Feature

Telecommuting: the way forward?

When travelling can be evaded, when workplace politics can be avoided and when one can work sitting at the comfort of one’s own home, why would you want to go to office? Renuka Vembu taps the nascent stages of telecommuting in India

In the age of an increasing inverse ratio between needs and satisfaction levels, companies are discovering new ways to woo their employees, and keep them on the retainment track. From concentrating on monetary elements like increasing the pay-scale to vying for the intangibles of job satisfaction like providing value added services, additional facilities and modern infrastructure, from enabling flexi-time policies to now the telecommuting concept, the paradigm shift in the focused approach towards employee benefits and welfare schemes is clearly conspicuous. Telecommuting largely remains on the primitive stages, especially in India, not extensively adopted, while some organizations are embarking on this initiative and framing guidelines to provide a conducive atmosphere for employees as also reaping business benefits.

A peek at the policy

Telecommuting, the facility to work from home for a substantially larger period of time, is an experiment to begin with, which will have its share of success versions and loopholes. Pregnant ladies, people with health concerns, those with family commitments, or employees who are on tour frequently, such a framework can prove to be beneficial. Rekha Menon, Executive Vice-president, India Geographic Services and Human Capital and Diversity, Accenture India, said, “At Accenture, we believe that telecommuting initiative is one of the key tools for attracting and retaining employees, especially women employees. In India, we are now witnessing more and more IT companies providing their employees with the work-from-home option. There is a marked shift in the attitude of employers. Most companies have realized the benefits of telecommuting, which include increased productivity, lower attrition, less number of leaves taken, cost savings on infrastructure and of course, an extremely happy workforce. Telecommuting is a mutual commitment on part of the employer and the employee, and living up to this commitment by both will determine the future of its success in any organization.”

Companies have their own telecommuting policies, either defined and practiced, or not laid down on paper but implemented. Subash Rao, Director, HR, Cisco India, opined, “Cisco encourages the concept of mobile or remote workers worldwide. It is a practice we encourage in India as well, and most employees have the flexibility to work from home or outside of office, on an ad-hoc basis. We believe that work needs to be result-oriented and location is not a limiting factor. We want to attract and retain the best talent and believe that telecommuting helps us achieve this while offering significant benefits.” The company uses its technology effectively in workplaces to enable work-life integration, drive employee morale and business productivity. IP solutions from Cisco and emerging technologies like Tele-Presence are making location irrelevant and remote working feasible.

Kalpana Veeraghavan, AP Global Work Life Fund and India Work Life Integration Program Leader, IBM, mentioned, “At IBM, work-life flexibility is much more than just a telecommuting policy. Our work tools, from cell phones to the intranet, have profoundly changed how work gets done, which means that all the traditional assumptions about workplace and contribution have had to be rethought. From telecommuting and working at home to individual work schedules, part-time employment or leaves of absence, IBM is rewriting those rules. Here, we focus on results, not on activity or face time. Ideally, what the employee does is important—not where he or she does it, or how many hours it takes.” Over 40% of IBM’s global population works in a mobile environment and 78% of IBM managers have a team with some remote workers. Work from home option is accepted and utilized more, with an increase of 50% since 2004.

The core issue, at least in the initial stages, seems to be employee convenience; a policy chartered ensuring that the process is made more effective by giving it a structured mechanism. Rajkumar D, Senior Manager, HR, Microland Limited, explained, “Though we do not have a formal telecommuting policy, it is a regular practice in our organization. Emplo-yees, especially those who are in remote locations like the UK and the US with sales and marketing functions, largely work out of home. They stay in touch with clients and their respective teams over phone or mail. This makes a lot of sense as the employee does not have to worry about long commutes to work and can focus on customer needs.”

Weighing the proposal

Saving commuting hours, enhanced productivity due to flexibility and convenience in working schedules and working environment, a positive work-life balance, keeping distance from office politics, seem to be some of the advantages to employees who can avail of this facility. Rajkumar said, “For the organization, the advantages are sometimes quite sharp—you don’t have high office overheads and management overheads for telecommuting employees, team members enjoy a higher sense of freedom and therefore manage to do more in their personal lives and this manifests itself through longer work tenure and increased loyalty. In our company, we have customers in different time zones and it makes sense to have a team of tele-commuters managing our customers from home.”

But even in the age of seamless collaboration and mobility, a few essentials like team work, cultural integration, real-time decision-making, workplace synergy, etc., are inevitable and make considerable difference. Also, the flipside is when employees are not ‘seen’ in office, they can easily get out of mind, contribution and active participation becomes limited and there is a lack of scope for initiatives from their end. Veeraghavan explained, “A new style of working is evolving in today’s global workforce, forcing employees to rethink how they handle teaming, skills/career development and personal life, and forcing leaders to rethink corporate cultural norms and expectations and the definition of ‘the ideal employee’. The very concept of flexibility at work is transforming how, when, and where employees work. IBM is helping employees deal with the new world of work through flexible work options, collaboration technology and new employee communities to share best practices. We are sharpening our internal vision to focus more on results than process, and are educating our global population in addressing the culture and imbedding flexibility and mobility into our business models.”

A joint effort

Indians just beginning to be slowly exposed to this culture of working, it will take a lot to be disciplined and involved, in spite of being away from office. Also, proper programs need to be framed so that the employee career path does not get retarded, and organization’s business is unaffected. Rajkumar voiced his opinion, “Telecommuting requires discipline and rigor. This can be difficult for many. If you plan to telecommute, ensure you have measurable goals and review your performance with seniors regularly, over communicate to compensate for lack of physical presence, write articles in company newsletters and other forums so that you become “visible” to the company.”

The future

While this is just the beginning of a new chapter in the evolution of HR practices and the growing value attached to the ‘human capital’, the outcome can swing either ways. While telecommuting may be a good initiative, the key lies in proper planning, implementation, and execution. As Veeraghavan said, “The present day’s new normalcy in a workplace is defined by global interactions that require work on weekends, local holidays and vacation days to respond to client and team expectations. Business requirements dictate variable non-continuous work schedules—early morning, late evening meetings and various global teams collaborating remotely across geographies and time zones.”

Rajkumar summed up, “Telecom-muting is dependent on the job description as well as on a reliable communications infrastructure. As infrastructure—data links, video conferencing, and voice lines improve, telecommuting will become more prevalent. For the moment, companies are adopting it for certain select functions in India. I personally believe that telecommuting can make people more productive. As organizations become more open to this concept and build processes to manage it, they will be able to access a larger talent pool like housewives. But the downside is that telecommuting teams can get cut off from organizational culture just as rapidly. HR teams are seeking answers to these issues and better connectivity will help resolve some of them at least.”

renuka.vembu@expressindia.com