Advantages and Disadvantages of Telecommuting - Report Example

Telecommuting Telecommuting Telecommuting is a work arrangement where employees are not man d to commute to a given place to work. Employers are allowed to work from home or through telecommunications technology at coffee shops and other sites (Davidson, 1991, pp. 37). Employees have a liking for telecommuting as it gives them a chance to work on their jobs without alarms and bosses requesting for work before they are completed. Telecommuting allows employees to find time to take their children to school and for them who excel in an isolated environment get the best bargain through telecommuting. Telecommuting is the new trend for businesses and is supported by technology available for its implementation and the employees are more satisfied and productive (Eldib, & Minoli, 1995, pp. 32). Since maintenance of a physical office is costly, is costly to employees, and requires a lot of time for commuting, there are ways of sharing information; collaboration with colleagues, web conferencing, and cloud hosting making telecommuting becomes a common phenomenon in future. There are benefits and costs that come with the implementation of telecommuting at the workplace. This study aims at discussing the benefits and costs of telecommuting as well as the organizations where telecommuting is most suited. The other area touched on in the study is on the companies that have implemented telecommuting and the experience they have had. Benefits of Telecommuting Telecommuting has a number of benefits to the telecommuter and the organization. The benefits range from personal, social and economic and will be discussed beginning with personal benefits and then organizational benefits. These benefits show the important role that telecommuting plays in the global business environment in which businesses operate and are employment centers for many people. The benefits accrued from telecommuting are divided into personal benefits, which are the benefits to the individual when he/she is allowed to telecommute and organizational benefits. Organizational benefits are the benefits that accrue to an organization through allowing employees to telecommute translating to increased ability of the organization to meet set aims and objectives within a given time. Personal Benefits Telecommuting gives huge positive impact on the worker’s quality of life, peace of mind and productivity from the benefits accrued. Telecommuting offers a number of benefits to the telecommuter and his/her family in some ways including: a. Balance of work and family life Telecommuting leads to a high effective work time but there is increases time spent with family and participation in home activities. They will have an improved work-life balance and owing to flexibility will spend a high time with family. b. Cost savings Spending on vehicle fuel and maintenance, public transport, trains, parking, and cleaning that come with commuting are saved when telecommuting is allowed. The traffic jam commuting at the end and beginning of the day wasters a lot of time that used for other activities and relax thus saves on costs both in economic and social costs. c. Improved health and decreased stress Commuting stress affects the ability of a person to perform well at the workplace and affects the health of a person. There are some factors that make commuting a problem including looking for office space, rage on the road and traffic jams adding to make the beginning of a day very stressful for a person and this is solved by telecommuting. This allows telecommuters to avoid development of sick building syndrome leading to better health and being in an environment that is relaxed allows the body to work at its best. d. Flexibility Telecommuting helps workers to be more productive by giving them an opportunity to schedule their own work. Scheduling their own tasks ensures the workers schedule work on their most effective times and allow them to meet other demands of their lives. This leads to a balance in their life in terms of work and personal responsibility (Dinnocenzo, 1999, pp.79). Employees who are working at a fixed location cannot be flexible and have to be allowed time to tend to their personal activities affecting their ability to have a good work life balance. This affects their ability to be productive in the organization and meet the organization and management needs in the company. e. Increased job satisfaction When employees of an organization are allowed to telecommute, they have greater flexibility at the workplace in terms of work and personal life balance (Dziak, 2001, pp. 212). There is also higher productivity, high savings, and earnings for employees leading to the employees being satisfied with their job. Employees who are not allowed to telecommunicate do not have these benefits at the work place and therefore cannot be able to have a similar satisfaction rate with telecommuters. Organizational benefits a. Increased productivity At the home, employees have a relaxed and conducive environment augmenting their productivity and efficiency in the work (Wilson, April 26, 2013). At the job place, there are many interruptions from other employees and supervisors making employees lose their attention to work and reduce their productivity. The ability of an organization to meet its needs depends on the satisfaction of the employees that is possible in a telecommunication system hence telecommunication augments productivity. b. Increased time available for work Telecommuting allows a lot time for work as they are mentally prepared when there is lack of commuting time and stress associated to commuting (Jackson, 2002, pp. 14). The time saved from commuting is available for the employees to work on productive work leading to more time and augmented productivity. There is also a reduction in the need for sick leave and personal appointment dates as they can be able to juggle these activities with their job leading to high time available for working. c. Overhead reductions Telecommuting has allowed organizations to reduce furnishing and space requirements for employees in an organization (Jackson & Wielen, 2002, pp. 121). When most of employees telecommute, there are fewer requirements for space in organizations reducing costs in rent and this is well demonstrated by the requirement for sales and service personnel to telecommute reducing up to 30% of overhead costs. Overhead in an organization affects the profitability of an organization and the ability of telecommunication to reduce theses costs is a welcome for any organization aimed at augmenting revenues and profits. d. Improved employee retention and attraction There a preference for employees for organizations where telecommuting is allowed when they have experienced the benefits of