Successful Telecommuting - Associations Now Magazine - Publications and Resources - ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership

I am a telecommuter, and to some, that guy on the staff who lives in Kansas. Contrary to telecommuter folklore, I am not in my jammies, I am not wearing bunny slippers, and I am not unshowered or unshaved. What I am is in my home office, and I am connected by technology and relationships; productive, to levels I seldom imagined in the "regular office"; and happy, really darn happy, that after 18 years in our Washington, DC, offices, I'm virtually there, continuing to do work I love and living my family's life-balance vision.

Like me, Lisa Hochgraf is another of an estimated 45 million U.S. workers who work from a remote location, typically their home, at least some of the time. Hochgraf, an editor on Credit Union Management magazine and the editor of CUES Tech Port, has been at it longer than me. She started telecommuting in 2001, when she rejoined the Credit Union Executives Society after working at the Madison, Wisconsin, headquarters from 1995 to 1997, then moving to Michigan and freelancing. She's since taken her CUES job with her to Rochester, New York, from where she accomplishes the editorial work, and then some, that she'd achieve in the CUES office. Plus she's hooked on the acknowledged flexibility of working from her home. "I'm not looking to leave CUES, but if I were, it'd be really hard for me to do so," Hochgraf explains. "My four-year-old goes to school next year, and I doubt I could work out meeting the school bus schedule were I working with an employer in Rochester."

Hochgraf became CUES' first full-time telecommuter but hardly its last. In fact, of her three colleagues in the publications group, only one works in the Madison office. One editor is in Baltimore, and the designer is in Austin, Texas. CUES deliberately supports telecommuting and other flexible work options, says Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer Barb Kachelski, CAE, because the 50-staff-member association strives to be an employer of choice. In fact, a composite of staff comments about CUES' "flexible employer" core value shows employees view the organization as "forward thinking because of the flexibility it offers. They also feel trusted. As a result, CUES enjoys low turnover and high morale."

"We've had some good people move out of the area, and if we didn't have the telecommuting option, we'd have lost them," says Kachelski. But, she cautions, making telecommuting a win-win takes commitment—and not only by the staff member. "The advice I'd give is that you have to be flexible as an organization to even try. And I wouldn't try it if you're going to be half-hearted about it, because it really does take support throughout the organization."

Deb Keary, director of human resources at the Alexandria, Virginia-based Society for Human Resource Management, leaves no doubt of the philosophical commitment required to make a go of telecommuting relationships. "We manage people—especially knowledge workers—by results now. It's what they're delivering, and if you trust staff and they're happy, and they're capable, there should be no impediment," she contends. "You have to believe work is happening when you cannot see it happening. You have to set up regular telephone communication and face-to-face time to make sure information doesn't slip through. You have to make a special effort to keep telecommuters involved so that they don't lose touch with the corporate culture."

Is the investment worthwhile? From the vantage point of an HR professional looking at two percent unemployment in her backyard—the Washington, DC, metro area—Keary plays the retention card. "Telecommuting is a great benefit. It is not feasible for all jobs, and it's not feasible for all people," she explains. "But it's something the workforce loves. Your workforce is your most valuable asset, and if you think [offering a telecommuting option] will help you retain that asset, try it."

Remote Work on the Rise

Several realities define a workscape favorable to telecommuting. Top of mind are these:

Everybody's doing it. Well not everyone, but lots of organizations offer the option, and more probably will, so you'll probably manage, work for, or work with a telecommuter, or you'll be one yourself. According to SHRM's 2007 Benefits Survey Report, 56 percent of HR professionals said their organizations offer telecommuting on a full-time, part-time, or intermittent basis. Technology makes remote work pretty painless, and workers are going to expect it, particularly as more move life-balance considerations higher on the priority list.

