Working Remotely

I used to hear people say that even if they spent a few hours a week working from home, that “face time” was still really important when it came to their jobs. These days though, with the vast changes in our economy, that is not always true. Today, there are many jobs in a huge variety of fields that do not require going into an office.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics published a report over the summer that 23% of the work force works remotely some or all of the time. In several cities, such as San Francisco, Atlanta, Phoenix and Seattle, the rate is probably higher. And, while some CEO’s such as Marissa Mayer of Yahoo have laid down the law, a staggering number of college graduates, 68% according to one study, say that the possibility of not actually “go to work” to work is one of the most important factors in their job search.

The question is, are employees as productive working somewhere other than the actual place of business? Some would say, yes. Here are some statistics that support this claim.

• Telecommuters are almost twice as likely to work more than 40 hours a week, 53% to 28% for non telecommuters. (Jennifer L. Glass of University of Texas and Mary C. Noonan of the University of Iowa)

• While repetitive work tasks suffer from working remotely, down 6 – 10%, creative work benefits with 11 – 20% more efficiency. (E. Glenn Dutcher, University of Innsbruck)

• Businesses can save $11,000 per employee per year by letting them work remotely half the time. (Global Workplace Analytics)

Yet, every business and industry is different. Mayer got a lot of flack for forbidding working remotely because one would think Yahoo is precisely the kind of company where many people can work independently, and easily and rapidly communicate with colleagues electronically. Yet she found that worker productivity was in fact stunted and that, the company, which was at the time bloated, needed to be trimmed. Her rationale was that the most motivated people would stay anyway and those who “hid” would quit. She also said, “people are more productive when they’re alone…they’re more collaborative and innovative when they’re together.” So for her, it might have been a trade off that on the whole was worth making a controversial change.

Obviously, if you work in operations, customer service or are managing other people, I think you still need to be at the office. Personally, I have always been pulled in both directions. Part of my work day is spent out of the office seeing clients and part of it is spent inside the office managing and getting inside work done.  That said, I believe in checking in all day long. I set goals for my staff to follow, so there is a constant system of checks and balances.   Since I can’t be at the office all of the time and have a lot of other responsibilities when I’m there I have direct who do the day to day management of the employees and there is always someone onsite to keep an eye on the general business flow.  Being in a service industry, I have found this to be essential. AND  I am stressing the word management, as this is not to be confused with babysitting. If that is going on, they are not the right employees.

There is no doubt that working remotely is a growing trend and can be beneficial in many fields.  But I strongly believe it depends on the position the employee or even consultant holds.