The advent of the web and electronic communications has changed the landscape in the way we do business and the way we work. Increasingly, companies are considering the advantages of allowing telecommuting for some of their employees. If working remotely sounds like an attractive option to you, how do you sell the idea to your boss? And if you're a manager, what does it take to manage a remote workforce? To answer these questions, let's look at the steps to take before you propose your plan to the boss and the necessary guidelines to follow to effectively manage a remote staff.

Ask Your Boss

Before asking the boss about teleworking, you should reflect on a few points, be prepared, and do a reality check of your circumstances. Do you think your job lends itself to being done from a remote location? Is it something that you can do full-time or maybe one or two days a week? Have you been an employee for a while and, if so, have you had great reviews? It's also important to ask yourself the reason why you'd like to work remotely. Is it because your babysitter quit, and you want to work from home so you can oversee the children? Is it because you hate the commute? Or is it truly because you feel you'd work as efficiently at home as you do at the office?

Once you've done the reality check, before you approach your boss, perform the following steps.

Do your research. You can start by contacting your Human Resource department and asking whether there is a policy for teleworking or whether anyone else is currently working remotely. Unofficially, see what you can dig up about others who may be working remotely, even if they're in another department or division. Having knowledge of others, their circumstances and rules, will help you to justify your need. Also, don't be afraid to casually find out whether others in the company are interested in teleworking. Presenting this proposal as a group may be more effective. But be careful not to appear as the rebel.

Pretend you're the boss. Put yourself in your boss's position. Try to imagine what he might say or ask you when you approach him with a telework idea. Have solutions ready to comments such as "If I do this for you, I'm going to have to do it for others." Remember, not everyone wants to telework. Some parents like to work away from home; it gives them a break from the kids. Others may be social creatures and dislike being home alone. Still, others may prefer face-to-face interaction and are uncomfortable not being on site. And one more important fact: Not all jobs can be done remotely. So just because your boss lets you work remotely doesn't mean that everyone in his department will want or be able to do the same.

Present a proposal in writing. To show your boss that you're serious, go to him with a written proposal. Outline the details of your proposed arrangement (days, hours, and such). Detail how you will handle different aspects of your job. For example, you can either dial in or come in for weekly department meeting. Mention that you'd be available to participate in any meetings where face-to-face interaction is important, even if it's on your day to work from home. If you have small kids, state that you have child care available. You want your boss to know that this isn't something you decided to do on a whim, but that it's important enough that you took the time to treat it as a project.

Be positive. Make sure that in your written and oral communications with your boss that you state the positive angle and the benefits derived (both to you and the company). Rather than saying, "My commute is difficult," you can say, "By not having to spend an hour commuting each way, I will have more time to devote to my work and will be more focused."

Offer a trial period. Unless there is already pervasive teleworking in your company, your boss will most likely be nervous about your proposal. So put his mind at ease by suggesting a trial period during which both you and your boss can measure the effectiveness of your telecommute arrangement. This period is negotiable based on how new you are to the organization and how comfortable your boss is with you.

Remote Control

As the boss, you've decided to let certain staff members work remotely. So how do you best manage remote workers, and are you right for the job? Just as teleworking is not a good fit for everyone, not every manager is well suited to manage remote workers. A good teleworker manager possesses certain important key qualities, including confidence in and knowledge about his responsibilities, the ability to measure and evaluate performance based on results or accomplishments, trust in the remote worker's integrity and knowledge, the ability to clearly spell out goals and expectations for the remote worker, and having an open-office policy (including phone and e-mail). In other words, a good teleworker manager is at ease managing remote workers and doesn't second-guess the worker's integrity or work efforts. And if you're a micromanager, forget it. You couldn't manage remote teams effectively for long. Following these guidelines will help you manage your remote staff more effectively.

Hire correctly. As a manager, it's important that you pay attention to the characteristics that make an employee suitable for remote work. You can use the list in Part 1 of this article (July 2007, article ID 20954 at SystemiNetwork.com) to help with new hires. For existing employees, the same rules apply, although you have the advantage of knowing whether or not they fit the bill. So go through your list as though you were considering hiring them and assess how they fare. And it's okay to say a "qualified" no.

