Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization (Part 4: What Makes a Good Telework Manager?)

Welcome to Part 4 of our 13 part audio series on Flexible Work and Telecommuting –  Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization“.

Most organizations feel one of the biggest challenges they face when implementing a telework program is dealing with remote management.  It’s unfortunate that many organizations let this perception stop them from reaping the benefits from telecommuting and a more flexible workplace.

Remote management is not radically different from managing people on-site: it requires the performance of basic management skills such as goal setting, assessing progress, giving regular feedback, and maintaining frequent, ongoing communication. However, while telecommuting and mobile work provide tremendous benefits to any organization, leading remote employees and managing dispersed teams have some unique challenges.

The difference is a shift in management style and the use of appropriate technology. The whole organization benefits through adjustments like learning to manage by results rather than activity, and by focusing on improving communication and nurturing trust between managers and employees. Instead of seeing this as an obstacle, view this as an opportunity to improve management in your company. Most organizations that have implemented telecommuting have found this to be an unexpected benefit of the process.

In part 4 of our podcast, our panel will explore what  qualities and best practices are needed for managing remote  employees.

So listen in to Part 4: What Makes a Good Telework Manager?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:43 — 6.2MB)

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Our workshop – “The Art of Virtual Leadership” is focused on helping managers learn to lead distributed or virtual teams and better manage remote employees.  Click here for more information.

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Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization (Part 3: What to Look for in a Telework Candidate?)

Welcome to Part 3 of our 13 part audio series on Flexible Work and Telecommuting –  Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization“.

If you are thinking about rolling out a telework program in your organization one question that is significant to ask is: who in our organization should telecommute? Not every person or every job is a good fit for telecommuting.  In last weeks episode (Part 2) we took a look at what job types were right for remote work. This week we discuss who makes a good telework candidate.

Aside from job tasks themselves – it’s important to pick people in your company that are most suited for working from home or outside the office. You will want to choose the employees who have the highest chance for success while you work out the details and get comfortable with telecommuting as as work option, especially in the early stages of your program.  Over time your choice of employees will expand as you learn how to handle  obstacles, develop more procedures, have more support in place, and learn to better use your technology. Training and employee development can help those that might need more “hands-on” management become better equipped for telework.

In part 3 of our podcast, our panel will look at the type of people and work habits that make the best telecommuters.

So listen in to Part 3: What to Look for in a Telework Candidate?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:46 — 5.3MB)

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Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization (Part 2: What Jobs are right for Telework or Remote Work?)

Welcome to Part 2 of our 13 part audio series on Flexible Work and Telecommuting –  Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization“.

So if you are launching a telework program should everyone be able to work outside the office? Think about your job and office.  If you’re like many people your work increasingly deals more with information and ideas. Although you interact with others, much of the time it is over the phone or through memos and e-mails. You probably use a desktop computer for access to information, generating reports and documents, and communicating with others. As a general guideline, all jobs that do not involve physical production, expensive specialized equipment, or extensive face-to-face customer contact can be teleworking positions. Even if your job involves a considerable amount of face-to-face meetings, you can plan your office visits around those meetings and still enjoy the benefits of a more flexible work schedule. With proper planning you’ll find that almost every job can be made more “portable” so that much of it can be done from outside the office.

Obviously not every person or job is a good fit for telecommuting. Two main things need to be considered when finding appropriate teleworkers:

1. How to select the right jobs: Are the tasks of the person’s job appropriate for telecommuting? How much of their job is, or can be, location independent.
2. How to select the right people. This is true for both managers and teleworkers. Like almost everything there are certain types of people that tend to make better remote workers than others.

In part 2 of our podcast, our panel discusses how to identify the job types that are suiteable for telework or remote work byexamining a number of different factors.

So listen in to Part 2: What Jobs are right for Telework or Remote Work?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:39 — 5.2MB)

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Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization (Part 1: Intro/Why Telework?)

I was happy to hear that Virginia Governor Timothy Kaine declared today (Monday, August 3rd) as Telework Day for the State of Virginia. Although this started as a statewide effort to “green” Virginia and reduce energy consumption and efficiency – many are adopting this as a national initiative and encouraging organizations and individuals to telework from home or a remote location.

We thought this was a perfect opportunity for us to launch our 13 part audio series on Flexible Work and Telecommuting –  “Telecommuting in the 21st Century: How to Implement or Improve Virtual Teams and Flexible Work in Your Organization“.  It’s no surprise that given the hassles of air travel, rising fuel prices, and today’s economy that telecommuting is becoming even more attractive as a win/win situation for many organizations. While in no way a new practice – many companies are looking for tips and best practices for how to implement or improve telecommuting in their organization. So we are here to help!

Starting today and for the next 13 weeks we will be providing a series of audio posts from a recent teleseminar featuring a panel of experts answering some of the most pressing questions regarding implementing or improving a telework program.

The 13 weeks will cover the following topics:

• Part 1: Why Telework? A look at the reasons a company should consider offering telecommuting as an option and an overview of some of the benefits
• Part 2: What Jobs are right for Telework or Remote Work? Identify job types that are suitable for remote work.
• Part 3: What to Look for in a Telework Candidate? How to evaluate candidates for telecommuting consideration based on a number of factors.
• Part 4: What Makes a Good Telework Manager? A look at what qualities and best practices are needed for managing remote employees. Read more

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:16 — 8.5MB)

4 Ways to Make Every Day Earth Day with The Anywhere Office

While we have been preaching the environmental benefits of telecommuting and virtual teams for many, many years -today being Earth Day seemed like a good time to give you a quick rundown of some ways that the tools and strategies of The Anywhere Office® can help you go green and make every day Earth Day.

Here are 4 things you can easily do starting today to make a difference:

Eliminate or reduce the daily commute

Do you or your employees commute daily to a central office?  Consider telecommuting even a few days a week or month.  This can reduce tons of CO2 emissions annually.  Just how much?  Check out the carbon calculator at http://www.thegreenoffice.com/carboncalculator/calculator/.

SunMicrosystems Open Work program saved million in real estate and energy costs and cut carbon emissions by 29,000 tons in 2007.

If you need to access computers or documents in the office you can use a remote access service like GoToMyPC for easy remote access.

Or take a bold leap forward and go completely virtual by allowing your team or organization to work full time from their home offices. Read more

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