Telecommuting: A Cost-Effective Option for Companies
Telecommuting is a work arrangement between the employer and the employee to have the latter delivering on their employment mandate outside the work environment; often working from home or a location close to home. The employee keeps in touch with co-workers and the employer via telecommunication links such as email and the telephone without necessarily having to travel to the workplace. The employee sometimes visits the office for meetings and conferences; although it may prove unnecessary, given the many options available for distant conferencing (Doyle, 2018). Advanced technology makes telecommuting a cost effective option for companies. More business should adopt telecommuting since despite limited chances for worker collaboration, there is elevated productivity, improved retention of gifted workers and amplified morale.
Boosting Collaboration and Strengthening Customer Relationships
Initially, telecommuting boosts collaboration between distinct sectors which can assist the company improves performance in various projects including quality initiatives, customer association management and development of new product. Furthermore, telecommunication helps project teams to maintain momentum as well as making significant decisions during meetings while absent members can join the gathering via teleconference (Henke et al., 2016). Moreover, employees can utilize networked telecommuting systems to receive and send emails, share information and collaborate through various devices and virtual platforms such as videoconference hence saving time and speeding the process of decision making. A successful telecommunication system is capable of strengthening customer relationships. Through the use of call-center facilities including interactive voice response, call routing and call management, customer service teams make it easier and convenient for clients to communicate with the company. Also, agents working in the call center may use quite periods during changes to make courtesy calls to customers to update about new products (Henke et al., 2016).
Telecommuting: A Modern Approach for Organizations
In the modern world where technology is highly advanced, telecommuting is the best way for modern organizations to pursue their goals and objectives due to the numerous benefits accruing from the same. First, it is imperative to note that telecommuting contributes significantly to the betterment of corporations by promoting employee freedom, creativity, and independence while working outside the office (Abdel-Wahab, 2006). Its role in making all employees relaxed, more creative, and independent positively changes the results and the personality of organizations. For instance, while an employee is working alone at a location outside the office, their creativity, and problem-solving skills are automatically honed since mob psychology is highly eliminated in telecommuting. Research has illustrated the ascendancy of employee liberty in enhancing their output (Abdel-Wahab, 2006). Since telecommuting eliminates the physical coercion or harassment often associated with bosses in the office, employees will end up being more productive.
Improving Employee Experience and Achieving Work-Life Balance
Telecommuting has a positive influence on employee experience; which explains the gains achieved by an employee through the interaction with various career elements in an organization. This is realized through its role in improving employee motivation, happiness, engagement, and productivity. First, flexible functioning circumstances in telecommuting advance the working confidence of employees resulting into more creativity and increased output (Allen, Shockley, " Golden, 2015). Workers taking part in flexible work plans tend to be healthier; both physically and mentally. For example, a recent study by the Sloan center on elderly and work at Boston Campus in the USA among 19,000 workers from nine different corporations indicated that the level of anxiety and exhaustion were reduced in bendable operational surroundings; with inventiveness and contentment as the overriding influence (Church, 2015). Also, increased creativity helps to build on the rich customer experiences while working for the organizations.
Enhancing Flexibility and Autonomy
Another justification for the adoption of telecommuting by organizations is the elevated level of expediency and elasticity between employers and workers. Employees are relieved of moving from distant place and incurring costs to the workplace together with the conflicting needs of the family hence making them to have objective perception which entails more focus, accountability and fewer stress-related health issues (Torten, Reaiche, " Caraballo, 2016). The increased levels of flexibility and autonomy, self-reliance, and happiness develop commitment, improved performance, and productivity, thus changing the culture of organizations positively. Moreover, telecommuting helps employees to learn how to balance work and personal obligations, which builds on their experience. Increased working freedom in the working location and working hours gives the employee's substantial flexibility to manage their work and family obligations (Torten et al., 2016).
Eliminating Distractions and Increasing Motivation
Telecommuting also eliminates the distractions associated with an office space where the congestion of workers and movements may adversely impact on working. It allows working at an isolated office, either in the form of a home office or a coffee shop where the individual can access and leave at their convenience depending on the task before them (Doyle, 2018). This improves output among employees as conflicts in workplaces are avoided, with bad feelings being reported to be common among the Millennials, famously known as the Generation Y, who don't have the appetite for maintaining eye to eye contact with their colleagues. Telecommuting provides humble working environments that enable employees to build their competency and become useful units in the organizations (Madeson, 2011).
Maintaining Motivated Staff and Cost-Effectiveness
It has also been posited that telecommuting is a critical tool for the maintenance of a highly motivated staff team because it significantly eliminates the boredom and monotony associated with long hours of office stay. For instance, telecommuting allows employees to take breaks at their discretion whenever they feel exhausted, unlike in an office setting where breaks are rare and always predetermined. Moreover, telecommuting allows increased socialization and continuous socialization among employees; especially on the different social networks through their computers (Allen, Shockley, et al., 2015). As such, telecommuting eliminates the adverse effects of office setups on the morale and motivation of the employees, thus increasing the overall productivity of individual employees and the entire organization.