There's a talent war out there. You've read the news: The U.S. labor force growth rate is slowing. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that overall the U.S. labor force will grow to 164.2 million by 2016; meanwhile, demand will grow to 166.2 million jobs. You're going to feel that. One factor in the complex labor and employment picture is baby boomers. Around 2010 they are going to start retiring or scaling back, and there won't be enough generation X and generation Y workers to replenish demand fast enough. Keary suggests that as Boomers go into more phased retirement, they're going to find working from home attractive, so the telecommuting option may be a strategy to retain them longer. You'll be better able to hire people with disabilities, too, she says, if you allow them to telecommute.

Got gridlock? The Texas Transportation Institute attributes 3.7 billion hours of travel delay and two billion gallons of fuel waste annually to congestion. That's productive time lost to gridlock. And with gas prices barreling toward $5 a gallon, a socio-environmental argument for telecommuting can be made, too.

Office space isn't cheap. Scale is certainly a variable, but there are savings to be had. Keary, at an association with 350 staff, 30 percent or more of whom telecommute to some degree, points out that you can conserve by "hoteling" some workspaces for people who don't come into the office daily. Says Clarke Price, CAE, president and CEO of the Ohio Society for CPAs: "When we remodeled a few years back, telecommuters had to give up dedicated office space and now use shared, smaller spaces. With more telecommuters [12 at this time], the number of offices and cubicles could be reduced and fit more readily into the space we had available and affordable to us. This allowed us to manage a remodel better than we would have otherwise."

Looked at your disaster plan lately? Price gravitated to remote work options some 17 years ago, out of concern for disaster preparedness. "There was some flooding around the Mississippi around that time, and I started thinking, ‘What would we do if there was a hazardous spill or something that kept us away from the office?' I was on an airplane and saw an article in a magazine about an ad agency's telecommuting program," says Price. "We had a couple of people coming back from maternity leave, and they became part of a pilot program. But it began as a disaster plan consideration for me, and that's still one of the major reasons we support telecommuting."

What Works

All things considered, the results are what count. Telecommuters very often cite increased focus and heightened productivity. And while in the literature some skepticism about stated productivity claims exists, numerous companies have indeed calculated significant gains, and frankly, it's hard to argue whether work got done or goals got met. Keary instituted telecommuting at SHRM when she directed the association's knowledge center, and she reports that "the people staffing our call center from home always have a greater volume of work. They have more up time than people at the office have."

Speaking of up time, Sarah Clopton, senior manager, curriculum, for the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, estimates that she accomplishes eight hours of work from her Ohio home for every six she'd accomplish were she in the physical GCSAA offices in Lawrence, Kansas. Like others with similar experiences, Clopton, a second-year telecommuter in her eighth year on the GCSAA staff, points to discipline, responsibility, trust, and communication as keys to successful remote working relationships. "It'd be easy to put the work off if you weren't disciplined," she says emphatically. "You're entrusted with the ability to telecommute, so there's a level of responsibility you have to exercise. For example, if I'm running a little late with drop-offs in the morning, I call the office in Lawrence even though they're not open yet because they're on Central time, because that's what I'd do if I were in Lawrence. I have to be flexible, too. I work 8-5 Eastern, but if they need me for a meeting later, I make arrangements."

Rick Henegar, Orlando, Florida-based director of meetings for the Washington, DC-based Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, concurs. "That routine that you develop going into work—you have to keep that routine when you're telecommuting as well," he advises. "Starting work at the same time, things like that are important." So too is a line of separation. Another telecommuter gave Henegar an important piece of advice: "‘Put a lock on your door, and when you leave at night, lock the door.' And it is true. If I don't lock that door, I'm back in there at night, checking email for an extra half hour."

Which people, which positions? Who can deliver the volume and the quality in which jobs is a key consideration for employer and employee. Keary says people who are doing project-oriented work are good candidates for telecommuting. Kachelski, at CUES, says creative staff, such as writers, can telecommute well. Look at it this way, advises Keary: "Did you get the deliverable in at the end of the week, and was it good? Can work output be tracked? That's the important thing." The human dimension can be another matter, though. Some people thrive on seeing their colleagues every day. "They're not going to perform their best from home," states Keary.

