-site, the period of time he/she can attend to clients, rate of response to online response as well as the stipulated deadlines for the completion of work. The informal mode of teleworking is often not supported by any contract and is mainly based to on the agreements between the client and the service provider. Another given form of teleworking is considered to be the employee-initiated teleworking which typically trunks from the employees desire to lessen the commute time they incur when going to work. This mode of work allows them to more efficiently handle and juggle commitment to family and work. As such, it goes to show that a teleworking arrangement can more productive than normal working because an employee can handle numerous roles – this has proved especially valid for positions that include a high percentage of literacy skills that require extended periods of focused concentration.
Cost analysis of teleworking
Teleworking has proved to present a series of advantages and challenges for all associated members of the working spectrum. As every teleworking arrangement is unique in its own measure, the pros and cons of this business implementation vary round a few clauses.
Based on the employee’s perspective, the count of advantages experienced in teleworking are immense. The outstanding advantage is the time gained or managed by the employee when participating in a teleworking arraignment meaning they actually travel less. In addition, the work arrangements of teleworking allows for increased flexibility and autonomy of work schedule. Although it is at times important employees to be physically available to attend to clients, working remotely allows the employees to focus more on work at hand thus carry it out efficiently. Most of these arrangement also provide flexibility to attend exterior matters while minimizing interruptions to the workday. Regardless of the fact that flexibility and independence in managing work can lead to gratification and higher productivity among the included employees, it boons a problem when it comes to distinguishing work and home. Due to the fact that the employee will have been used to constantly working from home, they tend to lose the divide between home as a working environment and as work place. This may often tend to bring some form of discord among the given family members.
From an organizations perspective, the offers presented by teleworking are based on the level to which the organization can provide work arrangement with suitable training and consideration of management out fits. A teleworking arrangement can greatly improve the employee activity by allowing numerous employees to work in a flexible manner. This helps the employees to concentrate on work at hand for longer concentrated periods of time. The organization that offer teleworking arrangements also provide themselves with a larger pool of talent to recruit and choose from. Teleworking cuts out the notion of geographical distances and makes them less significant in the deliberation for employment. Moreover, organization are better to employ without bias on a teleworking platform rather than the traditional workforce platform and this provides for better employee-employer relationships than in most organizations that don’t implement this design. Teleworking has also provided significant reduction in organization overhead costs.
As such, it can be greatly determined that the term teleworking has been shown to evoke different perceptions of individuals working from remote locations of a company. The predetermined perspectives on teleworking can greatly shape the demeanor and highly impact the implementation process and its success as well as bringing forth great satisfaction from teleworking arrangements
References
Baruch, Y. 2001. The status of research on teleworking and an agenda for future research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 3(2): 113-130.
Fetto, J., & Gardyn, R. 2002. You can take it with you. American Demographics, 24(2): 10-12
Telecommute Connecticut. 2002. http://www.telecommutect.com. Accessed July, 2002.
Van Horn, C.E., & Storen, D. 2000. Telework: Coming of age? Evaluating the potential benefits of telework. Paper presented at the Telework: The new workplace of the 21st Century symposium, New Orleans.