Telework proposal



Proposal for Introducing a Telework Policy

at [Your institution]

© 2008, Mari Cruz Garcia

Ingeniero Superior de Telecomunicación

Postgraduate Certificate in Education.

1. Introduction

Teleworking, telecommuting or, more recently now, e-working, can be defined as “a form of organising and/or performing work, using information technology, in the context of an employment contract/ relationship, where work, which could also be performed at the employer’s premises, is carried out away from those, premises on a regular basis” (DIT, Guidances for Teleworking). Evidence shows that teleworking no only improves employees’ productivity and their quality of life, but also contributes to build up better relationships in local communities and more sustainable ways of living and thinking.

The European Commission DGXIII, through the European Teleworking Office (ETO) and as a part of the ACTS programme, has encouraged the introduction of flexible part time teleworking schemes in education. At present, more and more HE/FE institutions are adopting this practice across Europe and the UK.

2. Relevance for Scotland

With an average population of 5 million people, Scotland represents one of the most remote areas of the EU. While a high proportion of Scots live in small towns of between 3,000 and 10, 000 inhabitants, two thirds of all jobs are located in the four largest city conurbations. The average commuting time of a Scottish worker is one hour per day. Despite these figures, the implementation of special policies promoting telework and a decentralization of economic activities is poorer in comparison with other remote low populated nations such as Canada, New Zealand or Finland (Scottish Executive, 2006)

In Fife, [Your Institution] has a well established reputation as an Investor in People (IIP) and innovation leader. It should therefore acknowledge teleworking as an alternative that makes easier to its employees to develop and grow as leading professionals of their subjects. Since the jobs duties of most of the college’s staff rely on information-based task (such as general administration tasks, reviewing report, researching, emailing, preparing lessons, etc) that can be easily performed from home and via an ADSL connection, it would be easily to adopt a flexible scheme of one day teleworking from one.

The present proposal analyses the positive impact that such scheme would bring.

3. Some Facts about Teleworking

According to the UK Office for National Statistics, teleworkers numbers jumped from 921,000 (4% of workers) in 1997 to 1.8 million in 2005 (8% of all workers). Albeit positive, this increase is still lower than in other EU State members such as Denmark (18%) and Finland (16%). The percentage of teleworkers in the US labour market raises to 17% (1).

The report ‘Scoping the Impacts on Travel Behaviour in Scotland of E-Working and other ICT’ it states that “13.5% of working adults in Scotland spend at least some of their time working from home”. This proportion is unlikely to exceed 40% without major economic restructuring. However, the same report warns that “Given the geography and demography of Scotland, e-working is relatively more important for the economy than for other parts of the UK” (2).

In April 2001, the Mitel Network Survey conducted in the UK reported that 30% of the UK employees would consider changing works and 25% would take a cut in salary, in order to telework. This alternative would also deal with the most annoying aspects of conventional job, which, according to the employees are: commuting time (41%), office politics (37%) and constant interruptions (33%) (3).

In general, UK workers perceive the traditional working day schema as too long, too inflexible and very often too unproductive due to constants interruptions. This rigidity makes difficult to balance professional and family commitments, in particular in the case of working mothers.

4. New Work Legislation

The UK Government has acknowledged the need for a more flexible working legislation (DTI 2003, UK Act of Parliament 2002). In the past six years there has been legislation to extend maternity and paternity leave, as well as to offer parents of children under 6 the right to request flexible working (Scottish Executive,2006). The DTI Telework Guidelines (2003) includes telework along with a range of flexible working practices such as flexi time, annualized hours, compressed week, term-time working, banked hours, job sharing, etc.

As a part of its core values, [Your Institution] has always supported a lifestyle friendly policy which “recognizes the benefits of facilitating a balance which enables staff to combine their working life with the demands of a family life” (4). Establishing a teleworking policy for its employees represents therefore the right decision for facilitating this balance in accordance with the new working regulations.