They're not alone. The remote worker, his or her manager, and everyone else they work with are at the nexus of telecommuting success or failure. Staff members and managers have to buy in, at the outset, to ground rules, expectations, work hours, plans for routine communication and face-to-face meetings, and checkpoints for determining whether the telecommuting relationship is working. Likewise, the staff around them mustn't treat their telecommuting colleagues as the forgotten few. "One of the principles we have operated on is that no one's telecommuting should affect anyone else's ability to get their job done," shares Price, of the Ohio Society of CPAs. "We went through a period where people would think, ‘Oh, I'll just ask Mary about that when next she comes into the office,' instead of picking up the phone. Everyone needs to be conscious that telecommuters are working at the same time and we need to involve them."

Managing from the outside in. Telecommuters' supervision of staff at association headquarters is another aspect of interaction that cannot be overlooked. Says Henegar, who supervises one staff person now, soon to be two, "It requires a bit of maturity on the supervised staff member's part to make this work. You have to trust that the work is getting done. I talk to my staff member every day; we have weekly meetings and monthly deliverables. The employee also needs to understand that his or her work is being seen, acknowledged, and rewarded."

Clopton can relate. She was established as a telecommuter when she hired Karen Cooper. The two have never worked regularly in the same building—actually an advantage, says Cooper, because they never had to unlearn any patterns developed in a face-to-face setting. They built their relationship primarily by phone, with Clopton making sure every conversation included some small talk designed to help them get to know one another. "Sarah worked really hard at it," says Cooper. Today the two know one another well—in fact, Cooper is Clopton's eyes and ears in meetings, helping her grasp body language, nuance, and other cues that go unseen by the long-distance participant. Likewise, Clopton's removed perspective on office politics is a help to Cooper. "I wouldn't have thought that a manager could telecommute full time, but after working with Sarah, I see that it works," Cooper says. "In a way it adds something to our department; she doesn't get caught up in the politics. If I do, she can talk me down from it."

Telequipped for business. The main tools of the trade are a laptop or other computer, a connection such as through a virtual private network, and a telephone. SHRM supplies telecommuters with laptops and everything needed for the VPN, including payment of the internet connection. CUES makes sure full-time telecommuters get computers, access, and depending on the needs of the position, a printer/fax/scanner. GCSAA does something similar, as does the Ohio Society of CPAs. Telecommuters provide a desk, a chair, and a private, safe environment in which to work.

At the office end, serviceable phones for teleconferencing are a must. CUES has taken it a step further, with a ceiling-mounted camera in the association's training room. For all-staff meetings, telecommuters get all the materials plus a web feed with the ability to control the view so that they can follow the presenter or focus on questions from the audience. That's what Clarke Price wants, too. "The downfall for most of our people for telecommuting is meetings," says Price. "Even if they dial in, they feel a little out of the loop. That's the challenge I've given our IT person. I want a real video link that we can use with our telecommuters. One, it'll make them feel more a part of discussion, and, two, it will remind those of us in the room that there are others in the meeting."

Policy and paperwork. Policy considerations may vary by organization, but major areas to address include telecommuting definitions, eligibility, work schedule and frequency of telecommuting, equipment, expectations of the home office work area, expectations of the staff member while in the home office (e.g., how often voice mail must be checked), support provided by the association, use of space at the main office, supplies and phone charges, process for requesting telecommuting and decision making, and performance measurement and discipline. Telecommuting agreements, understood and accepted by telecommuter and manager, are advisable. And don't set it up as permanent. Always build in an evaluation period, suggest both Keary and Kachelski.

Negotiating Potential Negatives

Keary sees two possible negatives to telecommuting: One is if a telecommuter isn't suited to working outside the office, and the work suffers. The other is if the manager isn't suited to it or isn't comfortable with it. In that case, it won't work. "Not all managers are cut out to supervise telecommuters," she warns.

