Enabling a Remote Workforce. Essay

productivity be employees who tele inter reposition to a greater extent(prenominal) than than plentiful than their conventional representation colleagues? 1Savings What types of savings from a tele bending design should employers expect? 2Planning What kind of readying does an arranging expect to do to properly fol pitiable through a successful tele reaching class? 2Eligibility How do carriages determine the eligibility of employees for tele conveying? 3Social inter consummation What types of admittanceible terminus ad quems do international histrions beat? 3 communion Limitations Are fundamental laws disfavour re founderable to conference limitations with international prevailers? 4 precaution How do managers successfully manage and abet upstage escapeers? 5Technical Issues 5Ne gondoladinalrk What atomic act 18 the pledge, bandwidth, and infrastructure implications for the order network to hurt contrasted addition? 5Hardw atomic nu mber 18/Softw be involve What atomic number 18 the computer hardw ar, space infrastructure, and softw ar licensing inescapably for the out-of-door white plaguer? 6 tele working Variations What are utility(a) solutions or variations for telecommuting programs? 7Connectivity What are the tools and handations to keep back irrelevant network addition? 8Communication How do you leave behind your employees to kick the bucket electronically and verbally from house? 9 co put through What are the tools that foster communication? 9IT Support What are the options and challenges to providing hostile employees with skilful choke? 10 follow How oft does deploying a inappropriate manpower exist? 10 expiry 11 de besidesThere are a come in of good reasons why companies should consider keep a un combineed worker program including an expanded labor pool, reduce avocation congestion costs (late arriving/stressed come on employees), improved recruitment and retention of staff, mental quickness cost savings, decrease parking costs, reduced sick leave and improved worker productivity. Conversely, in that location are some disadvantages that companies should in whatever case be cognisant of including an isolated work force, family turf fusss, wishing of social fundamental interaction with former(a) employees and the fear by impertinent workers that they exit be overlooked for promotions.Companies ostensibly indispensableness a lot to federal agent in deciding whether or non to implement a telecommuting program. Thus, the conclusion of this paper is to provide consideration points to umpteen of the common questions facing such companies. The questions and give-and- own herein are divided into two primary categories expert and organizational. They are think to provide more generalized education that decision makers atomic number 50 use to parent their understanding of telecommuting issues.Organizational IssuesProductivity Are employees who telecommute more productive than their handed- piling arms colleagues?In general, remote workers expect to be more productive than traditional might workers. In an October 1995 survey of end 1000 managers, 58% reported increase productivity by employees who telecommuted. Also, according to the differentiate of Californias teleworking buffer Program, companies that implemented a remote work force experienced productivity increases ranging from 10 30%. Further, telecommuters working for Ameri lay rough chatter produced 43% more pedestalma than their smudge-based counterparts1. intelligibly the case muckle be do that remote workers are indeed more productive.The primary explanation for improved productivity is a quieter work environment, which offers fewer interruptions. surely the remote worker overly faces interruptions in their daily work, such as family business concern, neighbors, chores, television, and so forth all the same these interruptions are in the main more than fewer than those experienced by the traditional office worker.Savings What types of savings from a telecommuting program should employers expect?The biggest savings for companies result from reduced absenteeism costs and reduced real estate costs. Oftentimes when employees need to take care of personal business such as doctor visits, car repair, tending to children, etc. they call in sick for the entire twenty-four mins. However, remote workers arsehole take care of personal business and still accomplish some or intimately of their work tasks from home. The International Telework tie-in & Council estimates that employees who telecommute crumb save their employers $10,000 each in reduced absenteeism costs2. accord to PC World, telework can cut collective real estate costs from 25 to 90%, which can result in substantial savings for employers. In fact, AT&T saves $25 million per year from employees who are full-time telecommuters3. M whatsoever co mpanies who produce implemented a successful telecommuting program have instituted hoteling systems in their offices. A hotel is essentially an untenanted cubicle that is distinguish up with a ph wholeness, network communitys and basic office supplies that any employee can use, often by make a reservation with an office administrator. Hoteling offers telecommuting employees a place to work in the office when necessary without employers having to provide them with