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Telecommuting Creates Happier and MoreProductive Employeesby Diann_Daniel on 05-03-2012 08:08 AM - last edited on 22-03-2012 08:05 AM by

estherschindler

The arguments for allowing your workforce to have more telecommuting options are many.

There's the environmental argument, to begin with: Telecommuting raises your company's

green profile; it keeps cars off the road and reduces traffic congestion. Telecommuting

already saves 10 million barrels of oil per year, according to a 2011 study (PDF) from the

Mobility Choice coalition. (See this infographic for more connections between

telecommuting and green practices.)

Environmental sustainability and greater work business continuity are valid reasons to

create more flexibility in your company's work arrangements. Another, arguably more

pressing one? Your employees want it.

Also see A Manager’s Guide to Telecommuting for mentoring advice.

Telecommuting programs can increase employee productivity and satisfaction

According to the Telework Research Network, a public-private partnership focused on

demonstrating the tangible value of telework and serving the emerging educational and

communication requirements of the Federal teleworker community, telecommuting can

make employees more productive, not less—despite what many managers fear. It points to

heavy hitters like Best Buy, Dow Chemical, and American Express as just a few companies

that have found teleworkers are more productive by 35% to 40%.

In a global survey by Reuters, 65% of respondents from around the world think

telecommuters are productive due to the greater control over work life enabled by a more

flexible work arrangement. In a Cisco survey of 2,000 of its own employees, 69% of the

employees surveyed said they were more productive when working remotely, and 67%

said their overall work quality improved when telecommuting.

A study published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Family Psychology supports

this. The study found that workers with a more flexible schedule were better able to

balance work and family life. Employees with the flexibility to telecommute at least part of

the time worked 19 more hours than their office-bound workers before experiencing work-

life conflicts.

Increased productivity from telecommuting and virtual programs also squares with the

experiences of Rick Albiero, founder and CEO of the remote workforce consultancy the

Telecommuting Advantage Group. There can be a lot of wasted time in a physical office.

Woe to the person whose cube or office is a high-traffic zone, he says. How much time is

lost as anyone who walks by feels the need to stop in and make small talk? Also, in an

office it's easy to "walk around and bump into people." There's less pressure to be

strategic in your communications and requests. It's much more likely that you rely on

popping into someone's office to make that additional request you didn't think to make

when you, for example, first asked for that report. In addition, Albiero says, typically the

first part of a meeting tends not to focus on work, but rather gets taken up by topics like

what team members did during the weekend.

It is partly for reasons such as these that teleworkers may be not only more productive,

but happier. Contrary to the popular wisdom that personal interaction on the job is an

important determinant in job satisfaction, a study in the October 2010 Journal of Applied

Communications Research notes that there are distinct benefits associated with restricted

face-to-face interaction. "Indeed, some communication scholars have questioned the

notion that face-to-face interaction or a sense of 'being there' are necessarily positive,"

write the researchers.

Past studies show that traditional collocated environments do enable greater levels of

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10/9/13 Telecommuting Creates Happier and More Productive ... - Input Output

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information exchange than what is provided by teleworking situations (which the authors

found as well). However, that increased communication can at times lead to information

overload for employees and can actually hinder performance. Interruptions, meetings,

unpleasant office politics, and other realities of many offices are easier to ignore; those

working at home can instead focus on work and remain unaware of the self-interests and

bad behaviors employees can engage in to get ahead. The result? You might say a

healthy sense of isolation can create a work-focused bliss.

In other words, having more flexibility in one's work arrangements can boost morale and

job satisfaction. And that's no small thing. As the economy makes its way toward recovery,

employee attraction, satisfaction, and retention will once again—and are even now

becoming—more important to companies, Albiero says. "Now we will have to compete for

employees again." And make no mistake: Many candidates demand more flexibility in their

work arrangements.

