Virtues of virtual staff

By VICKI JAYNE

The idea of workplace flexibility is increasingly being applied to the once-solid boundaries of steel and glass high-rises. Now, it is quite possible to work in a "virtual office."

Tele- or just plain e-workers are an evolving species. Web-linked and electronically enabled, working at home or from other remote locations, they are quietly expanding the geographic and management boundaries of traditional centralised workplaces.

There are obvious advantages.

Virtual commuters do not clog up motorways, clutter central city parking space, or occupy patches of high-priced CBD office flooring.

They can also enjoy the advantages of self-management, working when they can be most productive and, generally, achieving more in less time.

On the downside, they can be a tad isolated - socially and in terms of workplace organisation and culture.

While management may harbour some concerns about how remote workers are occupying their hours, those working from home are only too aware that the office is now much harder to leave.

Still very much in its infancy in New Zealand, teleworking is an option that more companies are exploring.

Their reasons for doing so are many and varied.

Some may be motivated primarily by the prospect of cutting CBD accommodation costs or reducing the amount of work productivity lost in lengthening traffic jams.

It may be a matter of providing a degree of business future-proofing from technology and infrastructure viewpoints. Or the company may be formalising a situation that is already happening in an ad hoc way.

Increasing numbers of employers want to offer the sort of flexible work options that will help to make them more attractive to the workers whose skills they are chasing, says Telework New Zealand's Bevis England.

"Their interest in telework is being driven more directly by the desire to be seen as an employer of choice ... and to improve the atmosphere and culture within the enterprise."

Whatever the motivation, he advocates a formal implementation of the telework option so the process is transparent and has clear objectives for employer and employees.

"Under enlightened management, this sort of flexibility will happen but the full gains may not be realised if it's just an informal sort of arrangement.

"Examples from the United States where companies have cited no advantages to be found [from teleworking] are exclusively those situations where it's not been planned with structured inputs and targeted against specific objectives - and that's not smart."

Helping companies to take a formal and codified approach to implementing a telework programme is what his company is all about. He cites seven specific elements on which such a programme needs to be based.

The first is that the company supports out-of-office "desk-work" (we're not talking roving sales folk here) within ordinary office hours. Second, this should be structured as a voluntary and mutual arrangement - it will not work if it is foisted on people.

Third, it should be available to everyone as a normal work option but within specific guidelines. It will not suit some jobs or personalities.

Fourth, it has to be established on a management-by-objective basis, not on time-measured performance. Out-of-office workers who are generally found to be more productive should not then be penalised for that by having higher expectations applied.

A telework programme needs to be scheduled to maximise benefits and avoid problems for employer and employee. Workers may need to be at home a certain day; employers may not want all the teleworkers bowling into the office at the same time.

Number six is a set of clear corporate and individual objectives that are known ahead of time and kept in mind during implementation and ation.

"That not only applies to what management might want staff to do but ensuring they are equipped to do it,"says Bevis England

Lastly, the whole programme must be integrated into corporate culture.

That means structuring the needs of teleworkers into the way the whole company works - for example, ensuring that issues related to occupational safety and health are addressed, or that teleworkers get IT support when needed.

"That will happen when the company recognises that teleworking is a formalised part of the company's long-term strategy and related to specific corporate goals."

One way of providing the sort of support services that teleworkers need is to establish a community centre that offers them. So far, New Zealand has only one telecentre, although others have been looked at, and there are plans for a telework-enabled residential development near Christchurch.

That Kapiti Coast's telecentre is now a reality is the result of years of research and lobbying by Sharon Strong, who runs her own IT training organisation Outlook Resources.

Fired with enthusiasm for what she sees as a creative encounter of community and commercial needs, she used a study grant to look at how such centres operated in Britain, Europe, the United States and Australia before undertaking a feasibility study for Kapiti.

She found a willing commercial partner in Unisys, and the telecentre is now established in a customised building near Paraparaumu.

It offers members 24-hour secure access to space, technology, telework services and IT training, and is attracting increasing interest from other corporate and Government users, says Strong.

"It's taken a long time to establish the proof of concept for such a venture here. Now we have that. We've learned a lot and with the data we now have, we'll get buy-in for the next one a lot faster."

* vjayne@iconz.co.nz