Why |  | by Jonathan Green |
The integration of computer and telecommunication technologies permit work outside the office, i.e., "telework." Work has become portable and may be done on the road, from the home, a customer's office, a field office or at a "telecenter" (satellite office). Telecommuting is working from home or a telecenter.
Telecommuting is not new, the word was coined in 1973 by Jack M. Nilles. Examining all the disciplines telecommuting touches, you might think it took a rocket scientist to develop. Well, Jack Nilles is a rocket scientist. He designed various spacecraft for the US space program, along with managing a number of research and development programs. In Jack's own words "I began to think about ways by which all of the technology could be applied to `the real world.' In my education as a physicist with a liberal arts background, as well as my subsequent management assignments, I learned to continually question the fundamentals: "Why are we doing things this way? Why can't we use technology to do things better?" From this thought process came Jack's final question, "Why do we have to GO to work when technology allows most of us to work at or near home at least some of the time?" Thus telecommuting was hatched.
Telecommuting has been growing steadily since. The advent of personal computers in the 1980s made it feasible to produce a substantial amount of work outside of the office. These early telecommuting activities lead to the realization of the benefits increased employee productivity and reduced overhead costs. Today telecommuting activities are emerging as a preferred business policy because of financial and human resource concerns.
Over nine million people regularly telecommuted from home in 1994 according to Link surveys. As a group they averaged 40 hours per month away from the office. Telecommuters fill many different job functions: professionals, executives, managers, teachers, sales, marketing, and customer support personnel. Even Police detectives in the City of Los Angeles have telecommuted.
Telecommuting is one part of this emerging Virtual Office Technology. "Increasingly, the `office' is where the worker is not the other way around," The Futurist March-April 1994. "As many as 80 percent of all employers will have to adopt remote work in order to compete in world markets by the mid to late 1990's" The Yankee Group March 1993
Instead of commuting to a central location, today's Virtual worker may be telecommuting from home one day, traveling on the road the next and working the third day from a customer's location. This Virtual Workplace is possible by technology which allows the worker to virtually take their office with them in the form of a personal computer. Now the worker may work from the location which is best suited for the situation. The criteria for determining what is the best situation has expanded because of this worksite flexibility. These non-traditional work locations allow workers to be as accessible and productive as if they were on site, yet can provide other benefits as well. A substantial number of major companies and governments are already using this innovation for the following benefits:
a. For the Employer
Reduce capital investments;
Reduce overhead;
Access new labor pools;
Significantly increase productivity;
Reduce sick days;
Improve morale;
Reduce employee turnover;
Increase organizational flexibility;
Provide faster response times.
Telecommuting substitutes for office space by removing work from the workplace for a growing number of private and public organizations. In the normal business model, the largest expenses for a company are first the people, and second the bricks and mortar. Telecommuting allows an organization to reduce these costs.
b. For the Employee
Enhanced scheduling flexibility;
Address health issues;
Address dependent care issues;
Enhanced lifestyle quality;
Numerous cost savings.
c. For the Community
Traffic congestion relief;
Quality of life issues: family and personal time management.
Access to jobs for the mobility disadvantaged, whether it's a result of physical impairments, inadequate transportation, or other factors, workers can have easier access to jobs via telecommuting. Telecommuting provides a means for employees to recuperation from health matters, while still being productive.
The trends driving telecommuting include business competition challenges,
which are important indications of needs and opportunities. The common business
challenges at the forefront today are:
Reducing costs;
Improving team work, communication and collaboration;
Enhancing the quality of products and services;
Increasing the speed with which products are developed and delivered;
Attracting and retaining the highest quality staff.
How will business address these issues? The identified workplace strategies
are:
Flexible work
Remote work
Team work
Telecommuting addresses all these concerns, and thus provides a complete solution to business.
The impact of telecommuting represents a fundamental change in the American economy. The change is not the result of a transitory economic cycle: it is the shift from an industrial to a knowledge based economy. This shift from the industrial to the information age is having a profound impact on society just as the invention of movable type and industrialization had on the agricultural age. The major difference for this transformation between the ages, is the speed of change. The speed of change between agriculture to industry age required centuries before the printing press and literacy began to impact European society. Industrialization evolved over two hundred years. Today, the impact of the informational age with its new methods of work such as telecommuting is coming in decades, not centuries. Each generation of faster computer processing chips and telecommunications improvements increase the flow of information. This continually accelerates the pace of the informational age.
Workers today are asking to be judged on what they produce, not where they produce.
You only need to remember these eight words about telecommuting:
it's smart
it works
it saves
it pays.
Gil Gordon - 1994
Jonathan Green is a HAL-PC member and President of Texas Telecommuting Advisory Council.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
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