HR Telecommuting: Solutions for the Human Side of Remote Work

I just submitted my presentation to the East Coast’s largest HR-Management Conference put on by CAI in Raleigh North Carolina. My presentation will be focusing on what HR professionals’ roles are when it comes to remote work. It will outline various strategies and management considerations for HR professionals. What I found most interesting is that when I was putting together the information, CAI asked how my presentation would tie into the overall economic climate of today. I explained how Telecommuting meets many of the demands being forced upon HR professionals, and has added benefits that can be realized. For instance…

Remote Work allows employers to do more with less. When you have Telecommuters working from home, they are more productive. With the unfortunate mass layoff’s currently taking place, this can help tremendously as workers are expected to do more with fewer resources.

Remote Work cuts overhead expenses. When companies can cut down on real estate or rent costs, they can save a lot of money. Add in parking, company vehicles, and office space and the savings grow exponentially. Simply put, when employees share the cost of doing business, the costs to the business go down. Many times employees are willing to cover their expenses just to have the freedom to work remotely. On top of that study after study shows that many employees are even willing to take up to a 15% pay DECREASE just to work from home. How much could that save your company?

Remote Work is helping companies be more effective. When you switch from a location based model of management and performance reviews and switch to a results only based system, everyone in a company becomes more productive and results focused. This helps organizations produce more and maintain their competitive advantage.

Today’s economic climate is not the best, but Remote Work can actually help organizations weather this storm while giving additional benefits to employees.

For more information on how Remote Work can help your company weather the economic storm. Please feel free to contact me directly.

Brandon Dempsey
SuiteCommute
Brandon@suitecommute.com
1-888-878-4832

These days it seems as if I hear about mass layoffs everyday! I receive various feeds from several newspapers around the country, and looking back at them I can literally see stories about mass layoffs in each feed. Today it happens to be 5,000 from Boeing, yesterday it was Build-A-Bear Workshop. And on top of that, many of the contacts I have in large corporations are being laid off and turning to consulting or other entrepreneurial jobs.

What is interesting to me though, is that all those who are “trying it on their own,” are starting their businesses from their home. It’s a logical start, but deeper research and thought reveals a whole lot more.

Obviously a person’s home is the most logical place to start a small business. It is already paid for, has utilities taken care of, and most of the time can bet outfitted with a home office relatively quickly. And while I am a firm believer in the home office, as all of our employees work out of their home offices, I do think it’s important to set boundaries. Similar to the training we do for many large corporations, individuals need to set boundaries or “covenants” as we refer to them in our training. These covenants should be rules around work time, work site, breaks, data management, storage, data disposal, etc.

What I often see happen is people are accustomed to the covenants of their previous office. However, most likely those covenants will now have to change since you are working from home. While I don’t disagree this is a good thing, it can also be a very tough thing for people to do. We often suggest that people make a schedule that allows for breaks and what not. Part of the covenants for this schedule could then be, no washing dishes or doing laundry. While I agree that it may not be that big of a deal, for many who don’t set boundaries, a full laundry basket or last night’s dishes can be a large distraction for someone working from home. What will start out as finishing up the dishes will turn into cleaning the counters, which leads to cleaning the table, which leads to sweeping the floor, which leads to picking up the family room, which leads to… you get the point.

Work site covenants also need to be set. Such covenants may be that all client data is securely stored in a locked cabinet, and all contracts secured in a fireproof safe or filing cabinet. Often times, these little nuances that are have been traditionally taken care of by office personnel, now become the responsibility of the individual entrepreneur.

Take the time to set some Covenants for yourself. I’ll bet that within days of sticking to these covenants you will feel less stressed (I often used to feel guilty eating lunch and putting my lunch plate into a sink of last nights dishes, then it would just bug me until I took the time to clean everything) and be more productive. (One of my covenants is now to make sure I go to bed with an empty sink. That way the next days lunch plate goes into a clean sink and doesn’t seem overwhelming.)

Set some boundaries and you will encounter less distractions and stress. This will help you a great deal as you venture out into the world of Telecommuting Entrepreneurs.

For more information on how you can build a virtual company or advice on working from home. Please feel free to contact me directly.

Brandon Dempsey
SuiteCommute
Brandon@SuiteCommute.com
888-878-4832

A new study released yesterday by Robert Half International revealed that many top executives of the largest 1000 companies in the US, believe that retaining Top Talent is one of their biggest worries. According to this study, which interviewed 150 senior executives for the top 1000, 39% of the respondents indicated that this was their biggest concern and 22% indicated that hiring new employees was their largest concern. This study further bolsters the cause that companies of all sizes need to be expanding their telecommuting programs.

Already, thousands of organizations are turning to Remote Work as a way of retaining and attracting Top Talent. A deeper look into the benefits of Remote Work for the employees and employer reveals these reasons. First, when you remove the geographical boundaries of hiring, your talent pool suddenly grows to as large as possible. This means that you can truly find the best applicant possible, not just the best applicant within a 20 mile radius. Furthermore, when organizations allow Telecommuting or work from home, applications and interest for the position grow exponentially. Many applicants are willing to even take less in pay, just to be able to have that flexibility. This is a huge for companies now, who need more people, but may not have enough capital for the type of talent they would normally higher.

Second, study after study shows that employers who allow Remote Work have a much more dedicated workforce. This means that turnover becomes less of a problem. Take for example KPOnCall, a nurse triage call center recently featured in SHRM’s “Staffing Management” Winter 2008 issue. Through the development of their Remote Work program they reduced turnover from 23% down to 3%, and went from struggling to find nurses and applicants to sustain their 500-600% growth each year, to having a waiting list of 70 nurses currently.

Today’s employees are simply looking for more flexibility with their job. Many employees are willing to put in more work and dedication to the organization, but they are looking for the same in return.

Want to learn more? Contact me directly.

Brandon Dempsey
SuiteCommute
1-888-878-4832
Brandon@suitecommute.com

Too many companies are thrust into telecommuting and remote work arrangements before they even have the chance to determine why they are allowing such work arrangements!  This can be highly destructive and problematic for the organization because a company’s strategy dictates all aspects of the Telecommuting arrangement. 

For instance; if a company is using Telecommuting as a means to become more environmentally friendly, then those policies, procedures, selection criteria, and training will look completely different than a company who engages in Telecommuting practices because they have run out of room at their office and do not want to invest in more real estate.

This has been the root cause for many companies’ Telecommuting programs failing.  No strategy leaves the responsibility of administering the Telecommuting policy up to individual managers and employees.  This is a HUGE LEGAL LIABILITY for companies!  I often ask companies we speak with, “What would happen if all your managers had a different idea of what your sexual harassment policy was?”  This is always an eye opener for companies and leads us to the strategy question.

Ok, now let’s talk about setting your strategy.  First, are you embarking on a Telecommuting work arrangement for Internal or External reasons?  Let’s explore:

Internal Drivers/Factors:

• Attract and Retain Top Talent
• Reduce Overhead Expenses
• Increase Employee Productivity
• Enhance Employee Morale
• Become an Employer of Choice
• Improve Employee Work/Life Balance
• Reduce Absenteeism
• Strengthen Overall Competitiveness

External Factors

• Green Initiatives
• Pandemic planning
• Terrorist Strike
• Inclement Weather
• Road-way Construction
• Rising Gas Prices
• Power Outages
• Flood
• Earthquake

Determining your strategy starts with looking at the above reasons.  From there, look at your timeline for implementation.  Are you 30, 90, or 364 days out from implementation.  Next consider what departments, such as Human Resources, IT, and learning and development, with whom you are going to need to seek assistance.