Detachment is a worry, too. The organization can and should work hard at keeping telecommuters connected, but in practice the bulk of the burden falls to the telecommuter. Hochgraf, of CUES, makes a point of stopping in at her virtual water cooler—that is, she habitually calls colleagues in Wisconsin. And when she's there or attending a CUES meeting elsewhere, a prime objective of hers is to connect with other staff.

Earlier this year a study by a management professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute probed the impact of telecommuters on the job satisfaction of office-bound coworkers, finding that the greater the prevalence of telecommuters on staff the less the others in the office are apt to be satisfied with their jobs. Nonetheless, the study suggested that managers may be able to mitigate the adverse impact by ensuring greater face-to-face contact between coworkers when employees are in the office and granting greater job autonomy.

"Autonomy is a major factor in worker satisfaction, and this rings true in our analysis," said Ravi S. Gajendran, lead author of a 2007 Journal of Applied Psychology report on findings of a meta-analysis of 46 studies of telecommuting involving 12,833 respondents. The report pronounced telecommuting primarily positive. "Telecommuters reported more job satisfaction, less motivation to leave the company, less stress, improved work-family balance, and higher performance ratings by supervisors."

Price, Keary, and others interviewed for this article prefer the glass-is-more-than-half-full view. "Philosophically, I see it as a strategic advantage," states Price. "Our telecommuting program has positioned us among members as being a little more forward thinking than they might otherwise think. Our staff sees this as making our association a better place to work." And, sums up Keary, "You'll never get a more loyal group than telecommuters."

Keith C. Skillman, CAE, is vice president, publications, for ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership. He spends most of his working hours in Lawrence, Kansas. Email: kskillman@asaecenter.org

8 Tips for Telecommuting

By Keith Skillman

Telecommuters and managers alike are prime sources for advice designed for mutual benefit. Here's a selection:

Take the business case into account. Telecommuting is only viable if the business need is being served. If you're proposing telecommuting for yourself, put it in writing and approach the ask from the business standpoint:

In what ways will the work be better accomplished from home?
Why is your position suited to telecommuting?
Will your position need to be modified? If so, in what ways and why would the modification be in the best interests of the organization?
Where do you predict efficiencies?
What are the negatives or tradeoffs, and how will you overcome them?
How will you facilitate regular communication with the people you work with most?
What technical support will the association need to provide?
What will you provide?
How will you set up your office to accommodate business needs?

As an employer, here are some questions to ask:

Is the individual someone you'd like to retain?
Is the position, with or without modifications, suitable for telecommuting? Is the individual?
Does the work have clear deliverables that are trackable?
What would be the implications for staff the person supervises or works with?

For the employer, putting together telecommuting guidelines and policies are musts. For example, will you allow full-time telecommuting, or may staff telecommute for a limited number of days per week? What equipment will you provide, and what will the telecommuter be expected to provide? Which positions are not eligible? For example, staff handling sensitive financial information typically are not candidates for telecommuting. A policy should clarify the circumstances under which telecommuting is undertaken and under which a telecommuting relationship can be terminated. A written agreement, signed by the staff member and supervisor, is also a good idea. It should lay out the schedule, expectations, equipment provisions, communication and evaluation schedules, and so forth.

Get some guidance, too. When Clarke Price, CAE, and the Ohio Society of CPAs got started many years ago, they used Making Telecommuting Happen, by Jack M. Nilles. It's old now, points out Price, but it got them started, and numerous newer books on the topic are in print. On the legal front, key issues concern performance, wage and hour concerns for nonexempt staff, monitoring, safety, and the Americans With Disabilities Act. Many of the resources on the Society for Human Resource Management website are members only, but "Map Out a Detailed Yet Simple Telecommuting Policy," by attorneys Marilyn Fish and Trisha Kinney, is publicly available. Some sample telecommuting policies are available by searching www.asaecenter.org.

