European Telework Development (ETD)
Press Backgrounder: Telework 02
What is Telework?
Telework occurs when information and communications technologies (ICTs)
are applied to enable work to be done at a distance from the place where
the work results are needed or where the work would conventionally have
been done.
It includes:
- Home-based telework or "telecommuting",
when an employee or contractor works at home instead of travelling to an
employer's or a customer's premises;
- Mobile telework, when executives, professionals or
service staffs using ICTs to enable them to spend more time with customers
and to deliver "on the road" a range of services and capabilities
that previously would have involved office based staff or visits to the
company offices;
- Telecentres, providing local office facilities for
people who prefer not to work at home but wish to avoid the cost, time and
inconvenience of commuting;
- Telecottages, which provide local communities with
access to skills development, high performance ICTs, and the networking
and socialisation aspects of work that may be missed by a home based worker;
- Functional relocation, where business functions that
previously were located close to the customer are concentrated and delivered
at a distance; examples include both "front office" (selling activities
previously done in the High Street, now delivered by phone or computer networks)
and "back office" (service and maintenance work previously done
"on site", which may now be done anywhere in the world using remote
access to systems).
Telework also affects some kinds of "outsourcing", in that many
kinds of work can now be done from thousands of miles away and
"outsourced"
across national borders.
Telework has also been said to include "dispersed team working",
in which (for example) an engineering company uses three or more teams in
different time zones to work 24 hours a day on a time-sensitive customer
tender, with each team "passing the baton" to the next at the
end of its working day.
As well as affecting the individual and the enterprise telework has significant
economic and trade implications, for example many jobs in computer programming
that might previously have been done in California or in Sweden are now
done in Bangalore. Understanding telework in all its ramifications is essential
to the future of work, jobs and prosperity.
ENDS
Notes for Editors
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Email: etd-media@eto.org.uk
Please note that this email address should be used for
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media commentators.
All other enquiries should please be addressed to eto-info@eto.org.uk.
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