5. Benefits of teleworking

The benefits would be threefold:

1. Benefits for the college:

Premises Costs (5):

• The Canadian Telework Association estimates that an organization could save $2,000 per teleworker per year.

• In 2003, AT&T reported to have saved $34 million by eliminating or consolidating office space people no longer need.

• About 25% of IBM's 320,000 workers worldwide telecommute from home offices, saving $700 million in real estate costs.

• Employees tend to be reluctant to new officing strategies such as office sharing and "hotelling”. But, if introduced along with teleworking, employees will readily trade off their personal offices.

• While relocating business, telework has proved to be a much cheaper combination than relocating staff and/or replacing those that quit rather than move

Productivity increase (6):

• According to the Canadian Telework Association, teleworking 1 to 3 days per week easily increases overall employee productivity by 10 to 20%. That means that five to 10 teleworkers equates to one "free" extra worker. This demolishes the myth that teleworkers will “goof off” because they are "out of sight." Indeed most of workers perceive part of their working hours in an office as unproductive due to constant interruptions.

• In 2003, ATT estimated in $150 the productivity increase by its teleworkers. 70% of them reported that they extended their working hours to the times they would usually waste travelling by (8).

• Compaq Computer Corporation documented productivity increases ranging from 15 to 45%.

• Surveys and pilots conducted by IBM Canada (where about 20% of its workforce teleworks) indicate that employees can be as much as 50 per cent more productive when they work in telework environments.

Guaranteeing Employees’ Loyalty (9):

Teleworking has become a moral builder, since 70% of the UK workers would like to be granted that possibility. It is becoming a make-or-break issue in employee career decisions. Long commuting times and rigid working hours are cited as the top reasons for job dissatisfaction in the developed countries

It has been likewise proved that telework reduces absenteeism and health cared related costs (1 to 2 days per year, according the Canadian Telework Network)

5.2 Benefit for the employees

• Increased quality of life (work/life balance, improved family relations).

• Reduced stress levels.

• Increased flexibility.

• Reduced personal costs (commuting expenses, wardrobe and dry-cleaning costs, meals and snacks.

• Can lead to improvements in diet, exercise and other health related variables.

• Increased job satisfaction.

5.3 Benefits for the environment

• According to the report “Scotland's National Transport Strategy: A Consultation” elaborated by the RAC for the Scotish Executive, the average British worker commutes 2,906 miles per year by car (10).

This means that, if by allowing telework at least one day at week, companies would help to reduce an average of 581 miles per employee per year, which equals to 1280 C02 emission weight[1].

• The Environmental European Agency reported that “commuting to work” represents 15% of the energy consumption in the UE. This percentage keeps growing despite the improvements in road efficiency and the introduction of policies for sustainability in most of the State members.

• On the contrary, among the negative effect of telework, it can be mentioned a possible increase in energy consumption at employees’ home (heating, lighting and telephone line), reduction of social interaction that can lead to professional isolation, avoidance of statutory work rights (i.e. sick pay), etc.

That is why a teleworking policy should only be established on a volunteer basis, so that employees can decide according to their pros and cons of their personal situations.

6. Introducing a feasible telework policy at [Your Institution]

As an employer, [Your Institution] has the legal responsibility of fulfilling ergonomics and health and safety requirements for any potencial teleworker. These requirements, and the prospective costs related to them, should not act as a deterrent for being open to this innovative way working. A well-designed telework strategy is always cost-beneficial and minimizes security, health, financial, labour and other risks.

In an educational establishment, “planning is the key for teleworking to be effectively implemented at a strategic level” (11). It is important to identify the risks involved in the process of policy creation before teleworking can be implemented; likewise, it is crucial to make sure that the telework strategy has the support of the different levels within the organization.

As McLeish states “experience suggests that the most successful teleworking schemes are those which don't just depend on one enthusiastic manager for their survival, but have been agreed at the highest level within the organisation and integrated into the organisation's overall corporate culture” (12).

