WORK at HOME: Be Succes Telecommuting

Companies that have already discovered the many financial and legal advantages of allowing their employees to telecommute may still be able to enhance their results by remembering the wisdom in cliché.

If an employee was not an asset in the office they are likely to even less of an asset if allowed to work at home.

Sometimes supervisors are tempted to recommend ‘problem’ employees for the company telecommuting program, either to get them out of the office and under someone else’s authority, or as a last ditch effort to get a poorly performing employee to suddenly become a good performer. Afterall, statistically-speaking, home-based employees are about 20% more productive than their office-based counterparts, right?

Sometimes employees put so much pressure on supervisors to allow them to telecommute that the pressure can become quite intense. Employees can cite all kinds of reasons why they need to telecommute ranging from day care costs to personal problems.

Regardless of how intense the pressure, remember that an unproductive employee is only likely to become more unproductive if allowed to telecommute. They may commit to working harder and you may hope they work harder, but most often, if an employee is having trouble being productive under your direct supervisor, they’re even more likely to be less productive with less supervision.

The only possible exception may be when your objective is to allow an employee to telecommute because of personality conflicts in the office. Sometimes a very valuable and potentially-productive employee’s productivity is reduced because his or her efforts are constantly being undermined by a controlling co-worker or supervisor. If that employee is hard working, self-starting and conscientious, he or she may be able to work up to 50% more effectively at home. Some employees perform very well when given the free reign to do so and be responsible for their own ‘domain’, but perform much poorly with constant interference and control from someone else.

So don’t expect your telecommuting program to be a miracle generator. Only your best working self-starters should be allowed to work at home and supervisors should base those decisions on a comparison of past performance with the job requirements.

Employees that take long lunches, miss deadlines or have in other ways abused the trust his or her employer has placed in them, should probably not be allowed to telecommute or work at home where such abuse can only increase.

You can’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse.