With the growing menace of the swine flu many small businesses are facing the challenge of keeping the business continuity. Telecommuting is utilized as an important component of good planning and a valuable resource as the world is dealing with the H1N1 influenza pandemic. People are feeling very uncomfortable and exposed to the danger of catching the flu.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends the concept of working on «social distance» of no less than six feet from a coworker. Of course, this isn’t always possible.
The other method that is more and more present is to provide people to work from home if the employer permits it. Concerned, employers are being encouraged to establish workforce contingency plans exploring possibilities for business functioning during a crisis. The ability to telecommute is becoming a popular one. This way of doing business will also help you cut costs because you can reduce the office space that you lease and, consequently reduce your rent. The employees also save their time and money since they don’t have to commute to work.
It is good to explore this option a bit more.
The word «telecommute» was introduced in Webster’s dictionary some 35 years ago. It was defined as «working from home by use of an electronic linkup with a central office». Then a very few people understood what that really is nor how important it may be for a 21st century business development. Today telecommuting is an integral part of American society and interest of running the business via corporate network continues to grow. It provides the increased productivity, expanded labor pool, reduced overhead costs and improved work-life balance.
4 basic steps which are good to follow in order to start with telecommuting way of business communication are:
- Identify which critical functions need to be maintained-some of them might be customer service, information technology, finance-payroll…
- Set up the systems to back up these functions-for example cross training
- Consider which employees might need to work remotely
- Develop plans which can carry out the whole concept and enable employees to work from home
Supporting the idea of telecommuting is easy, implementing the infrastructure that will enable your employees to successfully use this home based business possibility can be more complicated. Here’s some help with creating an infrastructure which enables an effective telecommuting experience:
- Client-based acceleration technology to ensure that telecommuters can easily and quickly access the corporate files and applications they need for their job
- Client-based security solution that works in conjunction with a cloud-based analysis service to identify the latest threats and immediately protect users
- Usage policies that can be consistently enforced across all employees (including commuters) to protect sensitive or proprietary data from accidentally leaking through the Internet (via translation sites, for example)
Successful telecommuting provides a solid foundation on which your business can keep continuity and respond flexibly to problems, challenges and crisis caused by a swine flu or recession in general.
I have successfully telecommuted for several years and would choose it again anytime over the inefficient and unhealthy ways of cubical farms (cells).
Of course it’s not for everyone:
First off;
Your job function must be one that can be effectively conducted remotely (electronically).
Fortunately in my job as an IT Contracts & Negotiation Specialist, I deal with documents (data files) and collaboration (conference calling) which is all ‘data centric’, meaning that I can utilize web-based voice and data technologies to receive and deliver my work, any time of day (or night), from anywhere in the world (with WIFI).
Secondly;
You and your employer (assuming you work for someone else) MUST have mutual trust. Your boss(es) can NOT be of the ‘old school’ ‘mother hen’ type that believe ‘if I can’t see you, you aren’t working’. Managing perception is ‘key’ here. Report in regularly if needed, but ALWAYS set their expectations reasonably and deliver as promised!
Lastly;
You need an appropriate work space and personality type.
If your home office is constantly being invaded by your spouse, kids and barking dogs, you may want to consider a quieter location if you need to concentrate or speak on a conference call if needed. But wouldn’t work life be wonderful if you were able to remove the warm sleeping dog off of your feet and take a ‘quality time’ break with family whenever you want?
Regarding discipline; you must not sleep-in everyday (unless you worked all night) or turn on the TV and watch Oprah or get caught up in the latest sports figure hullabaloo.
You must also be compatible with working independently for long periods. However, if you feel the need to be around people, you could setup your ‘virtual office’ in a public WIFI place, if you are able to conduct your calls among the local noises (assuming that you must actually speak and go off of ‘mute’). But if you are just ‘listening in’ on a call or doing ‘paper(less)-work’, this is a nice environment to operate from while getting a dose of humanity.
In summary;
I have done my own assessments and I’m completely convinced that the upside benefits of telecommuting;
• Increased productivity
• Time and cost savings
• Contributing to ‘green’
• Personal fulfillment & contentment
• Lower stress
• Less exposure to illnesses and road-rage
is no comparison to the downside, if it’s a good fit for your type of work, your employer and yourself.
If so, it’s just a matter of convincing your boss, gearing up with the right technologies and delivering as promised.
Curtis Todd
IT Cost Controls LLC
I work from home about 70% of the time. It took awhile to become effective but once I worked out a routine I became more efficient.
Telecommuting has been a real revelation to me in the past few years and I wouldn’t change it for any other way of working now.
I am so very happy to find out that there is actually some great content out there. I have gotten used to google delivering me junk.
wow what a interesting post
[...] of the H1N1 many small businesses are facing the challenge of keeping their business continuity. Telecommuting is utilized as an important component of good planning and a valuable resource as the world is [...]