a full-time workspace.Planning What kind of planning does an organization need to do to properly implement a successful telecommuting program?Without doubt one of the most important keys to implementing a successful telecommuting program is proper planning. And since every organization has their unique differences (i.e. size, industry, complexity, shade, locale), at that place is no mavin formula for such planning. However, successful telecommuting programs should address the following at a minimum* Perform an in itial legal opinion* cerebrate organizational system and culture* Consider the division of focussing* Consider the need for staff input* narrow which staff tasks are most teachable to telecommuting* Consider regulatory configuration and legal issues* Determine technology rent* Prepare a cost-benefit depth psychology and/or ROI analysis4Eligibility How do managers determine the eligibility of employees for telecommuting?According to Langhoff, tasks that are most appropriate for telecommuting are jobs where a person works alone, handling information such as reports, proposals, info or research. Writers, salespersons, accountants, programmers, graphic artists, researchers, engineers, architects, state- view ased relations professionals all are ground candidates for telecommuting5. In determining eligibility for telecommuting, managers should startle consider whether the employees tasks can be performed remotely. Second, an examination of the idiosyncratics aim of per formance should be made (i.e. are they hard working and self-motivated or do they need constant supervision and coaching job?). Of course it can be glib selecting who can and cannot telecommute therefore companies should be aware of the potential drop legal implications stemming from employees who wished to work remotely but were turned down.Social Interaction What types of social limitations do remote workers experience?Too often companies only come a track telecommuting as providing benefits to them and to their employees however, there cadaver potential downsides. peerless potential downside is the lack of social interaction between employees. Employees who work at an office conniption dismiss a considerable amount of their day interacting with other employees. These water-cooler discussions foster a comradery that translates into value for companies when the equivalent employees work on projects together or are in need of support from each other. Also, the camaraderie in withdrawly benefits the connection when management is nerve-wracking to achieve buy-in on various initiatives. Lastly, having pixilated relationships allow employees to maintain a wake little mental balance at work resulting in an overall higher take of esprit de corps. at a time telecommuting is introduced into the mixed, some or all of those relationships are lost. Analysis of retiring(a) telecommuting research shows that the most cited problem associated with negative impacts of telecommuting is the feeling of isolation and loss of morale6. Although isolation feelings and loss of morale (and the resulting decrease in a caller-ups value) are difficult poetic rhythm to measure, some workable solutions have been devised to encounter these negative issues. Other solutions have include limiting telecommuting geezerhood and make sure to include telecommuting employees in caller-out issuings7.Communication Limitations Are organizations disadvantaged due to communicat ion limitations with remote workers?The office environment offers some benefits that telecommuting cannot provide. approximately important amongst these benefits is the come withs aptitude to communicate to its employees. Most offices display signs of the federations direct communication whether it is somatic in mission statements, annual design and targets, or youthfulfoundsletters. Indirectly, the alliance communicates with corporate mask schemes, promotion ships company clothing, and other mark material such as coffee mugs. All of these communications are present throughout the corporate office compass and foster to build company pride, employee loyalty, and a sense of corporate culture. Employees who tend to work remotely are only exposed slightly to this communication through e-mail, host calls, and other mailed material. This lack of corporate communication whitethorn lead to low motivation, lack of identification with the company, and reduced company loyalt y8.The solution to the communication challenge is to batten down that corporate communication includes channels to the remote worker. In fact, companies should recognize that off-site employees need more direct and indirect communication such that employees do not collapse those negative feelings. Also, companies should make a accommodative effort to limit telecommuting days and to include all telecommuting employees in company events9. solicitude How do managers successfully manage and support remote workers?another(prenominal) challenge with telecommuting employees revolves around their direct management. Not only do managers have it ofttimes more difficult to reminder the productivity and effectiveness of their telecommuting employee, but they are also challenged by having to smorgasbord their management style to incorporate the limitations brought more or less by telecommuting10. Managers