Workforce Management Featured Article
Remote Workforce Management Requires Robust Technology and Communications (But Not Too Much Communications)
Many companies have been slow to embrace telecommuting, even as they expand their efforts to increase efficiency and lower costs. It’s human nature: managers are nervous that employees who aren’t under their gaze aren’t working. Providing workers with the opportunity to work from home feels like a “giveaway.” But increasingly, there is evidence that telecommuting makes sense both from an economic standpoint and also a productivity one.
For companies looking to implement sustainability strategies, the switch to telecommuting could make a huge difference. The average U.S. worker commutes 18.8 miles to work and back and 86 percent of commuters commute by car (76.6 percent drive alone). Switching to full-time telecommuting would reduce each person’s work-related carbon footprint by 98 percent, according to FlexJobs. Large companies such as Dell (News - Alert) are making a huge difference in their sustainability AND their productivity. With its program, the computer giant estimated its workforce has avoided using a million gallons of fuel, and prevented the related emissions.
“Dell continues to see enormous environmental and social benefits from our work flexibility program, Connected Workplace,” said John Pflueger, environmental strategist at Dell. “Data from our U.S. worker study suggests that our team members are saving money and resources and appreciate the flexibility to work where, when, and how they’re most productive. We’ll continue to explore the benefits of work flexibility and look forward to helping our customers do the same.”
Remote workers are also more productive. Research conducted by Stanford University of one travel organization found that workers showed, on average, 13.5 percent more productivity when they worked from home. This meant that the employer was getting nearly a full extra work day out of employees each week. The company also saved $1,900 per employee on premise-based costs for the nine months of the study, which was highlighted in Harvard Business Review.
This isn’t to say that managing a remote workforce is easy. Collaboration and communications technologies must be state-of-the art, and the remote employees must continue to remain part of the organization’s workforce management strategy. The latter point means choosing a workforce management solution that is cloud-based and secure. It also needs robust reporting, notifications and analytics if it’s to help a remote workforce remain geographically remote but still in close communications proximity. Manual methods of workforce management and scheduling won’t cut it, according to Dave Nevogt writing for Remote.co.
“No matter how sophisticated the monitoring software you use, you just don’t have the time to oversee and manage your employees in manual mode, especially as your team expands,” he wrote. “Creating a high-performing remote team starts with choosing the right people, giving them everything they need to get their work done, and then letting them decide what the best path is to achieve the goals you’ve agreed upon.”
That said, there is such a thing as too much communications. Working in an office is incredibly distracting, and one of the benefits of remote working is quiet and a lack of interruptions to get the job done, according to Nevogt.
“The hardest thing here is to find the right balance: One of the things we hate most about traditional offices (after cubicles) are pointless meetings,” wrote Nevogt. “There’s no need to recreate them when managing a remote workforce.”
Edited by Stefania Viscusi