telecommuting. Employees who cannot be able to commute to the office anymore are for reasons best known by the organization allowed to telecommute retaining them in the organization. Telecommuting also allows organizations to recruit talented personnel who have disabilities. Since employees are flexible and are satisfied at their jobs, they cannot move to find other jobs and new employees are attracted to organizations that offer telecommunication opportunities to access its benefits (Wilson, April 26, 2013). e. Improved morale Giving employees the chance to telecommute shows them that you have a belief in their ability to deliver without supervision. This allows them to have confidence in their ability and feel part of their organization, the feel respected and important increasing their morale leading to increased productivity at the workplace. Employees are therefore more motivated in an organization that offers telecommunication opportunities and increases their productivity and commitment to the organization in the process (Welte, 2014). f. Decreased absenteeism Employees who telecommunicate have less sick days compared to employees who are always at the workplace, as they believe they are always at their needing time to relax and take on personal matters. Employees will therefore not have a reason to request leaves to attend to other matters as they have time in their flexible schedules offered by telecommuting to attend to these activities reducing chances of absenteeism. g. Better customer service There will be an access of employees to work material at the home allowing for an extension of the work times without the need for payment of overtime. This makes them ready to answer to customer calls and reduces the need to travel at odd times owing to the ability to be flexible in the work performance. The employees are ready to work on the requests, give further clarification to the customers, and make decisions on their own regarding a specific subject leading to better customer service and increased satisfaction with the organization (Welte, 2014). h. Access to work for people with specific difficulties Disabled people and single people have a chance of contributing to the improvement of the organization as they can access training and social interaction (Kugelmass, 1995, pp. 10). This gives them a chance for development and earns salaries despite the disability or having to look after children at their homes. This leads to the organization having access to a high talent pool and human resources for the achievement of the organization’s objectives and aims. This translates to an ability of the organization of the to meet its needs through using all the resources available at its disposal regardless of the state of the people in terms of their ability and the circumstances happening in their lives. i. Program continuity When there is external disruption at the workplace in form of natural disasters such as fires and earthquakes, telecommuters allow the programs of the organization to continue without interruption (Johnson, 2001, pp. 23). This allows the development and continuance of the firm despite the interruptions. The company will be in a position to achieve the goals and objectives of the programs set within the time set for achievement despite the occurrence of natural disasters. This also allows the organization to maintain profitability and allow them to meet the demand in the market by providing the products and services through telecommuting employees to manage its profitability in terms of natural disasters (Zbar, 2002, pp. 24). Costs of Telecommuting Telecommunication has a number of benefits to the organization and the employee as demonstrated by the various ways given above. Despite the high benefits, some costs come about with the acceptance or implementation of telecommunication at the workplace. Some of these costs include: a. Poor staff relationship There arises a cost to the organization in terms of the relationship between telecommuting and non-telecommuting workers. This is due to the feeling of less satisfaction for employers who have to commute to their job stations at all work times compared to telecommuters and they are likely to quit. The relationship between the two kinds of workers is also weak reducing the ability of the company in meeting its productivity and profitability needs, as there is no cooperation between them. Other factors that lead to a poor relationship between commuting and telecommuting workers is reduced face-to-face communication, job independence, and telecommuting. b. Career stagnation Workers taking their duties from their homes cannot be monitored on performance by supervisors and management reducing their chances of being rewarded for their efforts. The rewards for better job performance mainly are in form of performance reviews and promotions leading to the stagnation of workers who telecommute. There is consideration for employees who do not telecommunicate as hardworking affecting the career opportunities of employees who work from home. c. Pressure to work more Employees who telecommute have pressure to work more for them to be recognized as better performers at the workplace as there is a belief that employees who work at the workplace are handworkers. This is in an effort to ensure the notion that they are doing less work than others is removed. This may however, result to a lower engagement in the job and lack of social relationships with co-workers for support. Suitable occupations for telecommuting Some occupations allow for telecommuting while others cannot but this also depends on the management of the company who determine the jobs allowed for telecommuting depending on the task to task basis, history, and position. The activities that cannot be done through telecommuting are those that require face-to-face communication for example medical assessment, counseling, and sales. Those that require hands-on equipment for example vehicles and direct handling, and jobs that are anchored on physical presence including guards and security officers. There are however some occupations that are suitable for telecommuting and they have characteristics including that they are one-man jobs, computer based, and possibly run as a home-based business (Virginia, 1994, pp. 49). Some of these organizations are accountant, auditor, database administrator, data entry clerk, software engineer, engineer, and graphic designer. Other occupations are insurance agent, stockbroker, writer, translator, telemarketer, paralegal, speechwriter, customer service representative, and medical reviewer. These are occupations suitable for telecommuting but they are not exhaustive showing the high capabilities of telecommuting in the current business environment. Telecommuting use in companies and their experience