This is especially important, he says, since a lot of people —managers and employees

alike — will leave their current job at the first opportunity. Managers have spent the last

few years having to lay people off, to tell employees "no raise this year," and to explain

that no additional staff can be hired even though their workers are doing the jobs of

multiple employees. "People are looking for a fresh start," he says. More flexible work

situations that do not rely on an employee being in-office and desk-bound must be

considered if a business wants to stay competitive, Albiero says.

To Albiero’s point: According to a new survey by Harris Interactive on behalf of

collaboration solutions vendor TeamViewer, 17% of respondents would forego a salary

increase for the ability to telecommute.

Given broadband ubiquity and getting-better-all-the-time collaboration tools, providing a

robust telecommuting program should be easier for companies today than ever before.

And then there's the exponentially changing cultural norms around technology and

communication—and work. When Michael Dziak, COO of e-Work, a training provider that

focuses on navigating evolving workplaces, began focusing on training programs,

technological connectivity was a real issue. Today, he points out, everybody has a

smartphone and e-mail; expectations around what is possible both in work and life has

changed dramatically and organizations need to catch up, he says.

Office Space

Are the warm-and-fuzzy staff productivity justifications for telecommuting not enough for

your company? Then you can sell them on the budget advantages in real estate and

operating costs: Companies could save $1.1 million if they allowed 100 workers to work at

home just half the time, according to the Telework Research Network in a 2010 paper

(PDF) prepared for Citrix Online.

Creating more flexible work arrangements can reduce the capital required to own or lease

a building, and it also can save on parking lot leases, furniture, supplies, building

maintenance, security, and other related costs. In an IBM paper, "Working Outside the

Box," author Janet Caldow writes that savings in real estate costs and CO2 emissions "far

outweigh the cost to transition an employee to mobile status."

To her point: More than 10,000 IBM employees were mobile by 1995, and dedicated office

space per employee was reduced from a ratio of 1:1 to 4:1. That same year, more than 2

million square feet of office space and 7,500 work spaces were eliminated. The total cost

to transform 10,000 employees into mobile workers was $41.5 million. The savings? $75

million dollars. "And that was just the beginning," she writes.

Related to real estate, Jill Adams, CEO of HR Telecommuting, a remote work strategy

consultancy, points out that telecommuting programs also enable businesses to

decentralize their workforce and resources, which translates to a better ability to weather

the storms—both literal, and in the form of attacks and other disasters.

Don’t assume that telecommuting is only a policy change. When you support

telecommuters, you need more management skills – and a little extra technology. For

guidance on that topic, see A Manager’s Guide to Telecommuting.

[Ed: For more on the subject, see:Tips for Telecommuters: How to Tackle Productivity

Drains, Bond with Coworkers, and Impress the Boss The benefits of the teleworking are

many, but working from home is not without its challenges. Here are 15 tips on how to face

potential pitfalls head on.]

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Everyone's Tags: career management remote workforce telecommuting virtual workforce View All (5)

9 Comments (9 New ) Permalink View Article Reactions

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by Carlin Soctt(anon) on 05-03-2012 06:52 PM Options

Permalink

I'd like to know how they f igured out the time spent w orking w hen comparing telecommuters w ith on-site

employees. I know that I personally am much more focused at w ork than I am at home and it has to do w ith

how easy it is to multitask personal stuff w ith my w ork. It's possible that the w orkers involved in the survey

w eren't doing a good job of differentiating betw een personal and w ork time.

by Henry(anon) on 06-03-2012 06:51 AM Options

Permalink

@Carlin: I think it depends on several factors. I w ork in an open off ice environment (cube farm) w here I'm

constantly distracted by other conversations, noises, etc. At home, I have no distractions as long as I'm self-

disciplined enough to stay focused on w ork, w hich I am. Some people aren't. That's w hy I think telecommuting

should be decided on a business by business and case by case basis. I'm much more productive w hen I

w ork from hom than I am at w ork.