Set goals/expectations. It's important to help the remote worker set personal goals and see how those will help to achieve team goals. In other words, it's important that the teleworker has knowledge about and an understanding of interdependencies between his tasks and other's. This is where you can define project deliverables, hours of work, availability, access, and office meetings. By setting goals, I'm not referring to annual ones that go toward reviews and help determine merit increases or bonuses. I refer to more frequent goals or milestones. Be careful not to overmanage in this area. A good remote worker will not respond well if he feels he's micromanaged. At the same time, it's important that periodic goals (e.g., weekly, bi-weekly, monthly) are clearly agreed to between worker and manager. Make your expectations crystal clear. You don't have the casual opportunities to refine these with absent workers.

Document everything. Most companies have an employee handbook outlining their business rules. But rules about virtual work are normally not addressed. This might be unintentional, as working out of the office has not been as pervasive or accepted as it is today. Or it could be intentional, because most employers are still uncomfortable with the idea. Regardless of the reason, given the absence of formal corporate documentation, it's important that you put everything in writing (more about this in a moment). Even if there are published corporate policies for remote workers, you may have made special arrangements or have details that aren't covered by generic policy statements. The original document that defines your agreement with the employee is more or less your contract with him. So make sure that if the rules change, you go back and adjust your agreement accordingly.

Define metrics. As managers, we tend to be lax about defining metrics by which to measure employee performance or contributions. An objective assessment is part of every employee's evaluation. But often the manager uses his own judgment to assess how well an employee has performed. Many things are easy to define and measure, such as timely delivery of status reports, attendance and participation in meetings, and completing project tasks on time and within budget. Defining metrics for performance evaluation is even more important for a virtual worker because you don't have as much of an opportunity to observe things firsthand. Also, given that the remote worker often feels a little left out, he has a greater need to be evaluated based on objective criteria. Both manager and employee will be more comfortable knowing which metrics will be used to measure performance.

Assess progress. Since you don't have as much casual interaction to check on a remote worker's progress, you must use other means. Although many managers ask their employees for weekly status reports, most managers don't follow through to make sure the reports are submitted, let alone read them. In my early years as a manager, I was guilty of this. This practice is an even bigger mistake when it comes to remote workers. A weekly status report may be their only communication of progress with you, given the absence of casual interaction.

Years later, I adopted a different approach in managing remote staff. I held a weekly team call and weekly one-on-one meetings with each of my direct reports. The team calls were an ideal medium for group interaction and the feeling of inclusion, but they also provided the opportunity for cross-learning and idea generation. The one-on-one meetings were helpful in giving the employee personal attention and checking on his progress or listening to his issues and concerns. I found the calls a much more effective use of time than the written reports were. Checking on status is great. But make sure that the outcome of your progress check is clearly communicated to the remote worker, particularly if you have tasks for him to accomplish.

Provide feedback. Providing feedback to remote employees is even more important than giving it to office workers. Remote workers don't always read your face to note your smile when you discuss their project. They have only your verbal cues if you talk on the phone. And as we know, e-mail can be grossly misinterpreted. So be very clear, and don't insert humor when you provide feedback to remote staff. In addition to providing ad hoc feedback following a task being completed or a recent win, I offered a more formal feedback session once a quarter. The quarterly sessions were conducted face to face, and I usually made it a point to go to the employee rather than the other way around. By doing so (meeting him at a local coffee bar or restaurant), you offer a strong message of acceptance of his alternative work arrangement.

Manage on results. If you've defined the metrics, it should be fairly easy to manage on results. You don't need to breathe down a remote worker's neck to make sure he's perfect each day. You don't do that with office workers. Give remote workers the breathing room they need. After all, we all have good and bad days. Measuring on results should be done for key milestones rather than for daily tasks completed. It is particularly important to measure results of individual contributions as well as those of the team. Although the remote worker may have completed his tasks on time for a given milestone, he may have hindered other's performance by always finishing his work at the eleventh hour or by not having communicated important facts to his team members.

Telework Agreement

Whether it's corporate policy or a one-off arrangement, if you have a teleworker onboard, it's a good idea to have the rules spelled out clearly in an agreement. That way, there's less room for misunderstandings. Make sure your agreement includes the following.

Standard business rules. Although you may think that the company rules are obvious, employees sometimes interpret certain company rules for their remote work environment differently. So make sure you state that all standard business rules apply, including access and availability, among other things. Don't take this for granted.

