Doing the Office Work
Without the Office
The world of work has
changed. In a matter of approximately a decade, we've seen a
dramatic shift in the definition of "office work" and
of the "office" -- and, most important, the severing
of the historic link between the two. As that separation continues
-- enabled by technology, lifestyle, economic, and values shifts
-- the implications for managers and business owners explode.
© 1997,
by Gil E. Gordon
Life used to be so much
simpler.
There was a place
called "the office" and there was an activity called
"office work," and the former was where we did the
latter. Except for the occasional business trip, everyone came
to the office in the morning and stayed there most of the day.
While some people dutifully toted a briefcase home, it was as
often as not filled with work that wasn't urgent and was only
somewhat likely to be done at home at night.
When we left
the office, we left the office work behind. The commute home,
as onerous as it might have been, was a buffer zone between what
we did for a living and what we did in the rest of our lives.
For the most part, the term "9-to-5" wasn't only a
part of the language; it described when we worked and, by extension,
where we worked.
We all had our
own offices or cubicles with our names on them, the family photos
on the desk, and many other personal items that marked out our
turf as being distinctly -- and exclusively -- our own.
We were really
"we" -- everyone was a regular, full-time, permanent
employee (yes, Virginia, we used to call people "permanent
employees"). Sure, there were the temps in the office, plus
the occasional consultant or contractor brought in for a special
project -- but otherwise, it was all one big, happy, fully-employed,
fully-benefited group.
If someone phoned
us while we were out, a trusted secretary wrote down the message
on a little pink slip with the heading "While You Were Out"
and then handed us a stack of those slips when we returned. Should
someone happen to call after we'd left the office, the phone
would just -- ring, unanswered.
"Mail"
was something on paper, and it was delivered by the kids (which
they normally were) from the mail room. On the relatively rare
occasions when we had to contact someone overseas, we'd rely
on Telex messages, which generally had to be sent by a special
Telex machine operator using a mysterious process and elaborate
equipment. Later, facsimile machines started to pop up, but they
too were rationed, restricted, and not for the Great Unwashed
to use.
The closest we
came to mobile phone was a pay phone on the corner or in a hotel
lobby. Using one required a pocketful of coins or a collect call;
"credit cards" were for shopping at a store, not for
making phone calls.
And, computers
were big, enclosed in sterile-appearing glass rooms, and presided
over by an elite caste. When their stranglehold on computing
power began to break down in the late 70's and early 80's, some
of us got our initiation into the world of personal computers
(personal computers?) with an amazing program called VisiCalc.
If the preceding
makes you nostalgic for "the good old days" (which
weren't always that "good" and certainly weren't that
"old"), you can put your memories in the attic and
come back to reality. Like it or not, those images of the office
as we knew it have disappeared forever -- not unlike the final
version of that big report you were writing and forgot to save
to disk before the power surge.
Wake
Up And Smell The Latte
The world of
work has changed. In a matter of approximately a decade, we've
seen a dramatic shift in the definition of "office work"
and of the "office" -- and, most important, the severing
of the historic link between the two. As that separation continues
-- enabled by technology, lifestyle, economic, and values shifts
-- the implications for managers and business owners explode.
Just
How "Office-less" Will The Office Be?
If the media
storm about telecommuting and the virtual office makes you think
that all your employees will be working at home in pajamas, or
on a beach somewhere, you can relax. The office building as we
know it will be with us for a long time, though it is changing
dramatically. Neither the skyscrapers in our central business
districts nor the smaller offices tucked away on back roads are
going to empty out, but they will change (for many people) from
being the place to work to being a
place to work.
Today there are
approximately 8-9 million corporate telecommuters, defined as
employees who would normally be in an office but who instead
work at least one day a week at home or elsewhere off-site. That
number represents annual growth of about 15% for the last five
years -- but is still considerably less than 10% of the entire
workforce.
Similarly, if
you dissect all the virtual-office and "road warrior"
hype, you'll realize that sales reps, service reps, installers,
and an army of other employees have been working away from the
office for decades. The main difference today -- and it's not
insignificant -- is that they are using much more technology,
and are much more untethered from the office.
The bottom line?
Many more workers will be working in many different locations,
using much more sophisticated technology. With few exceptions,
the location of any company's workforce will more likely resemble
a hub-and-spoke model (with the central office remaining the
hub) than it will an infinitely and more widely-dispersed scattering
of virtual-office workers.
