Advice to those Seeking Telecommuting Jobs

Relative to the type of person that you are, telecommuting can provide a new and positive type of working environment, or can be a difficult transition from the typical working environment. Either way, it is imperative that each employee understand the pros and cons of telecommuting to determine your ability to be productive under such circumstances.

It is no surprise that the commute to work can add an enormous amount of stress to your life even before your work day begins. This type of stress can hinder your productivity at work as precious energy is exerted towards a timely commute. Telecommuting can rid the time and energy you spend on traveling to work completely, allowing you to either get extra time to rest, or begin your day at work earlier. Other benefits of telecommuting revolve around having a more flexible schedule which may be necessary for you depending on your own personal situation, such as supporting and providing for a family. Telecommuting is therefore beneficial in providing a more balanced work and personal life since you are not restrained to a particular place, providing you with more comfort to work in the manner that best suites you.
Although telecommuting seems to have many benefits, for some, it can provide a less comfortable environment. The lack of structure and direct communication with colleagues can be isolating. Telecommuting can make it much more difficult to collaborate with team members or discuss particular issues with managers or executives. This can make one feel less a part of the team and may contribute to their lack of enthusiasm for team projects and assignments.
Telecommuting can therefore be either a positive or negative addition to ones working environment. The key is to identify which position you are most likely to be most productive in relative to the importance of particular working environment traits. Check listing the most important aspects of your working environment may help you identify whether or not telecommuting is beneficial to you.

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Telecommuting grows as companies cut office costs

Laura McNutt.

Work-at-home employers

Chattanooga's biggest users of telecommute employees include:

• BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, 1,000 workers.

• Unum Corp., more than 1,000 workers nationwide, including 409 in Chattanooga

• Cigna Corp., 700 in the Chattanooga area.

Telework advantages

• Cuts office and parking expenses for employers

• Cuts travel time and expenses for employees

• Cuts energy use, pollution and traffic congestion for community

Telework disadvantages

• Limits personal relationships among workers

• Less direct, line-of-sight management, coaching by employers

• Limits demand for and construction of offices, stores and roads

Heather Bridgeman lives nearly 20 miles from the downtown headquarters of BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, but the BlueCross customer service expert still walks to her job every day.

The daily commute for Bridgeman involves walking upstairs to the office she set up in her husband's former "man cave." Using a BlueCross telephone, computer and desk, she talks with customers, health care providers and other BlueCross employees without ever leaving her residence.

"I'm a people person so at first I wondered if I would miss going downtown and working beside my colleagues," said Bridgeman, who began working at BlueCross five years ago and shifted her workspace from the Cameron Hill corporate campus to her Hixson home two years ago. "But I quickly found out I'm able to communicate with others via computer or the telephone just as much as when I was in the office all the time. I really think my productivity has improved, and it's also nice to avoid the drive back and forth to work every day."

In just five years, the Tennessee BlueCross plan has shifted one of every six workers to such work-at-home jobs. Other Chattanooga insurers, including Unum and Cigna, employ more than 10 percent of their workers in telecommuting jobs.

Across Tennessee, a new study estimates 489,000 adults worked from home instead of commuting to work last year, two and a half times more than just four years ago. Connected Tennessee, a statewide advocacy group for broadband Internet services, said the number of telecommuting workers could more than double again if broadband connections are improved and more companies allow their employees to work at home.

According to statewide surveys by Connected Tennessee, nearly 1.2 million Tennesseans, or 44 percent of employed Tennesseans, said they would be willing to work at home if given the opportunity by their employers. An additional 586,000 Tennessee adults who do not currently work say they would be willing to do so if they were allowed to telework.

"We continue to see significant growth in telecommute jobs, but there is potential for far more, especially in rural areas where many higher-paying jobs were not available in the past," said Corey Johns, executive director for Connected Tennessee.

Overall, Tennessee is slightly below the U.S. average in the share of telecommuting workers in the Volunteer State. But Johns said Chattanooga's gigabit-per-second Internet speeds via EPB fiber optics open up more jobs such as tele-medicine to those wanting to work from home.

