Talking Talent

I’ve just finished writing a piece for Human Capital Magazine, which pondered the question: If a tree falls in the forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?  Or more specifically, if your employee is paid to work from home and nobody is there to supervise the work, is he really working?

While most middle managers in Australia still want to see their staff sitting at their desks, it’s time to get smarter about how we manage our people.

Telecommuting is a viable alternative to traffic congestion, office distractions and tying up capital in costly office space or car parks.  Telework Australia says that employing a workforce that works at least partly at home can reduce costs of heating, air-conditioning, car parks and lighting by 17 per cent of salary costs.  Teleworking can reduce avoidable staff turnover by over 20 per cent, absenteeism by as much as 80 per cent, and boost productivity by up to 40 per cent.

While teleworking won’t work for everyone (those employees who find it hard to self-motivate may find their plasma screens too alluring), it is an appealing option for many employees.  Here’s the key questions I believe talent managers must consider:

• What is your company’s teleworking policy?  
• How will your team will collaborate remotely?
• How you will continue to foster communication and creativity?
• What targets and objectives can you set to ensure your teleworkers are accountable for their output?

Teleworking, global collaboration and virtual worlds - here’s an ABC World News report on the future of work (courtesy of YouTube).

It’s a sign of the times that, as teleworking becomes more popular, companies are stepping up their electronic monitoring of tens of thousands of home-based independent contractors.

The Wall Street Journal reports that employers are taking photos of workers’ computer screens at random, counting keystrokes and mouse clicks and snapping photos of them at their computers. “They’re plying sophisticated technology to instantaneously detect anger, raised voices or children crying in the background on workers’ home-office calls. Others are using Darwinian routing systems that keep calls coming so fast workers have no time to go to the bathroom.”

Peter Weddle, an author, consultant and researcher on employment Web sites, calls the trend “21st Century Big Brotherism” that risks being “horribly intrusive.” Skilled workers “don’t need someone looking over their shoulders,” he says. But while the monitoring can put a damper on home life, many people are so eager to avoid commuting hassles that they see the practice as an acceptable tradeoff.

The article makes an interesting point.  While this sort of monitoring has so far been mainly restricted to freelance IT workers, writers, graphic-design artists and call-center agents, the monitoring itself may speed teleworking growth, because it tears down one of the biggest obstacles to working at home - employers’ fear that remote workers will slack off.

As fuel costs soar and we come to grips with the greenhouse challenge, and as skills shortages continue to bite, we must find creative ways to keep talented people in the workforce - and teleworking is one of them.  And as teleworking becomes a mainstream choice, we’ll find that people shrug off domestic sounds of barking dogs, children and lawnmowers, just the way we now accept that some people hold teleconferences in taxis and write briefs on airplanes and take client meetings in cafes.

I’ve mentioned before that teleworking could be one of the solutions to Australia’s climate change challenge.

This week alone, 32 million Americans could be telecommuting at least one day. They would not drive 1.2 billion miles – which is equal to 51,000 times round the Earth.

Additionally, by not wasting time being stuck in traffic, telecommuters could be more productive for the equivalent of 4 million extra workdays during this one week alone. Productivity improvements, typical for telecommuters, would provide a bottom line benefit to the US economy of $311 billion yearly.

A Canadian company called Teletrips Inc capitalises on the benefits of telecommuting by engaging companies in a work from home program. Companies that allow their employees to work from home can calculate the greenhouse gas emission savings, which are then credited to the employer. Emission credits are tradable on a market and thus earn employers money.

The project offers flexibility for workers, earning potential for employers and a bonus for the environment. For example an employee commuting 40 kilometres could save 8.4 kilograms of carbon dioxide by avoiding one trip to work.

I am an economist by education and one of my favourite economists, John Maynard Keynes, wrote in 1930, in his book The Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren, that by the end of the 20th century we would all be working just five hours a week.

In 1996, Jeremy Rifkin prophesised the end of work altogether. In the 21st century, he predicted, employment would be phased out, at least in the industrialised world. Jobs would be taken over by machines and workers forced on to the dole.

The German sociologist Ulrich Beck, in The Brave New World of Work, published in 2000, claimed the work society was disappearing. The working environment of the future, he said, will resemble that of Brazil, with no permanent jobs, only informal and insecure labour. 

And Charles Handy, in his book The Empty Raincoat, said what is disappearing is the job itself.

These were some bleak predictions – but going by current trends, Keynes’s proposition is impossible and Rifkin’s, Handy’s and Beck’s seem implausible.

The next revolution in our workplaces will not be no work.  Instead it will be flexible work.

Flexible working has enormous potential to raise productivity levels, increase employee job satisfaction and create business cost-savings. Moreover, as our workforce ages and shrinks over the next 25 years, practical solutions that assist organisations attract and retain staff will be fundamental to the way companies retain their competitive advantage.

Yesterday I said that “work is not a place” and that with fewer cars hitting the roads, our carbon footprint would decrease. 

Telecommunications provider Telstra recently undertook an extensive report on how better use of teleworking and smart sensors could alleviate carbon emissions.

Telstra’s researchers estimated that Australia can save 2.4 million tonnes of carbon emissions by using video conferencing rather than travel; 4.8 million by managing appliances not in use or on standby and 3.1 million through teleworking options.

The issue to overcome in Australia is that over 60 per cent of middle managers want to see their staff sitting at their desks.

When I joined IBM in 1981 the hit song was “My baby takes the morning train.  He works from 9 to 5 and then he takes the train back home again…”

Thank goodness work isn’t like that anymore!

Work is not a place.  It’s not time bound. It is all about mobility and connectedness, anywhere on the globe.

Sensis’ 2007 survey of teleworking reveals that just 22 per cent of Australian businesses have employees that teleworked. Positively, in terms of business performance, SMEs that had teleworking employees reported significantly higher levels of confidence than those that did not embrace teleworking. Apart from business confidence, teleworking businesses also performed higher in other performance indicators, most notably sales and profitability.

However, this figure must increase.  The use of flexible working arrangements and telecommuting provide opportunities for increasing participation of women in the workforce, governments growing productivity and communities reducing their carbon footprint as fewer cars hit the road and large buildings burn lights and air conditioning plants.

Sick of suiting up each day and tackling the traffic to get to the office?

More and more Australians are choosing to work from home for at least part of the week, saving time, headaches and CO2 emissions into the bargain.

At a conference I attended last year, Victorian Cabinet Secretary Tony Lupton pointed to a study by the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO) which concluded that if 20 per cent of business travel in the EU were replaced by audioconferencing, videoconferencing or telepresence, then 25 million tonnes of CO2 might be saved annually by 2010.

Closer to home, Telework Australia says that having a workforce that works at least partly at home can reduce costs of heating, air-conditioning, car parks and lighting by 17 per cent of salary costs.

And teleworkers are happy workers! In Australia, telework reduces avoidable staff turnover by over 20 percent, while managers report that employees are up to 40 percent more productive.

These results are backed up by an international study by CDW, published in August 2007, found that teleworkers are more satisfied with their current jobs than those that don’t have the option to work from home.  89 per cent of US government employees and 89 percent of private sector employees with the option to telework were either satisfied or very satisfied at work

As we look for ways to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions and minimise our environmental footprint, teleworking provides an answer. Teleworking helps companies get the most out of available resources. It provides an alternative to traffic congestion, office distractions and tying up capital in expensive office space or car parks.

It’s time to get smarter about how we manage our businesses. Technology has delivered the solutions which enable people to work from home - it’s time for businesses to embrace them.