TELEWORK: IT'S ABOUT THE WORK, NOT ABOUT TELE

By Gil E. Gordon
Gil Gordon Associates


If you're visiting this site, you're interested in learning more about telework* and how LIFT can work with you to help implement it. And if you're like most people, you have some healthy skepticism - and maybe some serious concerns - about the whole concept of telework. I'll try to address three of the most common concerns based on my consulting work in this field since 1982.

(* Some people call it "telework" and some call it "telecommuting." Although some lengthy academic papers have been written about the distinctions between the two terms, my feeling (as noted on my Web site <www.gilgordon.com>) is that I don't care what you call it as long as you do it...)

Why Distance Does - and Doesn't - Matter

The most obvious reason why managers and employers are lukewarm about telework is simple: it flies in the face of more than a century of experience with collecting office workers in one single location to work at the same time. This follows from centuries of prior experience in the fields and factories; same time/same place work was the norm, and for good reason: that's the only way you could get the workers to the dirt on the farms and the machines in the factory.

Things have changed today. For the first time in the history of work, we can separate what people do from where they do it. Technology lets us move a growing list of types of office work away from the office, to locations where it can be done at least as well and often better.

The benefits are well-understood - improved recruiting and retention, lower facilities cost, and improved employee performance, among others. But despite the advantages, the sticking point is still the eternal question, "How can I manage someone I don't see?" My response to that question has always been, "How do you manage people you do see?"

The key to telework is to remember that it's about work - not about distance. Focus on the results and deliverables and you can manage at any distance, whether it's 200 feet or 200 miles away. Concentrate on clarifying expectations, giving good ongoing feedback, and facilitating communications among team members and you'll be a better manager of workers in the office, not just those away from it.


Access and Availability Need Not Suffer

The second common concern is from managers who can't imagine what it would be like if they aren't able to pick up the phone or walk down the corridor to talk to an employee when needed. These managers tend to forget some realities of office life today:

- The odds of finding that employee at his/her desk or providing a live answer at the end of the phone line keep decreasing. People simply aren't glued to their chairs, waiting for the boss to stop by or call; they're in meetings, at lunch, in another building, or elsewhere away from the desk. Want to prove this? For the next three days, keep track of the number of times you find the person you're looking for when you go to find him/her or call on the phone. If you succeed more than half the time it's a miracle, and if it's only about one-third the time, that's pretty typical.

- The seemingly urgent need of the manager to talk to someone when the manager calls or shows up outside the employee's cubicle isn't always that urgent. Sure, it's easy for managers to go down the hallway and pass along some "hot" news - but it's as likely as not that the value of the work being interrupted is less than that of the content of the interruption.

In well-managed telework programs, remote workers are at least as available and accessible as in the office. Agreements are reached about phone availability, frequency of checking email and voice mail messages, and regular use of scheduled phone meetings and conference calls. It's a myth to assume that the teleworker isn't reachable or can't be disturbed at home.


Teamwork and Collaboration In the Information Age

Last, let's look at the effect of telework on the growing interest in teamwork. The last decade has seen such an increased emphasis on teams and collaboration that I almost expect to walk into a corporate client one day and see everyone sitting around with uniforms and baseball caps.

There's nothing wrong with encouraging collaboration and information-sharing; without it, there's bound to be wasted effort and delays. But we have to remember that teamwork among knowledge workers isn't the same as teamwork among factory workers; a missing person on an auto assembly line may mean the car goes down the line without its headlights. Knowledge workers, on the other hand, can and do work together without physically being together all the time. That's the value of email, intranets, web-based collaboration, conference calls, and all the other new and not-so-new ways of exchanging information.

Telework Works - Period

We're not going to get rid of all our office buildings and see a time when everyone works at home in blue jeans, pajamas or whatever. We'll still have offices for a long, long time, though as we're seeing today they are starting to look different and be used differently. They're quickly becoming one in a long list of places to do "office work," and no longer are the only or even the main place.

With close to two decades of experience with telework programs in organizations of every size, in every industry, and in most countries around the world, it's safe to say that the experimental period for telework is long gone. The roadmap for successful implementation is clear, the checklists and do's and don't's are well-known and the benefits to employees and employers alike have been demonstrated.

Now it's up to you to find the smart way to use telework as a business solution to business problems - including tapping into the highly qualified and motivated workers that LIFT Inc. can help you locate. Give it a try - you won't be disappointed.


Back to Telecommuting Main Page