"While some Tennesseans may only take advantage of limited telework opportunities merely requiring basic broadband speeds, Chattanooga clearly has access to the full spectrum of telework opportunities and that is certainly a competitive advantage for those working to advance local economic development," he said.

Connected Tennessee's study found that a typical Nashville telecommuter saves $2,300 a year in transportation expenses and cuts his or her carbon footprint by 9,500 pounds of carbon dioxide a year by working from home.

"There are clear economic, market and environmental advantages in promoting telecommuting," Johns said.

Homework PITS and Potential

Working at home is clearly not for everyone. Most jobs require workers to serve customers in hospitality or store settings or to produce products or to raise crops at designated work sites.

BlueCross and other employers promoting telecommuting in Chattanooga also say they screen workers picked for at-home jobs to ensure they are self-starters and work effectively on their own.

Global Workplace Analytics, formerly the Telework Research Network, estimates that less than 2 percent of U.S. employees work from home the majority of the time, excluding self-employed workers.

But the trade group for telecommute workers estimates 40 percent of employees hold jobs that are compatible with telecommuting.

Working at home could reduce the demand for new offices, stores and highway additions. But Global Workplace Analytics estimates the savings would more than offset the reduced demand for new construction.

If workers who could work from home spent just half of their work time telecommuting from their residences, experts project they and their employers and communities would save up to $650 billion a year in energy, road, car, office and other expenses.

Forrester Research recently projected that 63 million U.S. workers will telecommute at least part-time by 2016, up from about 46 million today.

"We're well on our way to hitting that mark," T.J. Keitt, a senior analyst with Forrester, said in a recent report. "To cope with a more mobile workforce, many organizations have bolstered deployments of laptop computers, smartphones, and collaboration software."

Office space savings

Jeff Wakefield, a human resources director at BlueCross, said the insurer began offering employees the chance to work at home when the company consolidated its Chattanooga staff, once housed in a dozen office building around Chattanooga, into its $300 million corporate campus on Cameron Hill in 2008.

"Initially, we wanted to reduce the footprint of the number of people housed here at Cameron Hill because we simply didn't have enough room for everybody," he said. "We've found over time that having telecommute workers has also helped us to be able to maintain services during inclement weather and to reduce our carbon footprint by reducing the amount of travel by our employees."

Last month, the Chattanooga-based BlueCross added its 1,000th telecommute employee.

"We reached that milestone much earlier than I had anticipated, but these work-at-home programs have really worked out very well," Wakefield said.

Despite initial concerns about the lack of "line of sight" management of telecommute workers, technology allows managers to evaluate performance and communicate regularly with workers no matter where they are stationed.

Distant work

BlueCross workers are in homes in 20 states as far away as Alaska and California.

Karen Eilers helps coach, train and oversee other BlueCross customer service specialists from her home in Panama City, Fla.

The technical team leader joined BlueCross in 2006 and initially thought she would never want to work away from the company's home office in Chattanooga.

But when her father-in-law died and her husband had to take over the Florida business, she discovered a major advantage of telecommuting. From her Panama City home more than 400 miles away from BlueCross' headquarters, Eilers is able to teach and review work by other Unum employees via shared computer screens, instant messaging, telephone calls and other electronic connections.

"It was really a great transition and by working at home myself I think I am better able to understand the concerns of other telecommuters," she said. "It's been a real godsend for me."

Unum Corp., and its predecessor, Provident Life and Accident Insurance Co., have used telecommuting workers for the past decade. Company spokeswoman M.C. Guenther said more than 1,000 Unum employees now work primarily from home, including 409 in Chattanooga.

Traci Wilson, a Unum customer service representative who lives near Red Bank, says she took advantage of the at-home work option six years ago and appreciates the chance to spend more time at home with her two children.

Her daily commute to work is only 20 feet to a first-floor office in her home.

