Have you considered telecommuting?

September 16, 2013 by Temitayo Famutimi Leave a Comment

   

Have you considered telecommuting?
| credits: Chukky Nwakky

Telecommuting, an arrangement that allows the employees of a company to work outside their offices, often from their homes or other convenient locations, has been quite popular in the last two decades.

 In 2008, an estimated 2.5 million workers in the United States of America, excluding the self-employed, considered their homes to be their primary workplaces.

 The proliferation of   smart devices, technology tools, as well as increasing access to the Internet, seems to have made telecommuting a very attractive alternative to the office environment.

 With the availability of technology applications and devices, such as Drop-box, Google Docs, Google Hangouts, Skype, smart phones and Blackberries, employees are almost always at the employers’ beck and call at anytime of the day.

 Experts say that though there is a wide range of jobs that telecommuting best fits, it may not be applicable to all industries.

Yet, a human resource professional and social recruiting strategist, Segun Akiode, notes that telecommuting could be beneficial to organisations in many ways.  According to him, employers could overcome the challenge posed by the huge cost of securing large office spaces for their staff by restructuring the work schedules in such a way as to factor in telecommuting.

 Akiode says apart from an attendant reduction in the cost of transportation to the office for the workers, other overhead and operational costs would be reduced.

 He says, “With telecommuting, employees can practically work from anywhere. All that is simply required is an Internet- enabled computer and a mobile phone. Telecommuting is a common practice in the US and Europe. It has begun to gain some attention in Africa today.

 “It is a common practice among IT professionals, journalists, book authors, bloggers, few project managers and consultants.  Freelancers also fall into this category. However, it may not be applicable to manufacturing, construction or production-related jobs where the physical presence of the worker is of utmost importance. Even automated systems may need humans to run them.’’

 He says that due to the ‘freedom’ to choose where to work from, research has shown that telecommuters are found to be happier since the stress of commuting to the office is eliminated, except for occasional visits. “Some are even more productive as well. Flexibility of work is a strong advantage,’’ he adds.

 A digital media expert, Sola Fagorusi, says that nursing mothers, sick and recuperating workers should be given the opportunity to telecommute in Nigeria.

 He warns that telecommuting, which is still a luxury in Nigeria, should be granted to workers who have demonstrated sustained high performance and can maintain the expected quantity and quality of work while taking advantage of such a flexible work policy.

  “Advantages of telecommuting abound. Reduction in traffic is a major thing that telecommuting would contribute to. It also means there would be lesser vehicles on the road and that translates to a reduction in environmental pollution. It will afford nursing mothers a perfect opportunity to wean their children for the right period without losing out on work. Sick members of staff recuperating can also contribute to some extent to work in the office without compromising his or her health following the difficulty and time that comes with commuting,” he says.

 Fagorusi observes that power supply is one major factor that can significantly rob the work-from-home policy of its seeming advantages. “Internet access is crucial to this. Also primary are communication and work gadgets like the computer and other auxiliary mobile tools. Of course, this also means there must be power supply to work and that’s a rarity in this part of the world since even most offices run on generators for hours,’’ he says.

 Fagorusi advises firms that want to integrate telecommuting into their work processes to make it a supplement to the daily work schedule.

He notes that giving such a leverage to workers may translate into granting them more time to search for another job while keeping the present one, a development which, he says, could deal a devastating blow to the firm.

He adds, “Maybe one or two days telecommuting in the week would suffice. Imagine Lagos State passing a law insisting that staff of every organisation should at least telecommute once every week. It would be a huge relief on the transport system of the state.’’