Consider the source. Deb Keary, at the Society for Human Resource Management, points out that staff are generally good judges of whether they're cut out for telecommuting. Are you able to work solo without getting distracted? Can you be deliberate about maintaining contact with staff back at the fort? Are you self-motivated, and do you meet deadlines? Self-sufficiency is a plus, too, points out telecommuter Lisa Hochgraf of the Credit Union Executives Society. The employer may well provide equipment and support, but you'll need some technical savvy to keep all systems go in your casa, particularly if you're a few states away from headquarters.

From the employer's perspective, Keary advises not allowing staff who haven't worked in headquarters for some period of time to telecommute. Working with them first in the office habitat allows you to build trust and see how they work and what their distractions are. And poor performers cannot be eligible.

Evaluate, evaluate. At the outset, the employer has to evaluate whether a telecommuting arrangement will work. "If you don't have a good relationship with the person or don't trust the person, don't even go this way," says Keary. "But be prepared to explain why—for example, ‘You did four things last month that I had to step in on'—and tell them what they have to do to change it. Don't base the decision on emotion. Whether you like them or not is not a criteria." Adds Price, "We have a form that both the employee and the supervisor have to fill out to determine whether a position can be telecommuting. I tell managers that they cannot say no because they don't like telecommuting." It's based on performance factors.

Indeed, performance metrics have to be part of the equation. And a built-in evaluation point—at CUES, it's 60 days in—is a natural point for employer and staff member to take stock of whether the relationship is working. For Hochgraf, there was little to talk about—"It was, ‘Let's get back to work'"—but Price indicates a telecommuter or two at his association decided to come back inside "because they felt they were missing too much. They missed the people."

Steer clear of distractions. Telecommuting is not cheap day care, and that dog woofing in the background will be amusing to the folks at headquarters or that member calling in about once. Employers can and should expect of the telecommuter a distraction-free and safe workspace. Policy might even reserve the right of inspection, on adequate notice. Full-time telecommuter Sarah Clopton of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America points out that you "need to plan how your work is going to flow and where you're going to work. When we moved [to Ohio from Kansas] we bought a house with an extra bedroom, so I have a door I can close. Our kids are in day care while I'm at work. I have a separate phone line into the office, with the GCSAA line forwarded here, which I think is a must because we're dealing with members. Make it as office-like as possible."

Get back to the ranch. Besides working the telephone, telecommuters should count on some in-the-office time to stoke the fires of connection and reacquaint with the culture in the building. Especially at the beginning, it's a good idea to establish a schedule of office visits, particularly for the long-distance telecommuter. Clopton says she comes back from GCSAA headquarters jazzed every time. While it's not productive time in the sense of the quick-to-focus time she spends working at home, it's essential relationship maintenance.

Nurture the relationship. This isn't set it and forget it, according to Price. "Supervisors and staff have to understand the rules of engagement. This is still real work. You have to be prepared to have tough conversations—with those people who have jobs that don't lend themselves to telecommuting right now because the infrastructure doesn't support it right now. And the even tougher conversation: telling someone they have to improve or this isn't going to work. You have to nurture the telecommuting relationship, and sometimes you have to refine it. You cannot start it and forget about it."

Keith C. Skillman, CAE, is vice president, publications, for ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership. He spends most of his working hours in Lawrence, Kansas. Email: kskillman@asaecenter.org

Bruce Hammond, September 04, 2008
GREAT article on working remotely. I have been doing so now for two full years, living around 200 miles from our organization's home office, and it has been great.

Keith and the others who were involved with the article did a great job in hitting on all of the major points relating to the work at home structure, and really painted a good picture of what the challenges, as well as the positives are.

I think this story is a must for those who are thinking about telecommuting, or organizations who are thinking about allowing their employees to do it. It gives a great overview, and as someone who already does it, it gave some great tips!