"With my work schedule, I can get dinner or the laundry started during my breaks and I don't have to spend any time getting back and forth to work," she said.

http://timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jul/08/home-is-where-the-work-is-telecommuting-grows-as/

How to tell when telecommuting won't work for you

By Lea Green

Published July 05, 2012

Teleworking seems like a no-brainer. It can save businesses billions of dollars in travel costs and office expenses while significantly cutting environmental emissions and paper consumption.

Yet even though the ranks of pajama-wearing keyboard jockeys are growing, the share of the U.S. workforce that telecommutes is still less than 3 percent. What will it take to get more businesses to embrace remote working? One key is to acknowledge that while telecommuting is great for the planet, it's not for everyone -- and knowing how to evaluate who's a good candidate for working remotely and who's not can be crucial to the success of a business's telecommuting strategy.

The green benefits of teleworking are undisputed: cleaner air, lower operating costs, and increased efficiency, for starters. Assuming a 40-mile roundtrip commute, each employee allowed to work from home saves the company -- and the planet -- 40,000 pounds of CO₂ emissions annually. And that's just for one day telecommuting per week.

Plus, businesses save an average of $20,000 annually for each full-time remote employee, data from The Telework Coalition shows. And many states offer incentive programs, like the Georgia Clean Air Campaign , that provide resources and funding to help develop a telecommuting policy. Employees who work at home don’t require duplicate office equipment, such as landline phones (though a smartphone is a “must have” as a telecommuter), fax machines, chairs and other office equipment that would likely wind up in landfills. Telecommuters also tend to use less paper by saving files digitally and in the cloud, thus reducing storage space, the need for larger office or storage buildings and, of course, trees.

And yet, only 2.9 million employees work from home more than half the time(not including the self-employed). Meanwhile, 40 percent of U.S. employees (approximately 50 million) hold jobs that that could be done while teleworking.

Many businesses remain skeptical about allowing their employees to telecommute. Some employers -- adhering to old-school office models -- expect employees to punch in at 9, do their work under watchful supervision, and punch out at 5, just as they themselves did back in the day. Some believe unless an employee is closely monitored, he or she will goof off.  Such thinking is not only outdated but refuted by current statistics on telecommuter productivity . Others cite fears about security breaches, although the most common concerns are easily resolvable .

Nevertheless, not all employee positions are suitable for teleworking; even those employees who can do their work from home are sometimes better offnot doing so. Employers and employees must negotiate to determine when telecommuting is mutually beneficial. Here are a few considerations that should be taken into account:

When to say no

The employee’s job simply can’t be done from home: When the equipment necessary to an employee’s job duties can’t easily be relocated off-site, teleworking is not an option. The same holds true for those who work with specialized machinery or highly sensitive data. Until technology provides concrete solutions to restrictions such as these, some employees must do their work on-site.

The employee needs a structured environment: Working from home requires an innate ability to focus, remain on track, and be productive in isolation. Research has shown that not everyone is suited for telecommuting due to individual personality types and motivators. Some employees perform best within the structure and familiarity of the office milieu. Others thrive on physical interaction with and feedback from supervisors and team members. When deciding who should and shouldn’t telecommute, managers must assess their employees’ strengths and weaknesses and be familiar with their work habits and motivations.

The employee lacks suitable teleworking tools: Accessibility is a must for a teleworker. Unless an employee is equipped with a reliable computer, up-to-date software, and suitable communication technology—such as a smartphone, laptop, email, IM, and conferencing tools like iMeet and GlobalMeet —productivity as well as fluid and timely interactions with office colleagues will be compromised. Management must decide if the budget will allow upgrading an employee’s home office so that it complies with company standards. If the employee lacks the tools—and the company is unable or unwilling to provide them—teleworking should not be considered because the success of the employee will be undoubtedly compromised.

When to say yes

The employee’s performance is not location-dependent: While some professional positions are not well-suited for teleworking, others are . Armed with the right technology, an employee whose job duties can be performed on- or off-site equally can become an effective teleworker. In fact, management might find it advantageous to let him or her work remotely. Not only does the company and the environment benefit by supporting telework, employees who work off-site are typically more productive and professionally satisfied when freed from the incessant distractions, interruptions, and politics of the office.