Financial Benefits and Increased Revenues
Besides, telecommuting provides flexible working environments that are cost effective. Organizations that embrace telecommuting save money on the purchase of office equipment. The organizations can also lease the offices and get revenue which is directed to other company expenditures since only a few offices are required for the on-site workers (Smith, Patmos, " Pitts, 2018). Telecommuting leads to improvements in employee retention as well as recruitment which are both expensive activities for organizations, which presents a benefit generation avenue for businesses. Finally, the inconveniences of employee absenteeism due to natural calamities such as heavy rains, strong fog, or storms; all of which are avoided as employees can function usually at their suitable regions in such conditions without upsetting the output of the business (Allen, Shockley, et al., 2015). Furthermore, financial losses due to reduced production as a result of uncertainties including limited working moments and power outage are avoided since workers function in the freelance surrounding that require high production always
Increasing Productivity and Success of Organizations
Additionally, telecommuting has a great impact on the success of organizations ranging from the increased productivity and creativity, cost-effectiveness, reduced employee turnover, increased employee retention, and hiking revenues for the companies. Telecommuting increases productivity in organizations through maintaining a free and highly productive team (Doyle, 2018). Flexible workers show improved creativity, independence, and self-reliance that boosts their output. Distractions present in the office environments are eliminated, thus creating humble working environments that lead to high productivity. High productivity in organizations leads to more sales which in turn generate high returns.
Reducing Employee Turnover and Improving Success
The success of organizations is based on the profit margins achieved, which are reported to be ever-rising in telecommuting working systems. Being a result-based working system demands the display of high creativity which boosts output; making the organizations successful as well. For example, a research by Global Workplace analysts, illustrated that productivity among tele-employees was 20-25% higher when contrasted against office workers within the same company (Madeson, 2011). They associated the high productivity with the freedom, happiness, and the full control of the work lives among the teleworkers as opposed to the office workers who were an office is a constrained environment with high supervision, thus limiting creativity and productivity.
Conclusion
The role of telecommuting in reducing employee turnover cannot pass unmentioned. The recruitment and training of new workforce have been a great challenge for most organizations. It involves the input of substantial resources such as money, time, and commitment which drain the company revenue. This has pushed the organizations to source for easy methods of acquiring and training newly employed staff, with telecommuting proving a viable solution to both problems (Abdel-Wahab, 2006). Employee retention has also been a challenge in organizations where companies strive hard to retain dissatisfied and demoralized employees. Research has also confirmed that telecommuting amongst workers results in increased satisfaction, which in turn increases employee loyalty and commitment to the organization (Smith et al., 2018). Employee retention helps to save money that could be used for employee recruitment, which is redirected to other company uses, thus improving success.
Addressing Concerns and Ensuring Security
Although telecommuting has been identified with various advantages to the business, some of issues and disadvantages have been confirmed. Initially, the use of telecommunication in a company creates the perception that the corporation is impersonal. Clients who are constantly peppered with electronic conversation from business associations are likely to have such perception. Furthermore, customers trying to contact the company and might be unable to reach a human being might be frustrated by electronic communication techniques (Henke et al., 2016). Also, employees can see telecommuting as impersonal in scenarios where they obtain messages from other workers or managers via email. Moreover, utilizing telecommunication in business mail creates several security problems. Text messages, emails, and other telecommuting means are vulnerable to hackers or people who are not authorized to access particular data. These safety issues may develop serious legal liabilities in case the client's delicate information such as security number, credit card, or driver license is accessed by illegal ways (Church, 2015).
The Need for Internal Controls
Conclusively, companies should adopt telecommuting because it has a wide range of benefits ranging from, high employee motivation, improved creativity, increased working freedom and convenience, high employee experiences as well as cost-effectiveness and increased productivity for the organizations. Moreover, telecommuting make employees work hard and produce good results while balancing personal interests. This is opposed to the traditional working offices which confine the employees to the perimeters of their small cubicles, isolating them from their obligations due to the long hours of concentration, thus building boredom and reduced productivity. However, corporations must establish internal controls to secure information from illegal actions by employees and consumers.
References
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Allen, T. D., Shockley, K. M., " Golden, T. (2015). How Effective Is Telecommuting? Assessing the Status of Our Scientific Findings. Psychological Science in the Public Interest Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 16(2), 40–68.
Church, N. F. (2015). Gauging Perceived Benefits from ‘Working from Home’ as a Job Benefit. International Journal of Business " Economic Development, 3(3), 81–89.
Doyle, A. (2018). Learn the Pros and Cons of Telecommuting. Retrieved April 26, 2018, from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-telecommuting-2062113
Henke, R. M., Benevent, R., Schulte, P., Rinehart, C., Crighton, K. A., " Corcoran, M. (2016). The Effects of Telecommuting Intensity on Employee Health. American Journal of Health Promotion, 30(8), 604–612.
Madeson, S. . (2011). The Benefits, Challenges, and Implications of Teleworking: A Literature Review. Culture " Religion Review-Journal, 2011(1), 148–158.
Smith, S. A., Patmos, A., " Pitts, M. J. (2018). Communication and Teleworking: A Study of Communication Channel Satisfaction, Personality, and Job Satisfaction for Teleworking Employees. International Journal of Business Communication, 55(1), 44–68.
Torten, R., Reaiche, C., " Caraballo, E. L. (2016). Teleworking in the new milleneum. Journal of Developing Areas, 50(5), 317–326.