who have telecommuting employees are also faced with more potential issues such as family conflicts arising from their employee working from home. These conflicts cross the boundary of work and personal lifespan, and nigh always negatively impact productivity. Lastly, it is the role of managers to provide organizational support to the telecommuting employee. With the employee being off-site, the manager is commonly curb to email and telephone to support his employee. This limitation further restricts a managers effectiveness and typically utilizes more of a managers time in sorting out support logistic11.Solutions to the managers challenge involve setting up a detailed action plan between manager and telecommuting employee. This action plan should be supplemented with an expeditious communication plan12. Once expectations for both(prenominal) parties are clearly outlined in the action plan, both parties can thence communicate progress or support of necessity more efficiently. Moreover, managers can adapt their management styles to telecommuting employees by setting results-based milestones and orientating tasks into projects such that managers still retain defy of certain processes13.Technical Issues web What are the security, bandwidth, and infrastructure implications for the company network to support remote plan of attack?Before considering the scheme to deploying remote overture for a company, a survey should be done of the existent network and current remote access configurations. Once a complete analysis of the current configuration and future needs are assessed, then the following issues need to be included in your strategy of preparing and deploying the company network for a remote force security, bandwidth, and infrastructure.14Table N1 3 Areas of Security15 interior(a) NetworkUsually the most unsex of the three, but still should be reviewed for any fallacies.External NetworkMust warrant the PC in the remote localization of function (i.e. firewalls, RSA encryption, etc) to prevent unauthorized access and snooping fro m the remote location. outside WorkerLeast secure, must(prenominal) require security policies to be followed to the highest degree passwords, where to connect, and who to trust.With more remote workers, there impart be an change magnitude gather up of bandwidth on the network. Will the remote employees be productive with the current infrastructure that your network can provide? Perhaps considerations for upgrading from16FromToDial-up (56K)ISDN (128K-256K)ISDN (128K-256K)T1 (up to 1.5M)T1 (up to1.5M)T3 (44.736 Mbps)With the increase demand more infrastructure bequeath be required for allowing an increasing number of remote workers to connect to the corporate network (more servers, security hardware, and routing hardware).Hardware/Software Needs What are the hardware, home infrastructure, and software licensing needs for the remote user?For the employees who travel often, they are usually provided some mobile computing solutions and they have found ways to work from remote loca tions. However the new generation of employees, the remote worker allow for work from the solacement of their home. Working from home brings a new set of issues in to play.HARDWARE* crowd out the employee keep work and personal items marooned?* If not, should the company provide special hardware?* If the company does NOT provide additional hardware, then how a good deal of the employees hardware can be expensed if upgrades are necessary?* The employee may need/require a fax machine, an additional phone line, or other office equipment.SOFTWARE* Software licensing has be clear-cut as far as how more computers can use the alike(p) license, however what about home workers?* The companys site licensing may not cover home computers and pass on require the company to pay extra for these licenses. cornerstone* For someone at home who has a DSL, Cable, or Dial-Up connecting, how much of that should the company pay for?* Support, Support, Support. Who allow provide the aid and sup port?* Is the home PC secure? If not, who will provide the hardware/software in order to secure it? Also consider how much of the companys data should be on the personal machine. What happens if the home PC is hacked?Telecommuting Variations What are alternative solutions or variations for telecommuting programs?Outlined in this paper is the most common frame-up for a company to acquire telecommuting options for their employees. However most of these configurations allow the employee to use limited resources over the internet (access to share folders, documents and e-mail). Depending on the size, the costs of setting up an infrastructure for telecommuting workforce could be unaffordable. The following are other options obtainable to companies who wish to have a telecommuting workforce.CitrixRemember or heard about the central processor days? Well, history tends to ring itself. As more PCs were becoming powerful, we moved away from the mainframe days. However with the Internet , the paradigm of sharing resources has returned and nowadays software applications and operating systems have the intensify ability to handle more than one user concurrently. Citrix17 allows concurrent remote users access to a single server that will give a recognise seance for each user. Each user will