So, the good
news is that the office (and all its problems and challenges)
will still exist; the bad news (and it's not all bad) is that
many of the typical managerial roles (and related Human Resources
functions) such as policy development, selection, orientation,
training, compensation, employee relations, and organization
planning will undergo some major transformation to cope with
this workforce-on-the-go.
Let's see what's
in store for each of those seven functions...
1. Policy Development:
"If you slip in the bathtub...."
Most forms of
telecommuting and mobile work assume that the same employee is
doing basically the same job under the same general supervision.
The most important change is in the location of the work, not
the work itself. Thus, you don't need to write a brand-new policy
manual just to cover telecommuters.
However, you
do need some kind of policy and/or a "telecommuter's agreement"
that spell out what's different about work done away from the
office. For example:
- Equipment provided
by the company for use at home remains the property of the company
and must be returned in case of separation or termination;
- Upon request,
telecommuters must come into the office for meetings or other
purposes -- and the manager has the right to end the telecommuting
arrangement if the employee's work falls below acceptable levels;
- Telecommuting
is a job assignment, not a benefit or entitlement. No one is
guaranteed the ability to become or continue working as a telecommuter.
These and other
remote-work-specific policies can and should be crafted quite
quickly and explicitly, so everyone knows the rules of the game.
One of the biggest potential problems with telecommuting occurs
when line managers -- or HR departments -- simply assume that
good faith and good intentions will immunize everyone against
future misunderstandings and problems. Would that it were so....
2. Selection: Entrepreneurs,
Not Followers
There are two
selection considerations for office-less office work:
- telecommuters
who are based in the office but work at home one to three days
a week on average; and
- virtual office
workers (such as sales reps) who spend most of their time with
customers and rarely work in company offices.
The former are
almost always chosen from among the current in-office staff,
while the latter are generally (and increasingly) selected into
these roles from their initial hire.
The selection
process for the internal telecommuters should mirror that of
a good internal job-posting system. It begins with an announcement
of the telecommuting option being available for certain jobs,
and for employees who meet certain minimum criteria (e.g., at
least one year with the company, at least three months in the
current position, last two appraisals "above average"
or better).
Employees who
meet those criteria and are interested in (and informed about)
the pros and cons of telecommuting can apply and then be screened
and selected. This screening should be based on demonstrated
telecommuting-relevant skills, e.g., self-motivation, ability
to consistently meet deadlines, good independent problem-solving
skills.
The key to finding
good remote workers of any kind is to look for people who can
work together without being together, and who can
work alone without being starved for ongoing feedback and direction
from the manager.
How do you
acclimate and orient a new hire when there's no "there"
there?
When the office
was the focal point of all office work, orientation was a relatively
easy process -- we've all sat through (and perhaps conducted)
the typical first-day "Welcome to the Company" session,
followed by the usual series of forms, ID photos, and all the
rest.
More to the point,
the traditional orientation process was a great way to immerse
the new hire in the culture and "feel" of the organization.
Those first few days and weeks are when we learn about our jobs,
our co-workers, the informal norms, and so on. Take that central-office
touchstone out of the orientation process and you're left with
the challenge of conveying that information, and more, in different
ways.
This is one example
of how appropriate technology can pay off. Consider, for example,
how you might use a well-designed intranet or video to achieve
some of that acclimation. These or similar options certainly
are not a complete replacement for a more personal orientation
-- but they will go a long way in helping a new hire to get to
know the organization.
4. Training: Kids, Cables,
Schedules, Tables
There's nothing
inherently difficult about working at a distance -- or managing
those who do. But there's no need for those involved to go through
trial-and-error learning when a modest amount of training can
be very helpful. This training is needed so telecommuters and
other remote workers don't waste a lot of time or become frustrated.
Among the topics
to be covered for the employees are:
- How and where
to set up an office in the home
- Safety and ergonomics
considerations
- Learning to
work in a more independent, self-motivated manner
- Dealing with
the potential demands of family, friends and neighbors
Managers of remote
workers will benefit from briefing about topics such as:
- How to manage
results, not activity
- Setting clear
performance expectations and giving ongoing feedback
- Making sure
there is good communication among team members
- Acting as a
buffer or intermediary between the remote workers and others
If that list
of topics for managers makes you wonder how remote management
is different from
what we normally expect managers to do, pat yourself on the back.
That's exactly why the process of managing remote workers isn't
necessarily different or difficult. One of the hidden benefits
of telecommuting programs is to give you an opportunity to do
some thinly-disguised refresher training on "Management
101" topics. This not only helps with the management of
remote staff, but also helps with supervision of in-office staff.
