European Telework Information Day Brussels - 28th May 1998 Report By Jeremy Millard ETD Programme Manager

Status of European Telework

Jeremy Millard started his presentation with an illustration of how the great differences in the use of the word telework can make both understanding and measurement difficult. This is due to the long history of the term, the very rapid changes taking place and the fact that it conjures up both negative and positive emotions, depending upon personal experiences and media images. For example, there is still a widespread view, even amongst high-ranking politicians and decision makers, that telework means working at home a few days a week instead of commuting to the office. In this view, telework is a type of work organisation which may be useful for short periods for some people but which would place the individual at a severe disadvantage, because of physical isolation and the confusion of work with private life, if it became a dominant or normal mode of work. Telework has in reality, however, moved a long way from such a definition when it is thought of as giving choices to individuals to network electronically a well as physically with colleagues and partners, freed from place and time constraints. From this perspective, teleworking is not about being isolated or working at a distance, but about being enabled by the technology to organise and undertake work in a manner which best serves the changing needs of all the parties, as well as the particular task, concerned. This is the way all beneficial work in the Information Society is moving, so what today we regard as telework will tomorrow be viewed simply as normal work.

Telework in Europe today is at a critical moment of take-off because many supply and demand factors are starting to converge. For many years the supply-side has provided increasingly suitable and affordable technology and thrown up a large number of would-be teleworkers eager to improve the quality of their lives and those of their families and communities. In the late 1990s, the demand for telework from the economy and from employers and customers is starting to meet this supply. This is not because telework is demanded for its own sake, but because it adds value to a task, a process, a business or an economy. Telework is becoming mainstream in information-rich sectors and jobs and for skilled and high level personnel. Taking a wide definition of telework, the EITO Taskforce mid-term estimate of the number of individuals teleworking in Europe is now over 4 million, almost 3% of the workforce, a figure which has doubled over the last 2-3 years. Over the next few years, the take up of telework can be expected to spread throughout other sectors and jobs as part of the unfolding of the global networked economy and the widespread growth of virtual organisations and teams.

The driving factors behind this accelerating importance of telework include: telecoms liberalisation and the tremendous price-performance improvements in basic technology and applications which have accompanied this the Information Society is today firmly established on the political agenda, as most European countries now have programmes or initiatives which seem to be having a positive effect on activities and awareness many traditional firms and many parts of the public sector are introducing telework schemes, most of which are successful and which thus have a catalytic effect on the rest of the organisation and the way it carries out its work new SMEs being are being created around the technology in order to consciously exploit the benefits of place/time flexibility and new market opportunities which telework offers many free-lance and self-employed individuals are taking up telework in order to improve their ability to provide goods and services to their customers or even to gain new customers and markets both trades unions and employers' organisations (the social partners) are coming to recognise the benefits of telework, for example by encouraging experimentation and drawing up telework enabling agreements to facilitate the bargaining process local and regional development agencies are looking to telework to provide jobs, increase competitiveness and reduce transport congestion.

The European Commission itself supports a wide range of activities to promote opportunities for beneficial telework, whilst recognising and attempting to counter barriers, problems and threats. These activities include research, technology development, awareness-raising, pump-priming development initiatives, the promulgation of exemplars and good practice, and information sharing at all levels. Two important initiatives have been particularly important in this context over the last few years: the DIPLOMAT project, as a consensus-building activity through the development of the Telework Charter, telework guidelines and a telework forum the European Telework Development project, as a dissemination, information and support initiative.

However, in order to maximise the benefits of these drivers, significant barriers and problems remain to be tackled. Europe is following, rather than leading such developments, with North America still in the vanguard of technological and market progress. There are great variations in telework and Information Society take up between, as well as within, countries (especially marked by real north-south and west-east divides across Europe), and between different types of organisation and different social groups. Inappropriate and damaging implementation of telework, especially where it is only used as a means of cutting costs, rather than also improving quality and flexibility, or as a means to exploit and isolate the labour force rather than giving individuals greater control over work processes, still all too often grab the headlines and dominate agendas.

Lack of fully developed infrastructures, both of ISTs and of enabling facilities for telework, such as the appropriate design of dwellings and buildings and the provision of local telecentres, remains a real barrier. Employment regulation and legislation which disadvantage or do not recognise flexible work forms such as telework, both within and between member states, continue to restrain progress. The greatest barrier of all is still lack of awareness and uncertainty. For example, many in leadership positions do not understand the potential of ISTs and the advantages which teleworking can bestow, including increased flexibility, greater productivity, new and wider markets, and easier recruitment. Until the majority of decision-makers themselves get on-line, and encourage their colleagues and employees to do the same, this road block will remain in place.

Despite these barriers, however, telework is becoming a mainstream activity. Getting away from the old notion of telework as a form of isolated work at a distance from some so-called normal place of work, the use of electronic network technologies is removing place and time constraints on work. This is freeing innovation and creativity in types of work and how it can be carried out. Indeed, all work, often driven by the shock-troops of telework, is starting to form around networks of multiple and simultaneous relationships with a constant churn of new markets, products, processes, tasks and skills, largely underpinned by electronic networks but also spilling over into more traditional modes. The future thus holds a seamless hybrid of work in both physical and tele-presence modes, where the term networker may come to be more apposite than teleworker. The new notion of telework is therefore one in which the where and when of work is no longer very interesting (as long as the enabling technical and physical requirements for working in specific places are present), but instead is starting to converge around a series of core characteristics which are themselves typical of all work in the Information Society:

• the use of electronic network technologies which removes place and time constraints and thus acts as a catalyst for creating new types of work and ways to perform it the geographical and professional extension of the labour market for employers/work providers, and of the job market for employees/work seekers
• organisational transformation, whereby work takes place in desegregated and often dispersed units with delayered and flat structures, and which have boundaries and permanence which are breaking down as more work is performed in virtual organisations and teams set up for the duration of the task
• management which becomes more focused upon strategic development, creating appropriate work cultures, team facilitating, and measuring work by output or results, rather than upon control, detailed decision-making or measurement of time expended work relations which are more complex and trust-based, and where parties often take on a variety of roles suited to the occasion, including customer, supplier, manager, partner, colleague, work executor, etc.
• networked and delegated work processes, where modes and responsibilities are chosen to fit the real needs of the task and of all the parties concerned an increase in the individual's responsibilities, skills and independence, and an enhanced flexibility to integrate work with personal and family life

In conclusion, Mr. Millard stressed the key message that telework is never undertaken as an objective in itself, but rather because it adds value to a task, a business or an economy. All work in the Information Society is converging on these core characteristics as telework catalyses changes throughout the organisation, including that performed at the traditional workplace. This means that what today we regard as telework will tomorrow be viewed simply as normal work.

In summing up Mr. Millard's presentation, Mr. Johnston supported the need to provide good media images and stories about real situations where telework had resulted in widespread benefits for everybody concerned. An excellent opportunity for this is the annual European Telework Week, the subject of the next series of presentations.