The employee is self-motivated and productive: Some of the qualities that mark a successful in-office employee (punctuality, dependability, productivity, attention to detail—to name a few) often suggest that he or she will also do well working from home. Employees who are self-starters, who manage their time well and meet deadlines consistently, who require minimal supervision to complete their tasks, and who are capable of effectively communicating with coworkers electronically are well-suited to working re motely. Factor in the benefits commonly associated with teleworking, and both employer and employee might find that teleworking is the best all-around choice.

The employee has compatible tools: Technology has provided us with devices that are simple, personal, and mobile. The right hardware, software, and communication tools enable telecommuters to do their work fluidly and maintain team relationships from anywhere, at any time. Feelings of isolation or marginalization can be mitigated by keeping in touch with colleagues via phone or email and by attending meetings with videoconferencing tools such as iMeet. While it isn’t necessary or practical for a home office to be equipped with state-of-the-art printers, scanners, and fax machines, it is crucial that the employee have tools that are right for the job and compatible with current office equipment.

Should your company consider telework? Maybe, maybe not. It makes good business sense to allow select employees to telecommute, however. Managers who are uncertain of the risks and benefits might try letting employees work from home one day a week; in time—once a successful routine has bolstered trust—employer and employee can discuss a regular practice. The fact is that telecommuting is here to stay. The advantages are many, and the practitioners are growing in number every day. My advice? Give telework a try. You’ll find that the benefits to your company, your employees, and the planet merit a leap of faith.

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2012/07/05/how-tell-when-telecommuting-wont-work-you

4 things not to do when you work from home

(MoneyWatch) COMMENTARY Lots of people work from home. According to the most recent American Time Use Survey, 21% of people do some or all of their work at home on the days they work. Of course, not all that time is used well. According to a recent study by Wakefield Research and Citrix, 43% of workers say they've watched TV or a movie while working remotely.

TV seems like an obvious no-no, but here are some other things people do when working from home that I think are big mistakes.

1. Work 100 hours a week. Yes, it's theoretically possible if you don't have to haul yourself anywhere to work all the time. Indeed, the only time log I've ever seen featuring a 100-hour workweek involved a self-employed person who worked from home (and yes, I've seen time logs from employees at major banks, consulting companies, law firms, etc.). Just because you can sit at your computer all day doesn't mean you should. Get out. Make friends. You'll be more productive and you'll be a better person if you actually have a life.

2. Laundry. Sure, you could throw in a load during a break, and fold it while you're on a conference call, but there are two problems here. One, if you have to pay so little attention during the conference call that you can do something else, why are you on that call? And two, you don't want to establish the assumption, in your family, that you should do the chores because you're at home. You're working. Unless other family members report to the office with a pile of shirts and an ironing board to get in a little ironing during meetings, you shouldn't do it either. If you want to do something to take a break, take a real break. Go outside. Go for a walk.

3. Skimp on childcare. Working from home is great if you have a childcare emergency. Many parents also find that they can build kid-time into a work-from-home schedule (I tend not to schedule calls at noon because that's when I eat lunch with my children). But that's a far cry from trying to work without childcare, or with minimal help. Sending emails furtively while you're "playing" with your kids on the playground isn't fair to the kids. Paying for high-quality childcare is an investment in your career, and being truly present when you're with your kids shows that you think they're important.

4. Dive straight from work to life. Commutes are awful, but they serve a purpose. They give you a break between the demands of your career and the demands of your family. They help you transition from one mindset to another. If you work from home, give yourself 10 minutes to decompress at the end of the day before emerging from your office.

What will you do -- and won't you do -- when you work from home?

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505125_162-57465326/4-things-not-to-do-when-you-work-from-home/

Tools that Make Telecommuting Easier

Telecommunications is an important part of any marketing company. Even for those working from home, it’s the backbone of most marketing plans mainly because the conversion rate of telecommunications are much higher than all other types of person to person advertising.

This sounds great, so why isn’t everyone doing it?