by Eli Sow ash(anon) on 06-03-2012 07:14 AM Options

Permalink

I believe I'm one of the people w ho's not suff iciently self-disciplined. I am not as productive at home as I am

w hen I'm in an off ice setting.

by Jonathan(anon) on 08-03-2012 01:30 AM Options

Permalink

I telecommute half the time and w hile I may be more focused w hen I am at the off ice, I am more creative w hen

I am at home. There is also an element of 'not being burnt out', because I get to w ork from home.

by Diann_Daniel on 09-03-2012 07:54 AM Options

Permalink

Thanks for your comments! Soon w e'll be publishing another article aimed at specif ic tips for telecommuters,

ie, how you can better manage yourself w hen you are telecommuting (how to overcome isolation, establish a

schedule, etc.). But the variety of your comments makes me think it's w orth exploring in more depth the

interaction betw een different personality types, life situations, and jobs situations and how those can affect

one's experience of telecommuting (and w hen telecommuting is decididely not a right f it--that's touched on but

I think deeper exploration w ould be interesting).

by Sacagaw ea(anon) on 30-01-2013 03:40 AM Options

i know you think your w orkforce is happier and more productive. But recently I visited my sister w ho is a

telecommuter for you. She w orked a total of one to tw o hours every day, w rote dow n eight hours on her

hard drive and sent it in. Her husband has a degree from MIT and w hatever roadblocks she encountered he

fixed for her. She didn't do this to spend time w ith me. She hates me. This w as her normal routine. She

w alked the dog on HP's time, cooked, drank, slept in, and w ent cross country skiing or soaked in the

mountain's hot springs. Sometimes they w ent kayaking, hiking, snow shoeing, or just sat around. Not bad for

over $120K a year. Yet she f inds so much to be resentful and bitter for. I'v never w itnessed someone take

these actions daily w ithout a second thought. It w as like any other household chore... dusting, doing dishes...

and w riting her 8 hours dow n at 10 am every morning. Unbelievable. I w onder how many of your w ell

adjusted, content, happy employees are doing this?

Comments

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Permalink

An Indian

by Richard Widdicombe(anon) on 25-02-2013 10:53 AM Options

Permalink

As a Library Director in a university, one w ould think that I needed to be "in the library." As it happens, a

series of medical events allow ed me to not only w ork from home but also 300 miles aw ay at my country

house. Using email and a phone system that bridged my phones, most professors, students and

administrators had no idea w here I w as physically located. This w orked very very w ell for tw o decades. I

am now retired. I do believe that from time to time I needed a physical w alking about but for the most part, I

got more w ork done w hen aw ay from my palatial ( and it w as) off ice than w hen I w as remote. Also, being

remote I w orked all hours of day and night taking breaks to also do household chores, pet the dogs etc..

by L Meade(anon) on 25-02-2013 01:25 PM Options

Permalink

Dis-honest people don't end up telecommuting for long, or if they do the employer is not doing it right. It's

definitely a better environment, and if you w ant to keep it, you have to deal squarely. That's the incentive to

be productive on a telecommuting job. I w as much less productive at my off ice job than I am now w orking

from home-or-w herever-I-happen-to-need-to-be. To drive w ould mean to lose tw o hours of my day. That's

far less productive. Telecommuting needs to be the norm in the IT f ields: it's better for families, and the low

overhead allow s small softw are houses to survive, if not compete, w ith major softw are development

companies. The arguments against telecommuting in the softw are industry are all misinformed, and the

abusers are the anomalies.

by K Kramer(anon) on 26-02-2013 02:53 AM Options

Permalink

Sure, there w ill be people w ho w ill do nothing (or hardly anything) w hile 'w orking' at home. But the same thing

can be said from people w orking in cubicles or off ices. I've seen (and know ) people w ho go to w ork every

w orkday. But they're not very productive. How ever, they're quite capable of appearing very busy all day

long.

What I mean is: if people do not w ant to w ork hard, they w ill do so at the off ice or w hile w orking from home.

You should look at the output.

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