How would you like to be able to work from home at least two a week, or how about living in Topeka but work with a company in Kansas City, or live in Small Town, USA and work with a firm in Australia. With Telecommuting these opportunities have become reality. Telecommuting, a form of telework performed by over 11 million Americans at least two days a week, is an individual or group of people from any given organization that is able to perform their job from an office at home while still being connected to the main office. They still maintain all benefits given to on-site employees. This concept is not new, has been around since the early 60's. Jack Niles coined the term in the early 70's; he is considered the father of telecommuting/teleworking. Then around 1980, came along an individual by the name of Gil Gordon who has been holding conferences on the subject every year and is the most published individual on the subject. The following report will provide information on how Telecommuting effects morale, productivity and it economical effects. Good morale is important in any company to succeed.

Morale

Telecommuting can effect the morale in two categories of employees in particular. First, we will look at how it effects those not Telecommuting. Then we will look at the morale of telecommuters. Morale itself can be the reason of working at a high budget or it can be the cause of noticeable savings.

The individuals that do not telecommute can have a lot complaints and gripes about Telecommuting at first. One of the usual gripes is when telecommuters call in a lot to ask for favors to find out information. A reason there may be low morale about telecommuters from non-telecommuters at first is, because they are either upset they are not allowed to do it themselves at this time. They may not understand nor believe that the individuals at home are actually working as hard if not harder then them. Also you have employees that did telecommute at one time but was told to come back to the office setting, and they are disgruntled about this. Once you educate most of you employers about the program and how it is actually beneficial to them and the company the displeasure is lowered. At the point at being educated the morale of in-house worker can work well with a high morale of telecommuters.

BellSouth Business Systems believes in employee satisfaction, they obtain this by "more flexible hours, and less stressful working environment using Telecommuting". Telecommuters' morale is usually very high due to several reasons. On the average telecommuters spend 2.78 days a week at home this helps decrease the time they would have spend each day in transit to the office. An average commute is 34 minutes one-way; this adds up quickly in savings of time on the road and reduces the possibility of road rage. Another item that is mentioned is that employees do not have to worry what they will wear each day for work when they work at home. Also employees that telecommute report a large personal life and family life improvement. With almost 3 hours more a week to do other activities instead of in traffic and also being home when the kids get home from school has a large impact on the morale of telecommuters. Most Telecommuters know that they have a more fulfilling life when Telecommuting and usually would not trade that in.

Productivity

Lisa Goff mentions, "Increasing the flexibility, motivation and energy level of those doing the organization's most important work, Telecommuting can actually enhance bottom-line productivity." Both Telecommuters and employers have noticed large increases in productivity from Telecommuting programs. In an average day at the office you will only see an average of 4 to 5 hours of productive work. For an office to have 6 productive hours from an employer is seen as a great accomplishment. This is due to employees take a lot of breaks and will sit around talking or the time it takes to get setup for the day. Telecommuters it is the norm to get at least 6 hours of productivity. Companies have reported anywhere from 10% to 45% increase in productivity from telecommuters. With both an increases in productivity and moral comes the concept of economical benefits of Telecommuting.

Economical Benefits

In the mid-90's companies that did Telecommuting programs began to report noticeable saving. In one report by Smart Valley inc., they reported that at a salary of $40,000 a year a telecommuter could save the company up to $7,652 per employee per year. In another report by JALA that an employee can save up to $3,114 the first year and up to $8,634 each following year per telecommuter. These number are rough estimates and I was unable to get any companies to release their number or their program was still to new to have any noticeable results. Beside economical savings that can be reported on a spreadsheet, there are several other saving to employers, employees and the community that can be noticed but not placed with a dollar value.

Employers found that telecommuters seemed to be self-motivated, self-disciplined, and showed self-management. Gil Gordon said that employers should, "Encourage telecommuters to think like and manage themselves like entrepreneurs." They said it helped to have both tangible and intangible savings.

Another saving that can be realized by employers is less use of sick days, some of this stint from the ability of a worker to still be able to work from home and not have to do anything that takes major amounts of physical energy. Also, telecommuters saw a reduction of insomnia and other sleeping disorders by as much as 35%. To give an idea of just how big the sickness issue is last year 11 million people had sick days used which added up to $82 billion of lost productivity.

Some of the other savings noticed by employers were space, retention and recruiting. With the decrease of office space you can save up to $40 a square foot. This also gives the ability to a growing company to not need more space. Some office employees that telecommute at least two days a week shares a desk with someone else that telecommutes. Telecommuting is a great way of attracting, retaining, and getting the best out of your people. Companies have started using Telecommuting as a way to hire good employees at a lower cost due to they can hire in lower living cost areas at remote places. Also retention being higher due to this benefit, it cuts cost in trying to find new employees and train them.
 
 

Besides employers seeing returns on recruitment, productivity, space, and retention there are a couple of less noticed advantages. First is, Telecommuting services let businesses remain open after disaster. One organization in NY had part of a building had fallen. This forced the building to be evacuated. Thanks to Telecommuting abilities business was able to go on. Another issue that is getting bigger is it helps companies save some of the costs of in-depth compliance with the ADA. Employers have noticed a lot of advantages if given a chance but so will the employees.