An effective telework policy should consider the five dimensions identified by the ETO (13):

1. The Person.

2. The Task-Set.

3. The Home Environment.

4. The Organisational Environment.

5. The organisational and external infrastructure.

According to ETO, “the right conditions for teleworking can be only understood as in terms of interaction between these five dimensions”.

6.1 The person

Teleworking should be a choice, never an imposition. Employees taking part on a telework experience should volunteer for it. Experts advise to evaluate first the suitability of employees for teleworking. Although there is no a right psychological profile, personality seems to be a key factor, but not the only one. The research undertaken by ETO shows that successful telework experiences are based on not only on individual’s personality and experience but a combination of this with the organisational and home environment and the task set (15).

Suitable teleworkers are those individuals who are:

• self-motivated,

• aware,

• well-organized,

• doesn't have a personal need for the continuing personal presence of co-workers.

Research shows that the standard psychological profile is a male in his 30-40s, bachelor of with no family commitments.

6.2 The Task Set

Telework could enhance the effectiveness of most of the administration/office tasks taking place at [Your Institution], in particular those require concentrated individual effort free from unwanted distractions, such as class preparation or researching. Full time support staff could benefit from it by teleworking one day a week from home.

6.3 The Home Environment:

Physically, the main requirement is to create a suitable work space within the home, which allows the teleworker to insulate himself from domestic activities. Emotionally. It is important that the whole household perceive telework as a positive experice for the rest of the family. Family or workmates may take time to understand the need for silence and seclusion of the teleworker.

6.4 The organizational environment

The most important aspect for introducing a successful telework policy is that the organisation is ready for telework. Telework not only rocks where the telecommunications infrastructure and the ICT are ready now, but “where employees are empowered to act and think for themselves, where management is by results not by attendance and timekeeping” (10).

If an organization is actively and effectively networking, and individual tasks and remit clearly established, there is no need for daily physical proximity of co-workers and for physical access to files and systems.

There are two main aspects in order to set up an appropriate organizational environment for teleworking:

• The organization intranet, that allows not only to share the information electronically within the organization but to build and sustain relationships across human networks and not only through physical encounters.

• The “managerial environment”: HH. RR. tend to become “natural-born” objectors of teleworking because many managers still manage by counting the hours their employees are sitting on their desk, who come early and who come late, who eats in front of his computer and who takes an hour for lunch, and who appears to be working hard. The truth is that not many managers are able to perform their work on the basis of results and achievement.

For a manager who trusts his employees, it is easy to learn how to measure his employees’ work in term of results and personal achievements.

5. The organizational and external infrastructure

In order to know if the organizational infrastructure at [Your Institution] is supportive enough for piloting a telework project, the following questions need to be address:

1) How intensively does the college use Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs)?

Wide and deep use of computers and telecommunications,as it is the case of [Your Institution], is a positive indicator for telework and other new methods of work. The level of additional investment needed would be therefore relatively low.

2) What is the capacity/cost/resilience of the telecommunications and data communications environment?

Is the IT and communications environment well established, reliable and regularly updated?

It is important to evaluate a priori the performance of the whole ICT infrastructure as problems with technology become a demotivator when undergoing organisation change.

3) To what extent is remote access supported?

When out of office, can staff applications and data as if they were at their desk?

The external telecommunications infrastructure (i.e. xDSL technologies) is likewise an important factor, since the teleworker is dependent on a high speed communications network at home.

6. Piloting a telework project

After analysing the interaction among the aforementioned five dimensions in the context of [Your Institution], the next step would be setting up a pilot project in those departments willing to introduce the possibility of teleworking. This pioneering project would be a volunteer experience and no employee should be force to participate.

The Appendix 1 summarises the Management Action Plan designed by McLeish in order to introduce a telework policy in an educational context (14).