The problem is that this process can become quite complicated and expensive. If not managed properly, it can be downright overwhelming. Fortunately, there are a ton of inexpensive tools that can be used to make life much easier. Here are a few of the best:

Clearview Telecom Expense Management Software

Let’s face it, money is the most important factor of any business. The problem many new entrepreneurs have is keeping track of expenses – especially when it comes to telecommunications . That’s the reason they afraid to tap into this powerful form of marketing. Clearview Telecom Expense Management Software makes this process very easy. This software can take care away the headache of transitioning into telecom applications. The features include:

• Built and priced for all size businesses, not just for high end companies.
• Accessible from anywhere.
• Telecommunication expense reporting.

Vendor Management System

Vendor Management System  is like the above tool in that it offers expense management. However, it goes a step further and doesn’t limit users to just telecommunications. This system can be adapted to manage most aspects of a business, making it the most powerful tool in the industry.

Accessories

Okay, so this isn’t exactly one tool. Nevertheless, having the right accessories makes telecommuting much easier. An example of an accessory that makes telecommuting better is a headset. They give a higher call quality and–let’s face it–are much better than holding a phone to your ear!

A Bluetooth is another great accessory for the same reason.

Everyone uses Skype – or almost everyone. Either way, Skype provides several free tools and several inexpensive upgrades that can be utilized to meet the requirements of those providing services from their home. Skype offers online numbers for very inexpensive rates.

Contract Logix – Last but not least, we come to Contract Logix. They specialize in storing contact information and provide a very affordable option for those trying to keep their budget to a minimum.

The idea is to find telecommunications tools that make life easier. They don’t have to be fancy or expensive. In fact, most businesses will find the lower end tools much better suited to fit their needs.

http://eco-officegals.com/2012/06/28/5-tools-that-make-telecommuting-easier/

Here’s the quickest least expensive way to cut traffic congestion

Don McKee

slideshow

Millions are being spent on promoting the proposed one percent area sales tax for economic development, transportation projects and various amenities ranging from parks to sidewalks, while a faster, less costly way to relieve traffic is being short-changed.

The TSPLOST/TIA will not do much to unclog traffic anytime soon, if ever. That’s clear despite claims by supporters of the tax plan. The focus is on moving people instead of riding the technology wave in our changing work culture.

This is the time to be educating and encouraging employers and employees to enter the teleworking and telecommuting world. Wholesale commuting via autos, buses and trains should be giving way to the far less expensive and much more efficient option of working from home or remote sites that do not require commuting, i.e., sitting in traffic, burning gasoline, polluting the air, enduring stress, etc.

Atlanta already is a leader in telework with Microsoft last year recognizing our capital as the nation’s “friendliest city for telework.” Information workers in this metro area were doing their jobs remotely five days a week per month — one day better than the national average. Atlanta had “the highest support levels from colleagues and the highest use of secure internal social networking tools to collaborate with customers.”

Georgia took a leap forward back in 2007 when it became the first state to offer telework tax credits to businesses. That helped push the number of Georgia teleworkers up by 35 percent in three years, reaching about 600,000 in 2010, the Telework Research Network reports. Currently, 20 million to 30 million Americans work from home at least one day a week, not including the self-employed. It’s the trend, the future of work for many more millions that no longer need to sit at a desk in an office in a high-rise building far from their homes.

Fully 40 percent of workers in this country have jobs that could be done at home, according to a study (Matthews and Williams) – 50 million workers that could be off the highways and streets, saving gas, money, time, air quality and more. Telework said 61 percent of all federal employees “are considered eligible for telework,” but only 5.2 percent do so regularly. 

More frequent telecommuting is already the second option of choice for employers dealing with higher gasoline prices. Thirty-three percent use that option, second to increased car-pooling, the choice of 46 percent of employers. 

“Companies are offering telecommuting as a way to give employees more flexible schedules and in some cases make up for not offering bigger raises, but also to curb office space expenses,” Telework Research’s Kate Lister told SecondAct.com. 

“The ongoing rise of telework reflects the new realities of today’s mobile information age,” said Ron Markezich, corporate vice president, Microsoft U.S. Enterprise and Partner Group. “Telework is no longer a company perk for employees but a business imperative,” he said. 

