At the European Telework Online website

"Telework 1998":
Annual Report from the European Commission

 

1 Introduction

1.1 The take off of telework

Telework, as work based on or facilitated by the networked technologies of the Information Society, is transforming the European working environment. Because of the direct benefits and opportunities it provides, telework is not an objective in itself, but a means of achieving a wide variety of ends. Thus, many organisations now see telework as a direct means of increasing productivity and flexibility; many development agencies now use telework as a tool in socio-economic development and job creation; and many individuals now incorporate telework in their daily lives in order to increase their own control of work and to achieve a better fit between work, family and personal life. The advantages telework delivers are catalysing changes across all aspects of working life, so that what we call telework today will simply be called work in the near future.

The enabling role of Information Society Technologies (ISTs) is critical to these changes. Full liberalisation of European telecommunications from the beginning of 1998 is being accompanied by tremendous market growth and diversity, and especially in dramatic price-performance improvements across the whole range of telework technologies, including the Internet, e-mail and World Wide Web applications, mobile services, on-line support and cooperative working software. Industry, the social partners, government authorities, the European Commission, as well as pioneering individuals and communities, have all contributed to this progress.

In 1997 and early 1998, telework became a significant part of the wider changes to work taking place in the Information Society, and the number of individuals teleworking in Europe rose to over 4 million5; almost 3% of the workforce. From being the idiosyncratic pursuit of a handful of enthusiasts and experts in the 1980s, telework developed alongside the introduction of business process re-engineering in the early 1990s but affected fewer than 1% of the workforce. Today, in the late 1990s, telework has reached a critical point of take-off where it is becoming mainstream in information-rich sectors and jobs and for skilled and high level personnel. 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.

However, in order to maximise the benefits of this growth, significant 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.

 

1.2 Working where it’s best

Telework in Europe in 1998 is beginning to be conceived as the potential for working where and when it’s best to do so, as determined by all the parties involved, whether the employer, employee, customer, the social partners, the family, the community or wider society. Freed from constraints of place and time, work can thus fully respond to the radical changes affecting the economic, social and cultural life of Europe. These encompass:

Thus, work in the Information Society, is in reality becoming "what you do" not "where you go".

The present bottleneck of European telework perception revolves around seeing it as place-specific, typically at home, with a focus on its isolating aspects at a distance from the perceived "normal" place of work at the employers’ premises. Although these aspects continue to be important and have had a key role in stimulating telework in the past, they are now constraining both understanding and practice. Indeed, home-based teleworking is unlikely to remain the dominant form because the barriers here are often the greatest, including lack of space, conflict with normal home activities, and tax, legal and insurance aspects6. On the other hand, commuting for two to three hours a day to sit at a desk in an office where much of your work involves use of the telephone, e-mail, voice mail, information sharing via the WWW, computer-based on-line discussion and support services, etc., seems inappropriate if you could use a local satellite office, telecentre or other local facilities, or work from more convenient or appropriate customers’ or colleagues’ premises. In this way, working in a variety of different locations can positively facilitate new forms of work and collaboration which are not subject to geographical constraints.

Thus, where (and often when) one works is no longer very interesting compared to the what and how of work. The "mechanical" requirements for working in specific places, including technical access, physical facilities, suitable legislation, insurance, tax and security, need, of course, to be solved. However, as these enabling requirements start being met, so the what and how of work, at last freed from where and when constraints, can start to blossom both quantitatively and qualitatively.

 

1.3 The core characteristics of location-independent work

Telework exhibits a number of core characteristics which cluster around changes to the what and how of work, rather than around working remotely from some so-called normal location. (See Box 1.) Telework is work undertaken using electronic network technologies, so that its core characteristics are starting to become a defining feature of all work in the Information Society.

 

Box 1

The core characteristics of beneficial telework/work in the Information Society

Information Society Technologies

  1. The critical use of electronic network technologies in enabling or promoting these core characteristics, thereby profoundly affecting all types of work whether or not traditionally considered as telework; telework thus has spill-over affects on all work

    2. Place and time constraints lifted
  2. Constraints on the physical location of the parties involved in work (employees, employers, colleagues, partners, customers, suppliers, etc.), are partially or totally relaxed and can be determined instead by what is best or most convenient for all concerned
  3. The timing of work can be adjusted to take account of the needs of all the parties involved in work, for example the possibilities of fitting into family needs or cooperatively working across national boundaries or time zones, thereby fully exploiting the 24-hour day

    4. Employment market extended
  4. Both employers’ labour markets and individuals’ job markets are widened in terms of geographical extent as well as in professional range and quality

    5. Organisational transformation
  5. Work takes place in disaggregated, often dispersed, smaller organisational units displaying delayered, flatter hierarchical structures and exhibiting a large amount of delegation and horizontal communication (both within and outside the organisation)
  6. Organisational boundaries and permanence tend to break down with more work performed in virtual organisations and teams set up for the duration of the task

    7. Management and work relations
  7. Management 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
  8. Work relations become much more complex, multifarious and equal, with specific parties often playing more than one role (such as customer, manager, supplier, partner, colleague, work executor, etc.)
  9. Greater trust becomes key to most if not all work relations, and all parties involved in work develop flexible attitudes

    10. Work processes and tasks
  10. Decisions about, and responsibilities for, work are delegated to the executors of work
  11. Work becomes fully networked, covering both physical interaction as well as interaction and communication over the telecommunications network
  12. Work becomes more project-like with specific goals, budgets, processes, organisation and time horizons
  13. Work becomes more dynamic and flexible in response to rapidly changing market situations

    14. The individual
  14. The individual takes more responsibility for his/her own development of skills, competence and career paths
  15. The individual develops the skills of working independently but also co-operatively in both physical and networked contexts; this encompasses professional expertise as well as all-round competencies such as use of ISTs, common sense, organisational, work-management, planning, human relationship and team working skills.
  16. The individual’s ability to integrate work with personal and family life is enhanced
  

It is these core characteristics of work in the emerging network economy, as defining attributes of telework, which are key and which will have a catalytic effect on all future work, including that undertaken on the employers’ normal premises and in face-to-face mode. 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 holds a seamless hybrid of work in both physical and tele modes, where the term networker may come to be more apposite than teleworker. There is a sense in which the three main routes to telework (see Box 2) are already converging around these core characteristics.