Business hours. Specify the days the teleworker can work remotely. If the employee has to keep the same hours as the company's regular business hours, specify that. If you have alternative work hours, make sure that's listed. Also state whether the employee is allowed to work more or less than his regular hours. For instance, if you have an hourly employee, you may not want him to work more than eight hours when off site.

Equipment. A remote worker may need a phone, computer, printer, fax machine, modem, and other equipment, depending on his job function. If your company gives employees a laptop, you may want to state that the employee must use it when working remotely. If no laptop is provided, then you should outline certain equipment configurations. You don't want the employee to use a 10-year-old desktop that takes forever to navigate from one page to the next. You should also define whether VPN access will be provided or how the employee is allowed to access your environment and what security software is required. Speed of Internet service should also be specified. Most companies required high-speed access available at a home office. Regarding the telephone, you need to specify that the employee must have one free phone line available for calls. In other words, they can't use their only phone line if dialing in. If, however, they have a mobile phone, that would be fine. Here, it's important that you specify who will incur the charges for any hardware, security, Internet service, and telephone expenses. These rules vary depending on whether the remote employee always works from home or is a road warrior.

Security. In addition to specifying security measures you require when using a remote connection to your computer systems, you may want to outline other security measures such as keeping company documents and information confidential. Depending on the level of security needed, you can even specify whether work-related documents are required to be locked away in the home office at the end of the business day, or whether sensitive documents should be shredded rather than thrown in the recycling bin.

Insurance. Equipment provided by the company is normally covered by the company's insurance. The employee should provide his own insurance for any equipment he uses to work remotely.

Work space and taxes. Companies rarely pay for any space or real estate configurations required to provide a suitable work environment for remote workers (referring to home office). So it's important to state that any such expenses are nonreimbursable by the company. It's also important to state that any tax implications resulting from the use of a home office are governed by standard local, state, or federal rules and are not the responsibility of the company.

Reimbursable expenses. Be sure you specify which, if any, of the incurred expenses the company is willing to cover. This may include mobile phone, laptop, extra phone line, fax, and Internet access.

Workers' compensation. An employee may be covered under the company's workers' compensation plan when and if he is an official remote worker. However, the insurance may cover the employee only in a specific work area (such as den office) rather than throughout the entire home. If employees work in and out of hotels, confirm whether your company's workers' compensation covers them during those times as well as during official business travel.

Eligibility. To avoid the appearance of favoritism, you can specify eligibility requirements such as certain job types, distance from home, and meeting certain performance standards. In other words, if an employee is on probation, he won't be allowed to work away from the office. But this may extend to employees who are, according to the company's scale, considered to be average or subpar performers. You may require that the employee be with the company for a certain period before you'd allow him to telecommute. Eligibility may also be based on whether the employee is full-time or part-time.

Termination. If your company views telework as a privilege rather than a right, it's important to state that this agreement and the telework arrangement can be terminated at the discretion of company management at any time and for any reason. If it's standard policy, then state whether termination will be communicated in writing and how much notice will be given to the employee.

Telework on the Rise

Market dynamics have shifted dramatically since the Internet became an integral part of our lives. Employees who answer calls or process customer orders no longer need to be in a physical office. In addition to electronic marketplaces, we have electronic communities — web gathering points where people go to get answers to questions or to learn more about a product or even a person. We've expanded our use of electronic workplaces, offering employee self-support portals, encouraging them to refer to these electronic filing cabinets to look up information about customers and company performance or benefits, reserving the personal contact for inquiries that aren't posted or must be dealt with in person. We encourage customers to shop or check on their order status via self-service portals before making personal contact with us. So why not let our workers do their jobs remotely, at least part of the time? After all, the e-office is the premier place where knowledge workers can work efficiently — perhaps even more efficiently than they can in a physical office.

Teleworking is becoming more commonplace each day. More companies embrace it not just as a means to help improve staff recruitment and retention but also to save money. Teleworking is becoming so popular that architectural firms propose office spaces to be designed to allow more informal networking, using larger shared spaces with low walls rather than the traditional tall cubicles that separate employees. Given today's challenges and social pressures, offering telework to employees gives them a much-needed mental break. That in turns renders them as happier and more relaxed people — at home and in the office.

Nahid Jilovec is a System iNEWS technical editor who has been in information systems consulting for more than 25 years in a wide range of industries with a focus on e-commerce. You can e-mail Nahid at nahid_jilovec@hotmail.com [2].