Telecommuting: What It Is, How It Works

The coronavirus pandemic made the employers rethink their working environment and forced them to adopt a much safer method. Therefore, 2020 became the year when telecommuting was acclaimed even by the companies who were somewhat against this approach.

What is Telecommuting?

Telecommuting or commonly known as working from home, remote working or e-commuting is a work arrangement where employees are allowed to work from anywhere but the standard office. It can either be a coffee shop, home, libraries or other suitable places. In some business ventures where daily meetings are required, they use video conferencing tools to conduct their sessions. Because the goal is to run the operations successfully without one-to-one interactions.

How Does Telecommuting Work?

Here, employees instead of physically commuting to their work locations, use their device and company portal to travel to work. They are connected with their teams, managers and bosses, via live chat, emails and video meetings. All the tasks and projects are assigned over the internet whereas the submissions and evaluations are also done online.

Who Telecommutes?

If we consider the current situation, almost all of the workers are practising working from the home approach. Well, in general, people who cannot for some reason visit office or sit straight for consecutive 7-8 hours are granted the remote working opportunity. However, it is beneficial for both employees and employers. Employees can work comfortably from their place while the employers save money spent on office rent, maintenance and renovations.

Note: to work remotely, you must have a device and access to a reliable internet connection. Because even though you are not working inthe office, you are still remotely working. Plus, if you are unable to perform well this way, there is no point to give you the leverage.

Benefits of Telecommuting

There are various benefits of implementing telecommuting approach in an organisation, few of them are mentioned below.

• Increase in Morale
  Professionals who are allowed to work remotely tend to happier and satisfied with their jobs than those who are confined to work in an office. This approach also encourages them to work with dedication as they no longer have to spend half of their salaries travelling back and forth from the workplace.
• Enhancement in Productivity
  While most of the employers relate out of sight employees to be less productive and inefficient, the experts have different views. They think remote workers are the ones who take their responsibilities more seriously and work harder to maintain their productivity and standard. If you don’t believe this, try it yourself.
• Saves Money
  At times, the business owners are spending more than they are earning. It includes employees’ payrolls, workplace maintenance, office supplies and several other factors. Several professional companies also provide convenience expense, lunch expenses and much more to employees but by working online, both parties can enjoy life luxuries more andoffice expenditures less.
• Boost Employee Retention
  When employees are allowed to telecommute, it not only saves their time but money as well. This ultimately makes them happy and wants them to stay committed to the organisation for a longer period. Well, what else does a company wants from its workers?
• Attract Worldwide Talent
  In-house jobs limit the possibility of recruiting experts from different parts of the world. While remote working doesn’t require to be physically present, this is the best opportunity for employers to attract top talent despite the difference in location. Moreover, experts say that when you hire someone for telecommuting, they tend to maintain a long term employment relationship.

Best Practices of Telecommuting

Just like for the writing tasks there is best assignment help UK available on the internet, remote working also requires a solid foundation. Here are the following ways that make telecommuting a success.

• Picking the Right Technology
  As employees are not physically in touch with each other, it is evident that they need some tools as support. Below list included the minimum necessary resources that every employer much provide.

1. Project Management Tool
Tools like ProofHubs, Basecamp and Trello allow the users to create a task list, schedule important meetings, share files among the team, and help in communication and reporting. To be true, this is everything that runs a business.

2. Secure Internet Access
Since workers are working outside the office, documents and other important things need high-level security. For this, a secure internet connection is a must.

3. Customer Relationship Manager
This is to keep track of the employees, their performances, activities and interactions.

4. Defined Communication Channel
To keep all the workers in sync, there must be only one communication channel by which requirements are conveyed, projects are submitted and feedback are forwarded.

Moreover, the organisation should have policies regarding the e-commuting approach to ensure its employees are working behind their back. It can be related to either, hours and shifts, performance evaluation and raises, communication or protection of equipment/cyberspace/tools. Lastly,be sure that each worker has read the policies and knows what’s expected from them.