TELECOMMUTING
... c h e c k i n g
into
it
North Central Texas Council of Governments
TELECOMMUTING
... c h e c k i n g
into
it
Are you ready?
Prepared by Joanne H. Pratt Associates
for the North Texas Clean Air Coalition
North Central Texas Council of Governments
How to Use this Guide
You may be considering telecommuting for your company, or you might like
to telecommute yourself.
Check out the quizzes throughout this guide. You also may want to copy
some pages for others in your organization to fill out.
Filling out the worksheets will help you answer the question, “Will
Telecommuting Work for my Company?” If the answer is “Yes, I think it
will”, you will be ready to draft a business plan to management using the
outline provided. The next step will be to present your proposal to
management for approval.
Even if management is not ready to adopt telecommuting company-wide,
you may be able to telecommute yourself. First, take the quiz “Will
Telecommuting Work for YOU?” Then, to win permission from your
employer to telecommute, try putting your request in writing following the
outline on page 20, “So You Want to Telecommute: Writing a Winning
Business Plan.”
Joanne H. Pratt
Joanne H. Pratt Associates
© Copyright Joanne H. Pratt Associates 1993, 1994, 1995
2
Why Telecommute?
The Question is not IF but WHEN!
Is your company
cutting edge,
trailing edge or
comfortably in
the middle?
Telecommuting and Other Changes in the Way We Work
We are moving toward a mobile, global workforce. Two major changes are affecting the way
people work:
Technological changes have resulted in tools that are small, powerful and affordable. That
enables people to do remote work linked by the telephone.
Organizational changes have enabled three growing trends:
1. Corporate downsizing;
2. Contracting out work to homebased and other small businesses; and
3. The formation of virtual corporations.
An information-age company provides employees with a computer, a notebook, and docking
stations –– and trusts them to work wherever they can be most productive.
Until the industrial age, home was always a place to work. When manufacturing tools became
large and expensive to use at home, people left their farms to work in factories. In a total
change from agricultural-age patterns, they became employees who punched in at the same
time, worked at assembly lines, and left in shifts by the clock.
More recently, work has been done in air conditioned and cabled office buildings that house
costly mainframe computers. When you think about it, the office tower is just a factory turned
3
on end. Inside, workers are completing information tasks under industrial-age organizational
methods: the half-partitioned work stations are just the assembly line rearranged as a grid.
Employees still come and go by the clock. In this transition from the industrial age, many
companies lag behind in adopting information-age work patterns.
Cutting edge companies that have completed the transition, understand that in today's
information age, technology is providing people with a "virtual office," which permits them to
work anywhere –– at their customers’ offices, in their cars, on planes, and in their homes.
Is telecommuting a fad or the future?
Who Works at Home?
Alternative officing is the future. It takes various forms, but all have in common a more flexible
work pattern determined by where work can best be done. This replaces the traditional pattern
of everyone arriving at the same time to the employment site.
The terms “hoteling” and “free addressing” were coined by the Big Six accounting firms.
When employees are not working in their clients’ offices, they share office cubicles with
(hoteling) or without (free addressing) advance reservations.
“Mobile workers,” in effect, carry their office in a bag. Using notebook computers with
fax/modems they operate as a “virtual office” with no fixed location.
Homebased business owners work in or from their homes. At one extreme, building
contractors spend most of their time at construction sites, doing only their cost estimating and
bookkeeping at home. At the other extreme, desktop publishers may spend nearly all their time
at home.
Telecommuters may work at telework centers located closer to their homes than their employers’ offices. More typically, they work one or two days at home. As of 1994,
47 million people do some of their work at home, and there is no sign of this trend leveling off.
Of those:
9.1 million workers telecommuted from home;
23.7 million corporate employees took “catch-up” work home; and
14.2 million self-employed had homebased businesses.
4
North Central Texas Roll Call
Who is
telecommuting
in YOUR industry?
Oil and Gas
Union Pacific: Managers and staff from accounting, information services, land management,
purchasing and engineering departments telecommute one day a week using laptops or their
own personal computers. Cost to the company? Less than $3,000 for the total program.
