Getting Over the Fear of Telecommuting

If you could give your employees more freedom and flexibility, increase his/her happiness and achieve all the same company goals, why wouldn’t you?

With the world “going green” combined with high fuel prices and a looming recession in the U.S., every business owner must consider getting creative with employees’ work schedules. Telecommuting just a few hours a week has become a win-win for several large companies, so why isn’t the small business sector following suit? Simply put, it creates a number of fears in the minds of business owners. Losing control, not seeing the employee actually do the work, lowered productivity with more tempting distractions…just to name a few.

Employers need to understand the changing business environment and make adjustments to their business infrastructure to keep up. How many of you manage your employees by performance? Probably most of you. Do you base salaries, wages, commissions and bonuses on performance? Most likely. And, does their performance demand they be in the office for 8-hours or more every day? Probably not.

In fact, some studies show telecommuting offers increased productivity and significant cost savings to the company. Three key steps can get you on your way:

1. Investigate which positions may lend themselves well to telecommuting occasionally. On top of this, which employees can work independently with the discipline needed to work from home? Also, consider where some of your employees work—and the time wasted sitting in traffic when they could be working. Then, write a policy and educate all employees on who is eligible or not and why. You can’t let the morale, culture or productivity of employees who must be in the office get in the way of those who can.


2. Explore telecommuting technologies. Some fears can be overcome with technology. You can allow your employees to access all the same programs, software, servers and other resources no matter where they are located. Additionally, some software can help track the activity of employees for occasional checkups on employees.


3. Develop a plan to manage the employees virtually. Employees need to be able to make the right decisions and take actions no matter their location. Set goals, track progress and check-in regularly! If you are micromanaging in the office, you may not have the right employee in the position—or the processes in place to maximize efficiency. It can be a sign of a deeper issue than just telecommuting.

Time and time again we hear two of the reasons good employees leave…increased stress or no work/life balance. It’s up to us to focus on the work and the results of that work—not the space or time in which they were accomplished. After all, most of the best business ideas were developed outside the walls of the office.