Dr. Suren Rodrigues Shares Three Keys to Telecommuting Success

Telecommuting, or working remotely, has been promising to emerge as the future of the workplace for almost twenty years now. The promise of lower office space costs, eliminating commute times, and improving employee morale has enticed bean-counters at businesses large and small, even as managers may fret over perceived lack of control of their geographically diverse workforce.

In that time, enough companies have taken the plunge into telecommuting to develop insights into the practice and make evaluations based on data rather than speculation. As with any trendy management technique, some companies have found resounding success in telecommuting programs, while others have had issues and setbacks. There are many lessons to be learned on both sides of the ledger.

In almost every case, both the successes and failures have rested on the company's execution in three key areas.

Communication

One of the areas of corporate operations on which technology has had the greatest impact in the modern era is communications. It's easier than ever for employees to communicate both with one another and with customers using the many modern tools at their disposal.

So, it may seem surprising that in a technology-enabled process like telecommuting, communication can be one of the greatest challenges for any company. After all, it's all this great telecommunication technology that is enabling telecommuting in the first place. You would imagine that communicating would be the one thing you wouldn't have to worry about!

In fact, the opposite is true. Although most telecommuting programs are based on terrific communications platforms, those platforms don't necessarily mimic or support the style of communication that your staff may be using when they are all in the same office together. An instant message or e-mail conveys information in a different style and can impart a different connotation, then someone delivering the same information in an informal conversation.

Many organizations that report ineffective telecommuting programs cite precisely that lack of subtle, in-person communication as one of the major failings of the system. This can be the case even when provision has been made for face-to-face communication within the telecommuting program. Many platforms, such as Slack or Skype, allow video conferencing. However, users tend to default to their own preferred communication platform when it is available, even if another mechanism could be more effective. A user who prefers email might never take advantage of the teleconferencing option if given a choice.

Streamlining communications to just a single platform, standardizes communications across the company. Mandatory meetings at fixed hours can ensure everyone a little face-time for those important conversations.

Coordination

One advantage of a fixed premises workplace is that it adopts a singular rhythm that all attendees will tend to follow. Lunch will be around the same time for everyone, meeting over morning coffee can become a ritual, and staff will tend to leave at around the same hour in the evening. This sort of routine has a tremendous impact on productivity and coordination that may not even be recognized until it is disrupted by moving some staff over to telecommuting.

Telecommuters tend to be happier than their office-bound brethren at least in part because they don't have to adapt to those subconscious office rituals. Their schedules are more flexible, and their surroundings are more familiar and comfortable. They can work in the style they find most productive, not necessarily the manner that the office has settled on.

This is one of the advantages of a telecommuting workforce, but care must be taken to provide the missing coordinating elements that may previously have been inherent. It's not necessary to do this by imposing the same sort of order on telecommuting employees as on office staff—indeed, that may be counter-productive.

Instead, project management platforms should be adopted to allow coordinating information to be widely distributed and organized. By inculcating the use of these tools in the remote workforce, it is possible to keep all of them up-to-date and on track with work projects. Managers have to focus less on directing individual team members than in ensuring that they are all working in concert with one another.

This is another place that communications platforms come into play. A preferred communication tool might not be the ideal place for storing or interacting with certain information. Email, for example, is almost always a poor platform for project updates—it is not focused exclusively on the project at hand, is not organized consistently between users, and contains a lot of distracting noise that makes it easy to miss important information. A solid collaboration platform like Basecamp or Sharepoint, combined with management guidance, can provide an alternative that keeps the entire team on the same page without having them all go to lunch at the same time every day.

Culture

The most overlooked aspect of keeping telecommuting projects on track is corporate culture. The simple fact is that some organizations do not have a culture that is well-suited to telecommuting as an option. These organizations may have poor morale, unskilled or unmotivated workforces, or rely on inherent micro-managing as a core component of their strategy. These qualities may have a negligible effect on day-to-day on-site operations, but will quickly lead to a disintegrating team and project failures if exported into a telecommuting environment.

In fact, culture is probably the most important aspect of telecommuting success. A self-motivated, engaged workforce is vital to overcoming the inherent difficulties in communication and coordination raised by telecommuting.

Culture can be a difficult thing to foster even in traditional workforces. Indeed, it is difficult to draw a single lesson on corporate culture from various telecommuting success stories. Some companies arrange monthly or annual in-person meet-ups to help telecommuters remain engaged with one another and with the larger corporate culture. Others have found ways to create an online presence that fosters the same degree of comradeship and shared experiences.

In a world where many friends commune more often via Facebook than in person, it doesn't appear impossible to maintain such delicate threads of workplace connection completely online. The challenge of finding the right way to do so for your organization will be unique, however.

Conclusion

Whatever your approach to the telecommuting world, it is becoming more and more universally accepted and expected all the time. With the expense of assembling world-class talent at an affordable cost in a specific geographic region becoming greater, businesses that find a way to make telecommuting work will have a notable strategic advantage over their competition.

Becoming a telecommuting success story is within your grasp regardless of your business. Like any good business strategy, though, it pays to plan your implementation carefully. Don't neglect the three keys of communication, coordination, and culture when your company tests the telecommuting waters!

About the author: Dr. Suren Rodrigues has made his career in telecommunications through compassionate management and a methodical approach to complex problems. Recognized as a manager that can deliver the best results, he utilizes leading industry best practices and years of hands-on experience with Telecom and OSS systems. Dr. Rodrigues holds a PhD in Science and Technology from the University of South Florida.