Viewpoint—Companies aren’t investing enough to send workers home

By Carolyn Girard

Increasingly, employees are leaving the water cooler small talk and day-to-day banter of the office setting, and are working from home.

Information technology has made it convenient for this new class of employees, referred to as teleworkers, but companies are not making the option viable for everyone who would like to sign into work online.

Costs are less in the long run, versus the initial costs of setting up a network that will enable supervision and communication between the boss and his virtual employees.

Many companies and organizations are still in the developing stages to meet the growing number of employees wanting to work from home.

The situation is becoming urgent because with a baby-boomer workforce soon to retire, companies will have to make changes to accommodate workers’ demands.

According to Statistics Canada, the telework labour force has been growing slowly in the past two decades, but numbers don’t show a rise because they are in proportion to a steady overall growth in employment.

Steven Murphy, an assistant professor at the Carleton University Sprott School of Business, says the most dramatic shift came five or six years ago, when companies really began embracing the concept.

He says that at first, teleworkers were mostly employees in highly technical jobs, but job types now range from policy analysts to marketers in the private sector.

And although many teleworkers still spend a couple of days a week at the office, the winds of change are sweeping in.

According to InnoVisions Canada, a telework consulting organization, there are twice as many benefits from all sides.

Essentially, employers save on office space and parking, less long term disability costs, reduced travel expenses, and see improved morale and job satisfaction.

They also experience a better retention of valued employees because they don’t have to worry about workers relocating and can tap into labour markets in more geographically remote areas.

Fewer people travelling to and from work means less traffic congestion and less wear and tear on roads.

Snow and ice storms stop being an excuse not to spend a productive day at work. Less stress equals less weight on the health care system.

It also allows parents to better balance work and family, creating more cohesion and focus on needs of children and seniors living in the same household, as family time is shrinking in Canada.

According to Statistics Canada, people more likely to opt for that style of work were married employees and employees with young children.

Telworkers benefit from less stress and better job satisfaction because they don’t have somebody watching over their shoulder.

Not every teleworker has to work eight consecutive hours and can work whenever they are feeling most productive.

Forget the no-jeans dress code. Workers save on clothing, dry cleaning and parking, not to mention gas money and time from dropping their daily commute.

But a big hurdle remains for the growing number of people who want to telework.

Linda Duxbury, a professor at the Sprott School of Business, says that companies lack the organization and structure to support them.

She says organizations have talked about teleworking strategies for the past 30 years, but aren’t making teleworking feasible for everyone.

Low-skill workers such as employees doing clerical work, have a harder time negotiating themselves out of the office because of power imbalances in the company.

Companies must change whatever reluctance they have for investing in the start up and operating costs, telework policies, guidelines, training and evalution to accommodate a bigger network of teleworkers.

With baby boomers retiring, businesses will be seeking to replace them with the very best and they won’t have a choice but to accommodate employees if they demand to work out of their home.

“Workers are saying let me telework or you’ll lose me,” Duxbury says.

With advances in communication technology, managers and executives are able to keep informed and connected through e-mail, a phone call and even video conferencing.

If companies are smart, they will do what they can to prepare for a more technological work force, or else they might find it hard to recruit the people they need.