This is the last part of the series I dedicated to the telecommuting subject and the advantages of this working method. Among these I have mentioned the next ones: hiring and retaining the best employees, productivity increase, travel time decrease, absenteeism decrease, decrease of incidence to extreme situations and cost reduction. However as I declared on my last post this exercise is not complete if we don’t have into account the disadvantages of telecommuting. On this post I will mention these subjects that have to be monitored.
Telecommuting and Self-discipline
Let’s remember that with telecommuting, the worker has more flexibility and can complement in a better way his working life with his personal life. However this benefit also implies a huge responsibility. With this method the employee won’t have to meet strict work schedules. This is the reason why workers that telecommute require a great self-discipline. In this way employers will have to create ways in which they can monitor their workers and also it will be primordial to understand that more than a schedule they must perform some tasks that will be verified by their managers.
Corporative Strength for the company
When all employees are in the same working place it is very easy for them to understand the company’s objectives and that they are part of a team that will pursue some goals. However when they work from remote places it is more difficult for them to feel this corporative strength. In this point it is recommended to look for times and places where they get to know the objectives of the company. In this way they won’t feel isolated and will understand that even though they don’t work form the same place as their partners, corporative goals exist and they are fundamental in order to pursue them. These reunions must be made with some periodicity involving all the company’s workers.
With the last two subjects, I end this series of articles. How we have seen with this set of posts telecommuting brings many benefits but when we implement it we have to take into account some elements so employees and employers can benefit from it.
Image taken fromFlickr.com