It’s time to focus on the quickest, least expensive way to cut traffic congestion – without raising taxes. 

dmckee9613@aol.com

1 in 5 Minnesota Workers Teleworks

1 in 5 Minnesota Workers Teleworks

via Blandin on Broadband by Ann Treacy on 6/18/12

Last week, Connect Minnesota released a report on telework in Minnesota. I’m a little slow on the uptake reading it because ironically, I have bene travelling to my annual summer exodus to Ireland. So I am acutely aware of the benefits of telework. To cut to the quick numbers…
According to Connect Minnesota’s 2011 Residential Technology Assessment, 22% of Minnesota adults who are employed fulltime or part-time say that they work from home, or telework.

The report paints a picture of folks who currently telework…
There is no significant difference between the share of men and women who telework in Minnesota. The same is true for employed men and women in Minnesota who do not telework. Teleworkers do tend to be younger, though, as a larger share of the non-teleworking workforce is age 45 or older. Teleworkers also tend to have higher education and higher annual incomes, with over one-half of teleworkers (51%) earning $75,000 or more (compared to only 28% of employed Minnesotans who do not telework). More than one in four employed Minnesotans who do not telework (26%) live in rural counties, compared to only 16% of teleworkers. In addition, many parents in Minnesota are using teleworking as a way to balance their work and home lives, as over one-half of teleworkers (54%) report having children at home, compared to only 42% of employees who do not telework. This means that approximately 310,000 employed Minnesota parents are able to spend more time at home, promoting job satisfaction and decreasing the amount of time they have to spend driving back and forth to work.
The report highlights some of the community benefits of telework…

• Nearly one-quarter of Minnesota teleworkers (23%) say they telework every day, rather than commute to and from work. On average, Minnesota teleworkers say they work from home 1.6 days per week (or 80 days per year).
• The average teleworker in Minnesota saves approximately 1,934 miles per year on their commute, the equivalent of a road trip from Minneapolis, MN to Los Angeles, CA.
• Each teleworker saves an average of $343.16 on car maintenance and prevents 1,411 pounds of CO2 emissions entering the atmosphere. Across the state, this equals nearly $196 million saved and 804 million fewer  pounds of CO2 emission.

It’s great to have the facts and figures behind telework but I wanted to couple it with some of the recent stories we’ve posted on the blog about the benefits of teleworking. One story we haven’t posted is the my own story. I’m in Ireland. I’ll be here for 6 weeks. I suspect that had I not mentioned it, few would know the difference. I’ve been doing this sort of travel for a number of years (5?) and at this point, I won’t even bother to tell half of my clients. I don’t move for work – but I can move because of my work. It gives my husband a chance to “live back home” for a while and my kids the chance to know the Irish side of their family. The only requirement? I must have broadband.
Then I think of Dick Sjoberg at the last Broadband Task Force talking about the need for skilled workers in Northern Minnesota. He mentioned that Impact 20/20 had been trying to persuade skilled employees to move to the area (which is beautiful) but found that the north woods is not for everyone. They realized that they don’t need the people necessarily, they just need the skills and often those skills can be shared online. They are now looking into options that would encourage local employers to look into telework for staff based in other locations, such as the Twin Cities.
The flip side of that coin is Fergus Falls. They  are striving to make telework part of their tapestry by encouraging local businesses to hire teleworkers, to encourage local workers to build telework-friendly skills but also by promoting themselves as a mecca for telework options. Fergus Falls has created a local telework center, they have been deploying broadband infrastructure in the area and they have actively advertised their area in and out of the state. They have found at least one company to move to the area because of the telework options and have seen much more interest in the area because of the focus.
Telework could be a way for a rural community to attract the Brain Gain demographic that is looking to move from metro to rural areas – but generally does not move for a job. They move for quality of life – but consider the possible attraction if you as a community could offer good schools, safe streets, beautiful natural surroundings and access to good jobs. It seems like a reputation worth pursuing both at the community and state level.