Mobil: A formal telecommuting policy gives employees the option of employer-supplied
computers and special telephone lines for their homes. An assistant in Employee Relations
telecommutes 3 days a week from her home in Temple, Texas. She can do the same work,
extracting information from databases on the mainframe computer, from either location. Another
person telecommutes for a disability reason, an arrangement prompted by the American
Disabilities Act.
Construction
Many Dallas/Fort Worth contractors have homebased businesses. They spend most of their
time at construction sites, but do their estimating and billing on personal computers in their
home offices.
Manufacturing
Frito Lay: In the 1980’s, long before there was a computer on every desk, this telecommuting
pioneer allowed several employees from the centralized word processing department to work
at home.
5
IBM: Nationwide, changing most of the marketing and services employees to “mobile” status
has realized many benefits:
❑ A 40-60% decrease in real estate costs per site, which equals $35 million saved in one year;
❑ A 15% increase in productivity;
❑ More than 20,000 IBM marketing and services personnel have become mobile
teleworkers since January 1993;
❑ For the first time ever in the same year, productivity, customer satisfaction and employee
satisfaction all increased; and
❑ “Our people are working longer, but they are happier.”
Telecommuting Review, April 1995
Customers of IBM’s southwest marketing group prefer the mobile employees “because they get
better attention and better service.” With such success, it is not surprising that IBM will
implement its mobile worker program globally.
Panasonic: All of the account representatives in the Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and
Texas sales region telecommute. “There is nothing they could do in the sales office that they
couldn’t do at home.” This is a more efficient and productive way of handling their work and
travel time.
Sears: Repairmen now carry notebook radio computers. Repair service appointments are
called in to an automatic call distribution center and radioed to the computer. The technician
arrives with his list of appointments for the day with all the details. When he finishes with an
appointment, he types in the work done, and the parts he used. The computer totals the bill and
prints out the credit card charge slip. That night, based on the information radioed back, a parts
truck delivers new supplies to the technician’s home.
Texas Instruments: Several hundred employees telecommute in a pilot program which could
expand to five percent of the workforce.
Xerox: One of the first companies in Dallas to try telecommuting, now all 130 of Xerox sales
employees work primarily out of their homes through a “virtual office” program. A biweekly conference call and monthly staff meetings keep everyone in touch.
Exhibitgroup: An estimator gained approval to telecommute two days a week by submitting a
telecommuting business plan.
Transportation and Public Utilities
AT&T: By equipping its southwest sales force with laptop computers, the company slashed overhead by 50 percent and cut office space from 12 to 2 1/2 floors. Because mobile workers
spend 20 percent more time in their customers’ offices, sales have greatly increased. Productivity
is greatly increased as measured by the number of contacts per day, time spent per customer,
and administrative time required.
6
GTE: On ozone action/alert days as many as 225 people telecommute instead of driving to
work. GTE measures higher productivity from staff who telecommute.
Sabre Travel Information Network: Currently, employees in the Customer Service,
Finance, Sales and Service, and Product Development departments telecommute on an informal
basis. The Diversity Council is helping to formalize and expand the program with a target of
25 percent of the workforce.
Wholesale and Retail Trade
J.C. Penney: Of the 326 workers in the catalog ordering program, 68 percent work
from a telework center and 32 percent work from home. During the nine years that the
program has been in effect, productivity has been sustained, and there has been little or no
turnover of personnel. Furthermore, a bond of trust has been established between supervisors
and the at-home employees because of the employees’ superior performance in the
“At-Home Program.”
Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate
Alliance Development Company: Informal telecommuting saves time and dollars. Using
telecommunications intensively to send documents, the staff download standardized contracts
from their lawyers, make their changes, then upload so there is no time wasted with
documents sitting on desks. Employees state that as they travel more, the virtual office
will become inevitable.
Nations Bank: Negotiating a work-at-home arrangement allowed a worker with
three young children to continue to work. She is required to attend staff meetings
and conferences.
Services
Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld: Four partners and two associates of the law firm
telecommute from their home offices when they need to work without interruptions.