5. Compensation: Equal
Pay for Equal Work -- And A Bonus?
It's very tempting
to look at telecommuting and see it as a cash cow. The logic
is as follows: if an employee is working at home for two or three
days a week, that person is spending less on commuting costs,
meals, and the purchase and care of the office wardrobe. A cut
in pay to the tune of 10% won't be felt, because the net after
expenses will be the same as when the person got 100% of the
salary but had all those in-the-office-related expenses.
This is perhaps
the worst kind of thinking imaginable, for two reasons.
First, it puts
employers back into an unequal-pay-for-equal-work situation that
most of them have finally escaped. Second, and more important,
it creates a two-tier pay plan and a group of second-class citizens.
There is, however,
an interesting opportunity for another -- and better -- kind
of disparate treatment. The employer is already ahead of the
game with the kind of savings in office space costs that are
possible, and the extra work output typically seen from telecommuters
is yet another payoff -- so there should be plenty of gains to be shared.
This could provide a true test of enlightened bonus plans for
professional-level workers -- something that's often suggested
but rarely done.
One final compensation-related
issue: the other cash cow that grazes in the minds of short-sighted
managers is the possibility of converting telecommuters from
employee to independent contractor status. This is a huge legal
minefield. A change in work location alone isn't enough to justify
the independent contractor designation, and there are serious
financial liabilities when this status is used incorrectly.
6. Employee Relations:
Working Together Without Being Together
We are all products
of the agricultural and industrial eras, in which there was no
choice but to bring all the workers to the workplace. Those earlier
eras created a series of norms and assumptions about how people
work together, and how support services had to be provided to
them.
We have, for
the most part, left the fields and the factories behind, and
with that progress comes the need to rethink the assumptions
about what "working together" really means. This is
especially challenging with today's emphasis on team-based organizations.
On the surface, it might seem that office-less office work is
antitethical to teamwork, but nothing could be further from the
truth.
You'll need to
determine the right mix of time spent physically together with
time spent working together, but from a distance. For example,
there are some meetings that definitely have to occur in traditional
form, with a group of people sitting around a conference table.
But there are many others that can, and do, occur via audio conference
call, videoconference, or even computer-based conferencing. These
are not "Star Wars" kinds of applications; these remote
meetings happen every day all around the world.
7. Organization Planning:
Keeping Your "Bench Strength" In Place
Finally, let's
step back from these operational issues and consider the implications
of telecommuting and other forms of remote work for longer-term
staffing and succession planning.
One of the most
pervasive myths about telecommuting is that it's a career-killer.
If you're "out of sight" as a telecommuter, you'll
be "out of mind" when the powers that be consider candidates
for promotion or assignment to a desirable new job. This belief
is one reason why some employees who would otherwise make excellent
telecommuters (and who would enjoy doing so) shy away from the
option. They feel that they'll be stifling their own progress
if they don't have a chance to rub elbows with the VP in the
cafeteria line, or otherwise remain fully visible.
While there hasn't
been any research to validate this assumption, there's plenty
of anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Managers in well-run telecommuting
programs will quickly say that their telecommuters and remote
workers are more promotable than their in-office peers. The process
of working remotely forces the employee to be more independent,
make more decisions, solve more problems, and otherwise develop
and use the skills and traits valued in positions of higher responsibility.
The
Simple Life vs. The Better Life
There's no doubt
that the various forms of office-less office work add to the
burden of an already-overloaded manager. Life probably was simpler
when everyone came into the office every day, and we didn't have
"voice mail jail" and hard drive crashes to contend
with.
Obviously, organizational
life has changed, and it has been for the better. These forms
of mobility mean better customer service, more flexibility for
the employees, less wasted time sitting in rush-hour traffic
jams, and improved operating efficiencies for employers.
From the perspective
of the manager or business owner, telecommuting is one of the
most powerful tools in your toolkit for attracting, retaining,
and getting the best out of your people. The technology is ready,
the employees are ready, and the knowledge about how to make
telecommuting work is widely available. It's time to start thinking
about moving some of your office work beyond the four walls of
your building.
- An earlier version
of this article appeared in the Summer 1997 issue of Employment Relations
Today,
published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Gil Gordon is a world-reknown expert on telecommuting
issues, whose site is a one-stop service for employers, vendors,
researchers, policy-makers and others interested in the telecommuting
field. If you are interested in spearheading a telecommuting
program at your present company, visit Gil's site today!
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