European Telework Development (ETD)

ETD and Employers

As indicated on other pages, enterprises have much to gain from adopting telework and associated methods. However it creates new challenges for employers and managers of teleworkers. For example, research has shown that the key to effective telework lies with middle managers. How they respond to the challenges and the lead they set others is often the main success factor in a telework initiative. This page outlines how ETD can help employers reap the full benefits of telework and suggests suitable starting points on the ETO site.

Benefits to Employers

Adopting telework techniques can bring significant benefits including:

Increased productivity
Workforce flexibility
Increase employee motivation
Skills retention
Organisation resilience

A fuller description of these and other benefits will be found on our Frequently Answered Questions page Telework: The Benefits

Gaining the Benefits

Gaining such benefits does not comes easily. An organisation needs to follow a suitable change management process for introducing telework. Such a process may include the following stages:

Analysis of work and worker profiles, including typical work environments
Reviewing the alternative forms of teleworking - for example if clusters of employees live in certain localities it may be beneficial to used shared facilities such as a local telecentre.
Developing in conjunction with employees an appropriate solution. This is likely to involve adoption of new technology, reorganisation of work and work flow, training and changes in management style.
Run a pilot project, to validate your solutions and learn for the future.
Make sure you address all human, organisation and psychological issues. These are often the 'show stoppers'. Factors to address include:
- Individual profiles - see for example Is there a 'right' psychological profile for teleworkers?
- Attitudes of trade unions - see for example The Trade Union Perspective and a suggested Code of Practice.
- Employment issues being discussed by various parties - see for example Guidelines on Work, Jobs and Employment In The Information Society, a discussion paper prepared by DIPLOMAT, another telework-related projects within ACTS.

An important ingredient for success, though, is don't "reinvent the wheel". A growing number of employers have adopted teleworking during the last few years, and ETD can help you draw on this experience, so that you can learn from others who have already followed the teleworking route.

How ETD can help Employers

Employers and managers can benefit from several ETD activities.

Information at the European Telework Online Website - we have given above some links to other pages on this site. We continually add and update pages - so we suggest you bookmark this page for future reference.
European Telework Week - The various events held during European Telework Week (ETW) usually contain many examples of organisation case studies. We suggest you consider attending some event during ETW97 (3-10 November). You may wish to review the ETW96 events and reports.
ETD's announcement and discussion lists reach subscribers in 34 countries with news of important developments and successful initiatives.
ETD is developing a Europe-wide network of web sites at which you will be able to find information and help in each European language.
We are working on a Teleworking Handbook, based on a very successful model created by the UK Telework, Telecentres and Telecottages Association, and which will become available in multiple languages during 1997.

Participation and keeping in touch

We welcome participation in ETD activities by employers professional organisations at both the European and local levels. If you would like to know more about ETD support to and cooperation with professional associations suppliers please complete the registration of interest form.

ETD's primary contact for Employers and Managers is David Skyrme. If you want to discuss how your organisation can benefit from working with ETD contact him by email: david@skyrme.com.

Return to:
ETD: Who can get involved and how will they benefit?

European Telework Development (ETD) Pages
GOALS | BENEFITS | PARTICIPATION | PRESENTATIONS

European Telework Online | European Teletrade Online

ETD is supported by the European Commission (DGXIII) as part of the Advanced Communications Technologies and Services (ACTS) programme. ETD's central web pages are hosted at the European Telework Online website.

Page address http://www.eto.org.uk/etd/employer/employ01.htm
This page last updated 21 January 1997.
Page owner: david@skyrme.com.
Please send your comments and suggestions about the ETO site and pages to eto-info@eto.org.uk