have access to the same set applications on one machine. This solves the software licensing issues of working from a remote location as come up as reduces amount of maintenance of hardware/software for the IT incision.Satellite OfficesCompanies are opening send offices to reduce commute times for employees and help alleviate metropolis traffic and parking congestion problems. This will result in reduced push down costs since these centers are away from the city where the cost of living is lower.18 Telework centers are same to a satellite office, but race short by independent parties. Unlike satellite offices, numerous employees use them. Think of these options as outsour cing building/infrastructure issues.Connectivity What are the tools and considerations to accommodate remote network access?In todays information environment, connectivity has bring essential for a significant parting of the workplace. Access to email, network resources, server applications, and the Internet is a continual activity for the professional professional. At a minimum, companies would be fountainhead served to support meshworkmail. In much the same vein as portal email (Hotmail, Yahoo), mail is maintained on the company server. This server is then linked to a website, and employees can gain secure access to the company server via any browser. Once logged in, an individual has the full functionality of their account to compose, receive, store, and remove email without explicitly needing to connect to the company network. However, there will be a resulting lack of security employees need to be encouraged to create and regularly qualify complex passwords, and to clo se public web sessions. That said, the security risk is only to an individual email account not the company network as a whole.A second logical step for an IT incision is to enable Virtual Private Networking (VPN). This will allow employees to connect their remote machines to the company network after establishing an Internet connection through an ISP. This machine then behaves estimable as a networked office-located computer. For users maintaining both an office and remote computer, this solution requires any desktop applications be maintained on both systems. To avoid this duality, some(prenominal) users will counterbalance establish a VPN connection and then simulate their office computer with build in Windows 2000 and Windows XP remote desktop tools or tertiary party tools such as VNC19. In essence, the remote machine then acts as a terminal or superintend to the office computer, and the user can run the applications found on that machine without any needs for secondary software. The downside to this solution is that opposition is only as good as the connection speed.Communication How do you allow your employees to communicate electronically and verbally from home?Todays telephone solutions for the telecommuter generally consist of providing an office phone with call-forwarding features to an employees business cell phone an often times reimbursed expense. This avoids some of the problems associated with using a home line for a conclave of business, personal, and telephone dial-up use. The office system simplifies contacting an individual (Simply dial an extension and press 7 to connect to the forwarded line rather than maintaining a everlastingly changing set of employee contact information).A home line alternative is a distinctive ring system ten-fold phone numbers (home, office, fax) use a single line with each producing a unique ring that can be directed to an appropriate voice mail box or machine (PC, fax). A second alternative consist s of an off-premise-extension (OPX) or abroad exchange (FX) system. While more expensive, these systems in truth mimic the office with a separate home line that is identical to an office extension20.Electronic mail is a demand for most remote users. IT departments can help support employees using multiple computers to access their email by allowing mail to be retained on the company server rather than downloaded to the individual PC. (As an unrelated benefit, this provides much greater redundancy in the event of a computer hard subscribe to crash). Please see the discussion on web mail for more on remote e-mail use. A less intrusive substitute to phone conversations is repetitive messaging. While this has potential for both damage and unproductive use (where conversation is more efficient), this is often times an ideal apparatus for sharing small tidbits of information and is in particular valuable for troubleshooting. A more immense tool would be the newsgroup in conspirac y with a company intranet. Here, employees can develop an extensive knowledge base of processes, questions and answers. coaction What are the tools that foster communication?At the lowest end of the technology spectrum, there is the traditional conference call a virtual audio meeting with umteen parties. In an effort to fight the inbred isolationism of remote workers, the videoconference personalizes the conference call as participants better identify with the visual cipher than the audio. To implement, however, youll need additional webcam hardware, videoconferencing software and a fast Internet connection.Chat live (a variation on the aforementioned mo messaging) are suitable for short discussions or as supplements to a meeting (agenda, minutes, links, data, follow-ups) web conferencing often includes both videoconferencing and chat dwell features, but distinguishes itself in that it allows a moderator to emulate his/her desktop to the attendees. Among the forefront of the software leaders in this area is WebEx21.IT Support What are the options and challenges to providing remote employees with good support?One of the drawbacks to working remotely is the absence of quick technical support for both visionary and complex hardware and software issues. stipulation that troubleshooting is often a hands-on activity, resolve problems for telecommuters is likely to be frustrating and time-consuming. However IT managers can take a number of steps to reduce downtime.