Telework (Telecommuting):
the Benefits - and some Issues!

Management Technology Associates has conducted several studies to obtain and analyse the views of experienced teleworkers and of managers who have experience in working with teleworkers. The following summary of the benefits includes only those aspects where a majority of experienced teleworkers and managers concur that a worthwhile benefit has been obtained.

Note that benefits only accrue from successful telework programmes, and that some companies have attempted telework programmes but subsequently reverted to office based working having had a negative experience. Some aspects of telework that must be considered in order to achieve success and minimise problems are discussed below under "Are there drawbacks?".

• Benefits for employers
• Benefits for individuals
• Social and economic benefits
• Are there drawbacks?

Benefits for employers

Cost savings

The main savings are in premises costs, office overheads and labour. Companies adopting telework methods achieve significant reductions in total office occupancy. Work can be carried out wherever the appropriate skills are available at the optimum mix of costs and other factors. In some circumstances recruitment costs can also be reduced, as can the costs associated with high staff turnover (attrition) rates. If a company adopts a total "flexible working" strategy, all costs associated with relocation of staff can be eliminated.

Increased productivity

Productivity increases of 40% have been reported, though a range of 10%-40% is probably more typical across a large-scale programme. Teleworkers avoid travel time and the interruptions of a office environment. Both teleworkers and their managers consistently report significant productivity gains.

Improved motivation

In successful programmes, employees respond well to the signal of trust and confidence indicated by the employer's adoption of more independent work styles encouraged by teleworking.

Skills retention

Employees who might otherwise leave can remain in their jobs, for example when the family moves because of a job change by another family member who works in a non-telework company. Employees who take a career break can continue working part time and remain up to date with the business and its methods. Employees who take maternity leave can continue to undertake some tasks and require less retraining when they return to work full time.

Organisation flexibility

In the event of restructuring and reorganisation people can continue to work without disruption to their personal lives. People work in dispersed teams that can be assembled and reassembled as the needs of the enterprise change. Teams representing the best skills and experience for a particular project can be created, regardless of geography and time zones and with a minimal need for extra travel.

Flexible staffing

In activities that generate peaks and troughs of workload, telework can enable staff to work limited hours to match peak workload, without the staff concerned having to travel. In limited hours working the travel element can otherwise become as long as the work time. In some cases staff can be on "standby time" at home at retainer rates and then paid at higher rates when needed for active work.

Resilience

Organisations with effective teleworking programmes are more resilient in the face of external disruption - for example transport strikes, severe weather, natural disasters or terrorist action.

Enhanced customer service

Customer services can be extended beyond the working day or the working week without the costs of overtime payments or the need for staff to work (and travel) at unsocial hours.

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Benefits for individuals

Reduced travel time and costs

This is the most obvious benefit and, for many teleworkers, a primary motivation. In our surveys, most teleworkers have used at least part of this time to get more work done, in contrast to the "relaxed lifestyle" image painted by the media.

Improved work opportunities

Work opportunities are not confined to jobs within reasonable commuting distance.

Less disruption to family life

An effective telework and flexible working programme reduces the need for relocation to take up "career moves" and other job changes.

Better balance of work and family life

Even though the teleworker may put in more hours of effective work, he or she can still expect to see more of the family and can more easily participate in home responsibilities such as ferrying children, shopping etc.

Participation in the local community

An important benefit for many rurally based teleworkers is being "on the spot" to participate in community activities - for example as a school governor or in local clubs and societies, at a time when commuters are still en route.

Flexible hours

A flexible approach to working hours often accompanies the successful teleworking programme. Each individual has a personal daily "rythm" - some are at their most lively and creative in the early morning, some late at night. Typical commuting patterns and office hours condemn everyone to work roughly the same timetable, while a flexible telework approach can mean individual freedom to stop and start according to what works best.
(Note however that there are cases where the task requires the teleworker to be available at specific hours, for example in customer service activities.)

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Social and economic benefits

Reduced traffic congestion

In the most intensive commuter areas its quite noticeable how much more easily the traffic flows when even ten percent of commuters are away on holiday. Our study of transport-telecommunications substitution for the UK Department of Transport confirmed that even on days when teleworkers commute, they tend to choose off peak times.

Reduced total travel and consequent pollution

The same transport-telecommunications substitution study also confirmed that teleworkers do generate a worthwhile net reduction in total car travel. In California and some other states, there are legal or fiscal programmes aimed at encouraging telework as part of a battery of anti-pollution measures.

Wider employment/work opportunities

Potentially, telework can enable people in an area of high unemployment to have access to work opportunities that arise anywhere world wide.

To take advantage of this, either the individual must have skills that are in high demand and plus well developed personal skills in electronic networking that will bring their competence to the attention of appropriate employers, or the local community must take steps to establish itself with a high profile on the networks so that "distance working" opportunities are generated for local people.

Individual skills are addressed by MTA's Personal Skills programme. The mechanisms for establishing a strong "presence" for local communities are addressed in MTA's published (on paper!) report Telework and Teletrade: The Local and Regional Response and can also be supported through part of our Enterprise Online programme.

Access to work for people with specific difficulties

Telework can also enable access to work, training and social interaction for people who have specific problems - for example those with disabilities that make it difficult to travel to work or to do a normal nine-to-five working day; single parents who need to be at home for the children; carers with responsibility for an elderly or sick relative. Again, special measures may be needed to make such access realisable. MTA supports the AccessNet Campaign, which seeks to ensure equality of access (or better!) to the networked economy for people with disabilities.

Economic regeneration

Telework and teletrade are central to future opportunities for trade and work and should now be an important element of any economic regeneration programme. This is addressed by MTA's published report Telework and Teletrade: The Local and Regional Response,.

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Are there drawbacks?

The person

Home based telework is inappropriate for some people - for example those who have poor personal motivation and are not "self starters" may need the external discipline provided by set hours and a managed environment. There's also a case to suggest that young people entering work for the first time may benefit greatly from working in a conventional team setting in their early years. For some people, "going to work" is an important part of their lives, and the "place of work" is where they make friends and develop their social skills and contacts. A "telecentres" approach may address some but not all of these issues.

The place

Many homes are not well equipped for some kinds of telework. For example even the most highly motivated individual could have problems focusing on and completing a series of concentrative tasks in a small apartment with children underfoot and noisy neighbours on the other side of a flimsy wall. A "telecentres" programme would be more appropriate in this case.

The employer organisation

Some companies have management systems and cultures that are not (yet) well adapted to the flexibility that telework can entail. Our survey of UK managers' opinions showed that there are many manager who lack confidence in their ability to "manage at a distance", and also those who lack faith in their staff's commitment and so feel that home based workers would be inclined to underperform.

The work task

Not all tasks are best performed in a distributed, self managing environment. There are many tasks that gain considerably from the very close interactions of a team working together in one room, or from the synergy of closely supervised teams. Examples include some kinds of design or other creative work, where the very casual "rub off" of the studio or research setting is an important part of the creative process. In some customer service or sales activities there's an advantage to the kind of team spirit and internal motivation that can best be generated by leaders and managers sitting in with the teams and "leading from the front". Some of our colleagues also feel that a high proportion of clerical work may best be undertaken in a closely managed setting.

None of these considerations is necessarily a barrier to telework, they just illustrate how things can go wrong if a telework programme isn't well thought through. If we do get someone teleworking in the wrong setting doing a task that's inappropriate, we must expect problems. Too often, the result is a judgement that "telework doesn't work" or "telework doesn't work for us". The truth is, "we made a mess of adopting telework"!