Ernst and Young: Since starting hoteling in Chicago, Illinois in 1992, a 30 percent cut of
company space needs nationwide has been realized, saving about $25 million/year. The
other members of the Big Six accounting firms are following Ernst & Young’s example in order
to compete.
Arthur Andersen: This consulting firm has a “free addressing” pilot project with 40
employees. On a “first come, first served” basis, employees can chose to work in one of the
three available offices or in open spaces where individuals plug in their laptops or work
together in teams.
7
Association of Pawnbrokers: The Chief Executive Officer usually telecommutes one day
per week from his home office, checking in by e-mail. He comments that this works well even
for his small office of only three persons.
Price Waterhouse: Accountants and other employees reserve office space to use while
they are in Dallas between trips to clients’ offices. When they arrive, their files and supplies
have been moved into a cubicle. They use notebook computers and portable printers as needed. The firm has cut 16,000 sq. ft. of office space, which means annual rental savings of
about $250,000 after the cost of remodeling. They attribute their success to having fully
involved, equipped, and trained their employees. The firm’s savings on office space more than
paid for buying notebook computers for all employees.
Dallas Museum of Art: In order to get the most qualified curator of European art, the
museum hired her as a “21st century appointment.” She will continue to live in Switzerland
and telecommute between trips to Dallas, Texas.
Bermac: The 22 employees of this software company work set hours of 10 a.m. - 4 p.m., but
otherwise work flexible hours. As a trade off, the CEO can call on them to work nights and
week-ends to meet deadlines. Turnover is astonishingly low.
Government
City of Arlington: The city has adopted a formal policy to permit telecommuting at the
discretion of department heads.
City of Crowley: The City Administrator does a great deal of work at home using his
personal computer, fax modem and voice mail. He accomplishes more due to fewer telephone
interruptions. He goes directly from his home office to meetings.
Dallas County Department of Community Supervision and Corrections: Over
three hundred probation officers work at home two days a week, increasing productivity by
20 percent and saving 5,000 commuting miles. The department director says that they would
not turn back the clock to the old way of working. One night –– at midnight –– he had 25
people on the system.
Energy Usage Analysis Service: This federal agency group of seven is totally relocating
to homes. They will use either 28.8 speed modems or ISDN for data transmission to their
clients nationwide. The $30,000 per year saving in office space costs will more than pay for
the installation of their telecommunications, estimated at $13,500-$23,800. Annual operating
costs will drop to about $10,000. Employees will use their existing office equipment
and furniture.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services/Administration for Children
and Families, Region VI: The agency has equipped its workers with notebook computers.
This has greatly increased their effectiveness in meeting with clients and having the information
they need readily accessible –– instead of back at the office in paper files.
8
Will Telecommuting Work for Your Company?
Pick up your
pencil and take
this quiz!
Leading North Central Texas companies adopt remote work to improve their
bottom line. By implementing this flexible work style, employers gain
competitive benefits:
Many companies have workers whose jobs would allow them to perform some of their tasks at
home or other work sites instead of coming into the office.
Take the following quiz to see if telecommuting is right for your company.
Does Your Company Have:
❑ Tasks employees can do from their home offices
or other remote locations?
❑ Sales or field workers who could commute
directly from their homes to your customers?
❑ Operations across time zones?
❑ A results-oriented management style?
❑ Trust between management and workers?
Even employers who do not check every box can benefit from implementing a telecommuting
program. Not every employee can or should work away from the central office. Most
telecommuters work in their home offices an average of one to two days a week.
9
Doing WHAT?
Typically, workers telecommute one to two days a week working on information-related tasks:
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Writing
Data entry, processing, coding
Programming
Telemarketing
Customer service
Research
Editing
Business telephone calls
Billing
Bookkeeping
Cost estimating
Planning
Scheduling
Performance evaluation
Budgeting
Proposal writing
Plan checking
Drafting
Auditing
Audio or video conference calls
Who will start?
To implement telecommuting, most companies select one or two departments to lead the
way. They work out the details and serve as a successful prototype for the rest of
the organization. Who are your telecommuting champions?