Telecomuters have reported a lot of financial advantages they have noticed even though it does not effect the bottom line for the company. This information was learned from the telecommuters themselves. First cost is that of wear and tear on cars and the savings on gas. With only having to drive maybe 2 or 3 times a week and possibly less, this saving is the most recognizable on the pocket book. Another related savings, is extended daycare for their children. The children are able to come home after school and still have a parent to supervise. Since the employee is at home he or she can make lunch and save the cost of eating out. One last big savings noticed by telecommuters is lower medical bill due to they have reduced their stress level. Most employees are even willing to take slight pay cut at first to telecommute due to the advantages in cost out way what little salary they may give up.

One last place that Telecommuting can make an economical impact is in the community. First, pollution is cut down when fewer cars are on the highways everyday. With less pollution, the government can direct some of the fund from clean air bills to other important project or the project of the clean air bill can see quicker results. Next, volunteerism increases. If more volunteers are willing to coach children's teams, charities are assisted in fund raisers, or parents are willing to help sponsor various youth groups can cut the cost of having to hire people to do it and that do not have a personal interest in it. The last is the subject of Economic Regeneration. This happens when an individual does not have to leave the area where he or she lives to get to work. The money that may have been spent for lunches and for travels can be re-distributed to the local economy. Also people do not have to move just to get a job if they can telecommute with the company. These issues will get bigger and bigger as the number of telecommuters grow and more demands for it are created.

I see several things for the future of Telecommuting. First of all others and I see continues growth. This is in part to the ever-greater technology to do so. All so, a social reason is that Generation-X was known as the first latchkey Generation. These Gen-Xers remember how it was as a kid to come home to no parents each day and take care of themselves for up to 3 hours. Now those same people want to be there when their children and family get home. Also the growing global economy adds to the growth. Another big factor is the continued acceptability of Telecommuting. Easier management tools will help managers manage their Telecommuting employees. More Telecommuting educational tools will be provided to help these telecommuters be successful. Better guidelines and standard measurement tools will help the company and managers fell more at ease when it comes to telecommuters and how to still give opportunities for the telecommuter like any other employee to rise in the corporate ladder. In a study by JALA, a Telecommuting consulting firm, by 2025 over 50 million people will be Telecommuting. The future for Telecommuting is very bright.

With knowledge as a tool maybe more individuals can telecommute successfully. Knowing yourself, the morale, productivity, and economical effects it may be a good time to look at it as a viable option. Before you do jump into the idea, it is a good idea to also do more research on the topic of Telecommuting and ask yourself, "could I really work well from home?" Telecommuting is not for everyone but it can help a lot of people.

Johnson, Dave, "Telecommuting 101", Home Office Computing, September 1998, pp. 63-66

Goff, Lisa, "Off-Site Gripes", Home Office Computing, July 1998, pp. 66-79

Moskowitz, Robert, "Are You Ready To Telecommute? An Objective Checklist To Determine If Your Company And/Or You Are Ready For Telecommuting", MicroTimes, www.microtimes.com/155/telecommuting.html (no longer on-line)

Niles, John S. "Telecommuting and Economic Development", Global Telematics, 1991, www.globaltelematics.com/tlc-ed.htm,

Levine, Shira, "Walking the Walk; With all of the hard selling, are carriers using Telecommuting to boost their own productivity?", Nortel Northern Telecom, 03/15/98, www.americasnetwork.com/issues/98supplements/980315netrel5/980315netrel5_walk.html

Harler, Curt, "The good, the bad and the fattening; Want to implement your own Telecommuting program? Here's what carriers need to know.", Nortel Northern Telecom, 03/15/98,

www.americasnetwork.com/issues/98supplements/980315netrel5/980315netrel5_goodbadfat.html

Lindstrom, Annie, " Rescue efforts, Carrier Telecommuting services let businesses remain open after disasters.", Nortel Northern Telecom, 03/15/98, www.americasnetwork.com/issues/98supplements/980315netrel5/980315netrel5_rescue.html

Hodson, Noel, "The Economics of Teleworking", www.teleworker.com/papers/economic.html

Gordon, Gil E., "Doing the Office Work Without the Office", Summer 1997, www.gilgordon.com/downloads/officework.txt

Smart Valley, Inc., "The Emergency Telecommuting Survival Kit", smart2.svi.org/telework/survival.html

Telecommute Solutions, "Survey of Surveys", www.telecommute.org/surveys.htm

Joice, Wendell, "Telework America Online Curriculum", Telecommute Solutions, November 1998, www.telecommute.org/twa_nov98.htm

Smart Valley corp., "Smart Valley Telecommuting Guide", www.svi.org/PROJECTS/TCOMMUTE/TCGUIDE/HTMLVERS/teg1.html

JALA International, Inc., "Home-based Telecommuting Cost-Benefit Analysis", www.jala.com/homecba.htm

Smart Valley, Inc., "Telecommuting America, California Style", smart2.svi.org/telework/survey5.html

Telecommute Solutions, "Getting Educated", www.telecommute.org/twa_nov98.htm
 
 

ITAC, www.telecommute.org

Telecommuting America, smart2.evi.org

European Telecommuting Organization, www.eto.org.uk

Sangabriel, www.sangabriel.com

Smart Valley, www.svi.org

The Metro Atlanta Telecommuting Advisory Council, www.matac.org

ZDNet, www.zdnet.com/sdnn/stories/comment/0,5859,2191366,00.html

Langhoff, www.langhoff.com

Gil Gordon www.gilgordon.com