* Standardize the equipment and installation. The more alike your users systems are, the better positioned you will be to reproduce and diagnose problems.* Maintain an livestock of back-up equipment in the same way that a car repair shop offers loaner cars.* Set up remote users so their desktops can be emulated by technical support in this way an IT department can provide step by step demonstrations to fix problems* Maintain an comfortably accessible FAQ and update it with each new problem and solutionManagers may also want to consider outsourcing their technical support requirements. Companies like Voyus22 provide 24 hour help desk support and web-based support applications.Cost How much does deploying a remote workforce cost?The decision that the companies face is how much ownership the company will take for each of the types of telecommuters. For an occasional telecommuter, the employee will more than likely take on the costs. For a heavy telecommuter, the company will likely need to cover the costs to the employee.Telecommuter grammatical caseFrequencyImplementation Costs obscureOccasionalInfrequentlyDial-up, Web-based applicationsRegular plan intervals unlike Connection, 3rd Party Software, Laptop, Firewall, Router. intemperatelyFrequently to Full Time yield second computer, VPN connection, ISP costs, other office equipment, maintenance.It is not the technology costs that make or break the telecommuting decision, but its the organizational issues that should benefit the company if deployed properly.ConclusionTelecommuting seems to be the answer to the increased workload versus work/personal life balance issue that numerous companies are seeking. While there exist many challenges towards implementing a successful telecommuting plan, there also seem to be many practical solutions. The real issue seems to stem from whether a company will change its processes and standards to allow for telecommuting to co-exist with office employees. such(prenominal) a decision, as this paper has outlined, is not as simple as providing remote employees with an internet connection. Rather, the decision has significant technical and organizational ramifications that need to be well thought out before executing otherwise, the company is doomed to make the mistakes of many companies that have haphazardly gone down this path.1 http//www.langhoff.com/faqs.html2 http//www.youcanworkfromanywhere.com/infocenter/facts.htm3 http//www.youcanworkfromanywhere.com/info center/facts.htm4 http//www.tfw.org.uk/teleworking/contents.htm5 http//www.langhoff.com/faqs.html6 Pinsonneault, A. (1999). The Impacts of Telecommuting on Organizations and Individuals A Review of the Literature, Cahier du GreSI, 99(9).7 Guimaraes, T., and Dallow, P. (1999). Empiracally testing the Benefits, Problems, and conquest Factors for Telecommuting Programs, European journal of knowledge Systems, 8, 40-54.8 Davenport, T.H. and Pearlson, K. (1998). dickens Cheers for the Virtual Office, Sloan Management Review, 39(4), 51-65.9 Guimaraes, T., and Dallow, P. (1999). Empiracally Testing the Benefits, Problems, and Success Factors for Telecommuting Programs, European Journal of knowledge Systems, 8, 40-54.10 Kirvan, P. (1995). How to Manage Systems for Remote Workers, Communications News, 33, 67.11 Kirvan, P. (1995). How to Manage Systems for Remote Workers, Communications News, 33, 67.12 Guimaraes, T., and Dallow, P. (1999). Empiracally Testing the Benefits, Problems, and S uccess Factors for Telecommuting Programs, European Journal of Information Systems, 8, 40-54.13 Davenport, T.H. and Pearlson, K. (1998). Two Cheers for the Virtual Office, Sloan Management Review, 39(4), 51-65.14 Ascend Communications, 2002, Telecommuting Network Guide A Resource for Planners, Excutives, and Information Managers, http//users.skynet.be/teletravail/PDF/solut_technique.pdf15 Jessica L. Hirsch, 2000, Telecommuting Security Policies and Procedures for the Work-From-Home custody, http//www.teleworker.org/articles/telework_security.html16 Bandwidth Savings, 2003, Services In expand, http//www.bandwidthsavings.net/servicesdetail.cfm17 Citrix.com, 2003, Home Page, http//www.citrix.com18 Hall, Aric, Bilski, Alicia, Wadman, Scott, 2003, slipway People Telecommute, http//members.tripod.com/trom/page3.html19 http//www.uk.research.att.com/vnc20 Wrobel, social lion A., February 1997, Helpful Hints for MIS Managers Supporting Telecommuters and Nomadic Users -Part I Voice Commun ications, http//www.rewireit.com/articles/w0297.pdf21 http//www.webx.com22 http//www.pcsupport.com/