This action plan should be implemented in a recommended time of 8 months. These interval of time should include surveys, logistical preparation, promotion of the teleworking initiative, training and implementation. Evaluation would be an on going process which would turn [Your Institution] into an effective learning organization, in accordance with its core values.

Final conclusions

Evidence shows that the main hindrance for introducing a telework policy in an FE organization is the resistance to changes in the corporate culture. Telework is a paradigm shift in the cultural patterns of many managers. It represents an evolution from the rigid conception of education inherited from the Victorian Age –in which students “had to go to college” and employees “had to go to work”- to a more egalitarian and sustainable way of living and learning –in which lecturers guide students through their learning journey. By removing the barriers between “home” and “work”, ”leisure” and “duty”, telework contributes to create a learning culture.

If there is a component of trust and integrity in the relationships between managers and employees at [Your Institution], if employees are motivated in their work, they would not “slack off” when working from home and management could be measured in terms of results and project executions rather than number of working hours.

Perhaps the best way of concluding why [Your Institution] should consider a telework policy is quoting a sentence from Fraser McLeish in his proposal “How to Introduce Teleworking in an University Context”:

“What's important is that we provide help in ways that makes it easier for people to change and develop, not in ways that seek to protect them from change”

Appendix 1: Management Action Plan

1. Set clear objectives:

o Sponsor the initiative with a budget and promote a 'champion'

o Establish why teleworking is to be introduced

o Predict what will be gained.

2. Communicate with Staff:

o State the objectives and goals

o Obtain commitment and co-operation from the staff

o Manage any cultural change

o Consider further staff empowerment.

3. Involve all Service Providers and their Advisers:

o Personnel functions, including Unions and Health and Safety

o Computer technical support

o Internet Service Providers

o Telecommunication services

o Administration support

o Facilities management

o Risk Management (including legal, insurance, financial, environmental).

4. Establish policies to cover:

o Equipment

o Telecommunications

o Security

o Eligibility to work away from the office

o Off-site support (including hardware, software, other facilities)

o Health and safety issues

o Legal issues

o Financial issues (ie taxation)

o Personnel issues.

5. Establish procedures to cover:

o Assessment of the individual, the task and the workplace

o Feasibility study

o Planning

o Set-up

o Monitoring and support

o Termination (in what circumstances and for what reasons will telework not be continued - for an individual, a function, the organisation).

6. Teleworking research and development:

o Monitor other people's use of flexible working

o Run a teleworking pilot

o Review achievement against the objectives

o Refine the procedures and policies

To implement a program should take approximately 8 months. This would include a survey, logistical preparation, promotion of the teleworking initiative, training and implementation. Evaluation would be an on going process and would operate continuously, which in turn reinforces the University as a learning organisation.

Bibliography

(1), (3), (7), (9) Canadian Telework Association, “European Telework Scene, Stats and Facts”, .

(2) Derek Halden, 2006, “Scoping the Impacts on Travel Behaviour in Scotland of E-Working and other ICT”, Scottish Executive Social Research series.

(4) Lauder Group, 2007, “Lifestyle Friendly Policy”.

(5), (6) Canadian Telework Association, “Cost- Benefits”,

(8) “AT&T Telework White Paper (02/03/2004) - Creating aNetwork-Centre.Future”, quoted by Molina, Marta et al, 2004, “Contribución de las telecomunicaciones al desarrollo sostenible: el teletrabajo”, Telefónica de España.

(10) RAC, 2006, “Scotland's National Transport Strategy: A Consultation”, Scottish Executive.

(11), (12), (14) MacLeish, Fraser, ETO, ETD, European Commission (DGXIII) ACTS programme, “How to Introduce Teleworking in an university context”.

(13), (15) ETO, ETD, European Commission (DGXIII) ACTS programme, “Is there a right psychological profile for teleworkers?”.

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[1] Considering an average vehicle with a 152 C02 emission weight per 100 Km

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