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Information Services
Human Resources
Accounting
Sales, Marketing
Field Workers
Research and Development
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Public Affairs
Legal
Finance
Strategic Planning
Customer Service
10
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__________
__________
__________
__________
__________
__________
Last Week ––
Week of
Was this a typical week?
Yes
; No
Could you have worked
at home?
1. Fill out your calendar for last week. Include time you spent on face-to-face meetings,
conducting business on the telephone, and working alone.
2. Check any days you could have worked at home –– maybe by shifting a meeting to
another day.
3. Check the equipment you need for each day’s work.
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
A.M.
P.M.
Equipment
Phone
Computer
Fax/modem
Printer
Home office days
11
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
HOLD ON A MINUTE – These are concerns that
other managers have expressed before they
started telecommuting.
Check solutions
that would work
for you.
How will I know telecommuters are really working?
❑ Measure by deliverables –– is the work getting done?
❑ Ask everyone to log in and out of the system.
How can I measure productivity?
❑ Survey your customers –– that’s what IBM and EUAS do. Are your customers more or less
satisfied than before?
❑ Measure by deliverables –– was the assigned work finished early, late, or on time?
What if I need someone in a crisis?
❑ As part of a Telecommuter’s Agreement, ask employees to commit to coming into the office
if the crisis cannot be handled over the phone. A telecommuter who lives 30 minutes away
would need approximately one hour’s notice. Companies have found this to be a workable
solution that rarely has to be used.
How can everyone keep in touch?
Technology has the answers for handling calls:
❑ Add distinctive ring to the employee’s phone line as an alert to business calls;
❑ Install a separate phone line for business;
❑ Telecommuters can check their office voice mail as often as you desire; or
❑ Use e-mail to keep telecommuters and co-workers in close communication.
12
Don’t telecommuters snack all the time and goof off?
Research has shown that people who work at home do not eat, drink, or smoke more than
those who work at the office. Also, they do not take any more break time.
Joanne H. Pratt. Myths and Realities of Working at Home: Characteristics of
Homebased Business Owners and Telecommuters, 1993.
What about Worker’s Comp?
“Generally, there are not significant regulatory obstacles to implementing telecommuting
programs in Texas.” “An employee who is covered by worker’s compensation at the
employer’s site is also covered...working at home.” “In the three cities surveyed –– Dallas,
Houston, and San Antonio –– there are no local regulations that prohibit or substantially
restrict telecommuting...”
Texas Telecommuting
A quiz for selecting employees
Will Telecommuting Work for YOU?
❑ Do you have tasks that can be done at home?
❑ Do you need little face-to-face contact with customers?
❑ Are you a sales or field worker?
❑ Do you have a home office where you can work
without interruptions?
❑ Do you have access to the equipment you need to work
at home?
❑ Are you a self starter?
❑ Can you work with little supervision?
❑ You don’t need to be around people every day.
❑ Your supervisor manages by results, not by
“body and chair.”
❑ Your supervisor trusts you.
13
Take Stock of Your Telecommuting Assets
What will it cost?
In the Puget Sound Telecommuting Project:
39% of telecommuters already owned home office equipment such as computers,
modems or special software;
38% used “loaners” from their employers’ surplus equipment;
30% used equipment purchased for them by their employers; and
13% used no special equipment to telecommute.
Puget Sound Telecommuting
Demonstration, Executive Summary , 1992
As companies upgrade, more and more are replacing desktop computers with notebook
computers. Employees are equipped to work anywhere.
Equipping the Virtual Office
Cost
Phone
Voice mail
Computer
Fax/modem
Printer
Low - Tech
Medium - Tech
High - Tech
0 - $300
existing
existing
loaner
modem
existing
$1,500 - 3,000
cellular
pager
notebook
fax/modem
portable
$3, 000 - 10,000
14
PC conferencing
CD, docking stations
Low Tech: Telecommuters use their own phones and call into the company voice mail system.
They borrow an unused computer and print out their files on days they are in the office.