Box 2

Three main routes to telework

in which each converges on the core characteristics of telework/work in the Information Society

Route 1: the traditional organisation

Route 2; new, small organisations built around networked technology

Route 3: self-employed and freelance
  • Telework, typically home-based or in a satellite office, is adopted as a conscious test or trial with a limited number of employees
  • Achieves many benefits for both employer and employee
  • Benefits start to spill over on to other employees and to change the organisation, its management and its external relations
  • Once these benefits (the core characteristics) are visible, they start to be applied to all relevant activities of the organisation, including those taking place in the traditional workplace and not involved in the original telework trial.
  • includes many SMEs and micro organisations established in last 5-10 years, often resulting from outsourced tasks from larger traditional organisations, as well as those in the IST sectors
  • exhibits many forms of flexible work practice and organisation, particularly telework, based on both internal and external electronic networking
  • methods and location of working are constantly adjusted to suit changing market needs and opportunities, including working at home, in satellite offices, in mobile mode or at any suitable workplace, whether or not owned by the organisation
  • the benefits (core characteristics) tend to be taken for granted as they are part of the organisation’s raison d’être.
  • typically the normal workplace is at or very close to the individual’s home, or based here if the work is of a mobile nature
  • work is typified by trading relation-ships with a customer rather than employment relationships with an employer
  • can resemble route 1 when telework is consciously introduced to existing work practices to order to test the benefits (core characteristics), which can then catalyse other aspects of work
  • can resemble route 2 when the individual sees the opportunity to directly exploit the benefits (core characteristics) to gain immediate market or efficiency advantages.

Overall, 1998 seems to mark a turning point in European telework development as a critical mass is starting to form through the coming together of a large number of demand and supply side factors. 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. This is a new situation, and although progress to date remains mixed, it is creating the conditions in which telework is becoming a mainstream tool in an increasing number of work situations across Europe. Paradoxically, as it starts to achieve widespread acceptance and a degree of normality for many, there is a sense in which telework loses its singularity and distinctiveness; it becomes routine. It becomes a major part of work in general and not a phenomenon worthy of special interest or comment by those practising it. This is a natural and welcome development and marks the take-off phase of telework.

Whilst recognising and attempting to counter barriers, problems and threats, the European Commission supports a wide range of activities to promote opportunities for beneficial telework. These include research, technology development, awareness-raising, pump-priming development initiatives, the promulgation of exemplars and good practice, and information sharing at all levels. The Commission is also a leading advocate and proposer of regulatory and legal changes in technology, social and employment fields. These are designed to provide sound frameworks for the widespread take up of low cost and high quality ISTs, and to promote fruitful social dialogue between the social partners, in order to stimulate beneficial changes to working practices, the creation of new employment opportunities, and the achievement of a progressive balance between flexibility for the providers of work and security for the executors of work. The challenges are awareness, access and trust, not just in the organisation of work but also in the new business processes and trading practices arising out of the explosive growth of the Internet and electronic commerce. The upcoming Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Technology Development (1999-2002) includes activities to support the realisation of these ambitious but achievable goals.

 

1.4 Telework 98

Telework 98 provides a snapshot and overview of the status of European telework, and of European Commission activity related to telework, at mid year 1998. Following this introduction, there are four main sections, each contributing to an overall description and analysis of European telework today, as well as anticipating future developments.

Section 2 attempts to place European telework in its context, particularly in relation to the wider development of the Information Society and to the network economy. As part of this it provides a balanced overview of telework development in Europe in 1998 by assessing both opportunities and challenges. It sketches how telework is today instrumental in promoting environmental benefits, the integration of disadvantaged groups into the labour market, the harmonisation of work and family life, achieving business gains and efficiency, and integrating companies and economies into the global economy. It also pinpoints important challenges, ranging from social isolation to unsuitable employment legislation, labour market mechanisms and inhibiting tax and insurance regulations.

Section 3 provides a status review of telework throughout Europe, including the latest quantitative estimates of the take up of telework in different countries and internationally. As well as a summary assessment at European level, this section briefly examines the situation in each member state in the context of European and international developments, as well as assessing the telework status in Central and Eastern Europe and in our main competitors in order to provide an international benchmark. A round-up of major European telework events over the last year, including European Telework Week 1997 and the European Assembly in Stockholm in September 1997, is also provided.

Section 4 examines the European Commission’s role and its initiatives regarding European telework, both in relation to its research agenda (particularly the upcoming Fifth Framework Programme for Research and Technology Development, 1999-2002), as well as to its overall policy frameworks including the application of structural funds. For each of the Commission’s major policy areas, activities related to telework are assessed and the progress and achievements are summarised.

Section 5 looks to the immediate and medium-term future, and particularly at policy and market developments for telework and related tele-activities. Major events and initiatives for the rest of the year are highlighted, including the European Telework Agenda, the Telework Assembly in Lisbon in September 1998, and European Telework Week during the first week of November 1998.

The annexes include more detailed and structured information, including reports on European Telework Week 1997 and overviews of telework-related projects, resources, publications and references. This is necessary for appreciating the wide ranging nature of telework activity in Europe and the significant contribution being made by many people all over Europe, together with the European Commission.

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