Telecommuting Essay Research Paper Telecommuting The Evolution — страница 4

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have a 11% higher level of job satisfaction, 16% better retention rate and are more likely to recommend the company to others to work there as compared to their counterparts that work in the office (eWeek, Oct 23, 2000 p81, Telecommuting revolution. (Industry trend or Event) Lisa Kosan). Group telecommuting is also becoming more popular. This brings together benefits for both the company and the employees. The company is able to set up satellite offices in areas that are closer to the employees residences while still providing them with a sense of being part of the team by having them work with others on a daily basis. Often the office space is found at a much cheaper rate than it would be if they were commuting to the main office and it also opens opportunities to go where the

talent is located. Group telecommuting tends to work best when the groups are small and the group is linked together under a common function. The American Dairy Association was able to move a group out of a Manhattan office and save $50,000 a year in office lease expense. Group telecommuting stills suffers some of the same drawbacks that individual telecommuting does but not usually as severe (Crain?s new York Business, Oct 30, 2000 v16 p31, Out of Sight; When teams of employees telecommute, it?s great for the bottom line but tough on communication. (Brief Article) Joanne Cleaver). So with all the benefits and all the disadvantages how can companies make telecommuting work. Glenn Lovelace who use to work for Nortel Co and is now CEO of his own private consulting firm thinks he

has found the best method. He believes that most companies fail because they do not understand the amount of money and time that needs to be invested to get the desired results. He recommends that when a company is looking towards telecommuting they need to first begin with a small pilot program. This pilot program needs the funding to meet their every need and at least one years worth of financial investment is needed. With that in place they can evaluate the progress of the program at set intervals and decide what is working and what isn?t. After the year is up and they find that they understand what is needed then the company is ready to move the idea into other departments. Another key Lovelace recommends to making this work is to have redundancy. In computer lingo that means

to have backups to your backups. Telecommuters must have a way to connect if there main connection goes down. What is commonly used to facilitate this is to have mirrored sites. A mirrored site is when all the information is duplicated and placed on a system separate from the main system. This will allow people to always be able to connect and complete the work they need to do (Home Office Computing, Jan 2001 v19 i1 p90, The Telenetwork Puzzle. (Industry Trend or Event) Lisa Roberts). Telecommuting has come along way in a relatively short period of time. Companies are finding that there are major cost advantages to using telecommuting for many of their functions. The telecommuters are also benefiting by this in creating their own hours and adjusting their family life with their

work life at levels never before seen. The disadvantages are becoming less and less the more technology improves and hopefully in the near future advancements in teleconferencing will improve the personal contact that is missing. While teleconferencing will never replace face-to-face contact nor will it ever replace the brainstorming that occurs at the water fountain but it will save money for the business and it will make some employees more productive. Telecommuting is here for the long run, now it?s just a matter of how to make it perfect.