Medium Tech: Mobile employees such as sales persons may need an employer-supplied
cellular phone and pager, and a notebook computer with an internal fax/modem. Some may
also need a portable printer. They can also send files via fax/modem to any fax machine to get
a paper copy.
High Tech: In addition to the medium-tech equipment, some telecommuters will need a docking
station or plug-in strip for an external monitor, CD ROM or other peripherals. In the future, more
telecommuters will also add PC video conferencing capabilities to their home office equipment.
Make a quick
inventory guess.
Office staff equipment
___% of employees use desktop computers
Mobile staff equipment
___% of employees use notebook computers
Home office equipment
___% of employees have a home office computer
Surplus equipment
___ # of employer-owned surplus computers
You may want to check your “guestimate” by taking a survey.
15
What Will It Save?
Both the employer
and employee
will benefit.
“Commuting to office work is
obsolete. It is now infinitely
easier, cheaper and faster to . . .
move information to where the
people are.”
Peter F. Drucker, Managing for the
Future –– The 1990’s and Beyond
Savings for the Employer
The United States government, the States of California and Washington, and other public and
private employers report cost savings or cost avoidance because telecommuters help them to:
■
Save office space, maintenance
and parking costs;
Telecommuter at Home
2-3 Days Per Week
■
Comply with federal air quality and
American Disability Act mandates;
■
Hire and retain skilled employees;
■
Reduce absenteeism and sick leave;
■
Maintain productivity on bad
weather days;
■
Provide 24-hour service from
home terminals;
FACILITIES
Office Space
Parking
■
Overcome time-zone differences; and
Annual Total/Employee
■
Keep the company in business when
disasters strike.
(Based on annual salary of $20,000, productivity increase
of 20%, reduced personnel costs of 10%, parking
@$500/year reduced by 40% and use of central office
facilities of 150 sq. ft. @30 cents/sq. ft. annual rent
reduced by 40%
Source: Fleming, LTD
PERSONNEL FACTORS
Productivity (quantity)
Productivity (quality)
Recruiting-training-retention
Reduced absenteeism
BENEFIT-SAVINGS
$3,000
1,000
1,000
1,000
1,800
200
$8,000
Employer Bonus: The employer gains up to 20 percent in increased productivity!
16
Savings for the Employee
Travel costs: An employee who lives ten miles from work (the average Dallas/Fort Worth
commute) saves $10.84 every day he or she does not commute –– enough to buy a movie ticket and popcorn on Saturday night. People who telecommute two days a week save enough to
take a friend!
Transportation Statistics Annual Report, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1994
Time: Telecommuters reported a time savings of “an average of 14 hours per month,” when
they worked at home 1-2 days a week. They saved $32.96 per month on food. Savings on
business clothing were also realized.
Telecommuting at Apple: a Pilot Program, 1992
Employee Bonus: Telecommuting helps employees better balance their work and
personal lives.
Savings for the Environment
■
Telecommuters who work at home just one day a week reduce their fuel consumption and
vehicle air pollution from commuting by 20 %.
■
In addition to saving fuel, 11 to 25 million telecommuters working one day a week at home
would reduce mobile source pollution by 0.15 to 0.33 million tons per year. If they work
five days at home, they would save 0.75 to 1.65 million tons of pollutants annually.
■
Net energy savings in fossil fuel consumption offset by home office energy use were "at
least 4,500 kwh per year per telecommuter or about 15% of the average annual energy
use per U.S. household."
California Telecommuting Pilot Project Final Report
■
The estimated annual benefits are $23 billion if telecommunications are used to replace
10-20% of today's trips to work, to business meetings, to shop, and to deliver paper
documents. The model projects six million automobile commuters working at home with
savings of "3.5 billion gallons of gasoline," "elimination of 1.8 million tons of regulated
pollutants produced by vehicles,"increased productivity, and decreased infrastructure cost.
Boghani, A.B. et al. Can Telecommunications Help Solve America’s
Transportation Problems? Arthur D. Little, Inc., 1991
Environmental Bonus: Blue skies
17
Planning is the key!
Take 6 Steps to Higher Productivity
Where do you
stand on the
implementation
ladder?
