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Page updated:
9 December 1999

Page owner:
ETO Site Team

What are the basic requirements for teleworking at/from home?

• "which employees should be permitted to telework?" and
  
  
• "should we allow home based telework or encourage teleworking in (for example) neighbourhood offices?".

Five Dimensions of Home Based Teleworking (Telecommuting)

1. The Person

2. The Task-Set

3. The Home Environment

4. The Organisational Environment

5. The organisational and external infrastructure

Also at this website is a presentation: Telework Perspectives: How to assess opportunities and issues for new ways of working in a corporate context which discusses the same factors in a more graphical way.

The Person

Another aspect of the person is age and experience. For a young person starting their first job, it is usually more attractive and more effective to learn about work and business in the active social environment of the company's office. For someone joining a new company, a period getting to know the company and colleagues before telecommuting is usually recommended.

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The Task-Set

• Tasks that may be positively enhanced by working at home include those that require concentrated individual effort free from unwanted distractions.
  
  
• Tasks that may be adversely affected by working at home include those where considerable advantage is gained from frequent or continuing "rub off" contact with co-workers, for example brainstorming a new campaign or a new slogan in an advertising agency; or brainstorming a new product concept in a marketing unit.

There is a FAQ: What are the main Benefits of Telework?, which discusses some aspects of how telework can enhance effectiveness, and also some of the potential drawbacks.

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The Home Environment

• Physically, the main requirement is the ability to create a defensible work space within the home, meaning an area where the teleworker can at least partially insulate him or herself from domestic activities when necessary, and such that the teleworker can also "close the door on the work" and not have it as a constantly visible presence and reminder when they are trying to enjoy family activities.

• Emotionally, its important that telework should be "good" for the rest of the family as well as for the teleworker. It needs to be recognised that the family may take time to adjust to a teleworker who is physically present but mentally preoccupied. As a (female) member of the UK's House of Lords memorably put it: "After all, girls, we married them for life, not for lunch!"

In looking at the home. numbers as well as space need to be taken into account. If there are two or three potential teleworkers in a house, is it realistic for each of them to have defensible space and the appropriate facilities? Will co-existence help or hinder their work and/or the emotional environment and their relationships? These issues are often forgotten when making forecasts about the growth of telecommuting.

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The Organisational Environment

Here again both physical (in this case technological) and emotional aspects arise. It would be foolish to introduce telework on a general basis in an organisation that hasn't yet implemented electronic networking (email, online discussion, online notice boards and libraries etc) successfully, or in an organisation where the management approach is bureaucratic and strongly hierarchical. Telework (of any kind, but especially home based) works best where there is already a lot of electronic networking, where employees are empowered to act and think for themselves, where management is by results not by attendance and timekeeping.

If the organisation is "actively and effectively networking", there is less practical need for physical proximity of co-workers and for physical access to files and systems. Information is shared electronically and relationships are built and sustained across networks as well as through physical encounters. If everyone is connecting electronically the employee who is working at home doesn't feel "out of it" or out of touch. No special communication arrangements are needed for home based workers because the network has become the main communication mechanism for all (see note below). But if special new systems have to be implemented to support teleworkers as distinct from other office based workers, this may suggest that the organisation is not yet ready for telework. (See also the FAQ: What is an Intranet and what is its value?)

The "managerial environment" is equally important. If managers are still managing by counting the hours and by observing whether people appear to be working hard, then they may well assume that an employee who is allowed to work at home will slack off and pay less attention to work. They will be worried about how to manage someone they can't observe - the most common managerial objection to teleworking! When managers have learned to manage on the basis of results and achievements they will know how to measure these, and will be less concerned about whether they can see the employee at work.

Note: This emphasis on electronic networking doesn't mean that face to face communication becomes unimportant. In most organisations physical meetings remain important in team building and in attaining a common vision of goals and common sense of purpose, building mutual trust etc. But the nature of and need for physical meetings changes when organisations are effectively networked.)

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The Organisational and External Infrastructure

1. How intensively does the enterprise use Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs)?

Wide and deep use of computers and telecommunications is a positive indicator for telework and other new methods of work. The level of additional investment needed will be relatively low; staff and managers are already familiar with relevant technologies; the enterprise has acquired skills in using and supporting a technology intensive work environment.

2. What is the capacity/cost/resilience of the telecommunications and data communications environment?

Is the IT and communications environment well established, reliable and regularly updated? It will become more intensively used as new methods of work are adopted and ideally needs to be “useful but invisible”. Problems with technology are an avoidable distraction and demotivator when undergoing organisation change.

3. To what extent is remote access supported?

When I travel with my laptop can I access all the same applications and data as if I were at my office desk? If there are technical or policy (eg perceived security issues) problems with this then arguably the enterprise is not yet ready for new methods of work.

Interaction among the five dimensions