Yahoo Yahoo has been using telecommuting at the workplace for some time but recently the Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer announced the decision to end telecommuting for employees at its headquarters. The experience of Yahoo on the use of telecommuting as acknowledged by the CEO is that it augments productivity of the workers. However, there is isolation when the workers telecommute affecting the ability of pooling together ideas or generate new ideas that requires interaction between people (Wilson, 2013). Best Buy Best Buy is the other company that has been using telecommuting with the experience having led to increased productivity and high employee morale but for idea development and socialization needs has decided to end telecommuting (Wilson, 2013). The benefits of telecommuting have been more than the costs for Best Buy giving a positive feedback for the importance of telecommuting in augmenting sales and productivity. Kimbal Communications Kimbal communications in Easton, Pa. uses telecommuting and the reasons for telecommuting is to avoid limiting employment talent pool by geography, saves time, and augment productivity. The experience at Kimbal communications is good as it pools together talented employees, communication via Skype, texts, and emails ad augments ability of the employees to contribute to decision making (Wilson, 2013). Hewlett-Packard Telecommuting was allowed at Hewlett-Packard until recently when it was banned owing to the realization that social relationships are negatively affected. Despite banning telecommuting at Hewlett-Packard, there was an agreement that it results in the production of better results. The reason for the decision to disallow telecommuting is that it resulted in isolation and lack of cooperation for the generation of new ideas and develops better technology to which the success of the company is anchored. Republic Bancorp Republic Bancorp has managed to implement telecommuting in its operations with 65% of its employees as regular commuters. The experience the company has had from telecommuting is an augmented in productivity and increased employee morale and satisfaction. This has allowed the company to meet to its revenue and productivity needs and it has been able to achieve this as demonstrated by being one of the highest ranked companies by Forbes over the years. HomeBanc Mortgage HomeBanc Mortage is another company that has implemented telecommuting with 37% of employees telecommuting. The experience has been an augmented sales and productivity and the ability of the organization to meet the satisfaction and morale needs of the employees. American Fidelity Assurance Telecommuting at American Fidelity Assurance has been successful in improving the performance of employees through the different benefits it to them and to the organization. Telecommuting has led to a saving of overhead costs and has expanded the ability of the firm to augment profits. The company has increased its ability to sale insurance policies due to the increase in the flexibility of the employees and the ability of the employees to communicate better with the customers. S.C. Johnson Telecommuting has been implemented at S.C. Johnson with the experience being positive response owing to the benefits they achieved that surpassed the costs of the process. Morrison and Foster have also allowed telecommuting, has been a success in the organization with the company increasing the morale of the employees, and have resulted in better profits for the company. From the organizations sampled above who have implemented telecommuting for some of the employees, there is a direct positive relation between the implementation or allowance of telecommuting in a form and increased productivity. Organizations had achieved better employee performance and increased productivity in the performance of duties leading to high revenues and profitability. Therefore, telecommuting is the way to go in the current business environment as theses companies have demonstrated that it is possible to implement due to availability of technology and that it leads to more benefits than the costs incurred in a company. In conclusion, the benefits are more than costs that are accrued by a firm that decides to allow its employees to telecommute. The benefits fall into both organizational and personal benefits to the employees. Personal benefits include balance of work and family life, cost savings, improved health and decreased stress, and flexibility while organization benefits achieved from telecommuting are increased productivity, increased time available for work, overhead reductions, improved morale, decreased absenteeism, and improved employee retention and attraction among other benefits. Occupations that telecommuting is suitable are those that can be done by one person, are based on a computer, and there is possibility of running it as a home based business. There are a number of organizations that have implemented telecommuting and reaped the benefits including Kimbal communications but Best Buy and Yahoo have stopped telecommuting for socialization and idea generation and development reasons. References DAVIDSON, J. L. (1991). Telecommuting. Sacramento, CA (P.O. Box 942837, Sacramento 94237-0001), California State Library, State Information & Reference Center. DINNOCENZO, D. A. (1999). 101 tips for telecommuters successfully manage your work, team, technology, and family. San Francisco, Berrett-Koehler. DZIAK, M. J. (2001). Telecommuting success a practical guide for staying in the loop while working away from the office. Indianapolis, IN, Park Avenue. ELDIB, O. E., & MINOLI, D. (1995). Telecommuting. Boston, Artech House. JACKSON, P. J. (2002). Virtual working social and organisational dynamics. London, New York. JACKSON, P. J., & WIELEN, J. V. D. (2002). Teleworking international perspectives: from telecommuting to the virtual organisation. London, Routledge. JOHNSON, N. J. (2001). Telecommuting and virtual offices issues and opportunities. Hershey, Pa, Idea Group. KUGELMASS, J. (1995). Telecommuting: a managers guide to flexible work arrangements. New York, Lexington Books. VIRGINIA, (1994). Telecommuting. [Richmond, Va.], Council on Information Management. WELTE, J.,( 2014). ‘Advantages & Disadvantages of Telecommuting’. Demand Media. Retrieved on 22. 04. 2014 from http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/advantages- disadvantages-telecommuting-3198.html WILSON, M. April 26, 2013, The costs and benefits of telecommuting. Retrieved on 22. 04. 2014 from http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/The_costs_and_benefits_of_telecommuting_1434 8.aspx ZBAR, J. D. (2002). Teleworking & telecommuting. Deerfield Beach, Fla, Made E-Z Products. 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