❑ Step 1
“Once a new technology rolls over you,
if you’re not part of the steamroller,
you’re part of the road.”
Stewart Brand, The Media Lab: Inventing the
future at MIT
Brief upper and middle management on the experiences other companies
have found with telecommuting. Form a steering committee to develop policies
and procedures. (Pages 5-8)
Benefit: Gains support of managers for telecommuting
❑ Step 2
Conduct a needs assessment to identify prototype departments that will lead
the way. (Page 10)
Benefit: Builds a telecommuting program tailored to your company's needs
❑ Step 3
Carefully select telemanager-telecommuter teams using objective criteria.
Benefit: Affirms that telemanagers and telecommuters are well suited
to telecommuting (Pages 11 and 13)
❑ Step 4
Train the telecommuters and their managers in separate sessions.
Then bring them together to plan their calendars and write an agreement
of expectations.
Benefit: Assures smooth implementation of successful telecommuting
❑ Step 5
Monitor and fine tune the program.
Objective: Identify and correct problems. (Pages 12-13)
❑ Step 6
Evaluate and expand the program. (Pages 16-17)
Benefit: Achieves a successful telecommuting program with measurable results
18
Selling Telecommuting to Management
Writing a Winning
Business Plan for
Your Organization
“. . . the future will go to the
companies that leverage resources
the best.”
Hamel and Pahalad, Competing for the Future
Using information from your worksheets, show management how telecommuting can save money.
❑ Write a “bottom line” summary.
■
■
State potential internal and external benefits of telecommuting for the company
Estimate potential cost savings or cost avoidance (Page 16)
❑ List Precedents for Remote Work
Note the company’s experience with salespersons, field workers, and other
employees who travel on business
■ Give examples of how competitors or other companies locally and nationally are
benefiting from telecommuting (Pages 5-8)
■
❑ Document Informal Telecommuting
■
■
If employees are already telecommuting on an informal basis, document their experience
List benefits to the company, for example, retention of a skilled employee which saved
the company X dollars, i.e., the cost of recruiting and training a replacement (Use your own
figures and/or cite those on pages 5-8 and 16)
❑ Describe Your Proposed Telecommuting Pilot
Include departments that will demonstrate telecommuting (Page 10)
Note equipment needs and how those will be met (Pages 11 and 14)
Estimate any costs for the company (Pages 14-15)
Provide a detailed respose to management’s concerns, such as “How will I know
they’re really working?” (Pages 12-13)
■ Give details for planning work and measuring performance (Pages 11-12)
■
■
■
■
❑ Propose a Timeline for Implementation and Review (Page 18)
■
■
Indicate how you will document the program
Propose a review of the pilot after six months to one year
19
So You Want to Telecommute . . .
Writing a Winning
Business Plan.
Make your
business case ––
get it on paper!
Whether you want to telecommute
yourself or you are proposing
telecommuting for an entire
department or division, write down
your business plan. Using the
outline, establish the benefits to
the company and address your
company’s concerns.
❑ Write a compelling summary. (Pages 16-17)
■
■
Describe what you want to do, how often, and how you will carry out your job
Show ways the company will benefit.
❑ Outline last week’s calendar for your job (Page 11)
■
■
■
List tasks that required face-to-face meetings with customers and co-workers
Show the days you could have worked at home
Answer the question –-- was that a typical week?
❑ Describe your home office (Page 14)
Identify the home equipment you’ll need
What equipment do you already have?
Where can you get what you don’t own?
■ What is your home office working environment?
■ If your home office looks professional, include a photo
■
❑ Answer your employer’s concerns (Pages 12-13)
How will you know I’m really working?
Write your proposal for planning and measuring performance
■ How can you reach me?
Outline your plan for keeping in touch by voice mail, call forwarding, business
telephone line, etc.
■ What if you suddenly need me in the office?
Give examples of typical problems that arise and how they might be solved from
your home office.
Specify the advance notice you would need to go into the office.
■ What about child care?
Provide a realistic solution that does not require you to supervise young children
while you are working.
■
20