Telecommuting and Human Resources

Telecommuting and Human Resources

Introduction

On September 20, 1994, some 32,000 AT&T employees stayed home. They weren’t sick or on strike. They were telecommuting. Employees ranging from the CEO to phone operators were part of an experiment that involved 100,000 people. It’s purpose? To explore how far a vast organization could go in transforming the workplace by moving the work to the worker instead of the worker to work. Today AT&T is just one of many organizations pioneering the alternative workplace (AW-also known as telecommuting) – the combination of nontraditional work practices, settings, and locations that is beginning to supplement traditional offices (Apgar, 121).

According to IDC/Link Resources, New York, approximately 8 million Americans currently telecommute. A survey conducted by Olsten Corp., Melville, N.Y., reports that 62 percent of North American companies encourage telecommuting (Riggs, 46). In addition, research shows about 50% of all employees either have a job that lends itself to telecommuting or want to get involved in telecommuting. Most researchers agree that telecommuting growth is fastest in companies employing more than 1,000 and in those with under 10 employees (Harler, 26).

Current Situation

Telecommuting came into existence out of necessity. First, increasing global competition has brought pressures and opportunities to businesses, consultants, and service vendors. As a result, the Yankee Group predicts that as many as 80 percent of all employers will have to adopt remote work in order to compete in world markets by mid-to late nineties (Manire, 51). Second, the Information Age necessitates that companies move faster and thus act and react to business conditions sooner. Third, telecommuting has been increasingly enforced at state and federal levels due to the Clean Air Act (CAA) of 1970, as amended in 1990. The CAA affects any firm with over 100 employees in areas with “severe ozone attainment levels”, which covers every good-sized city in the nation (Harler, 27).

The Impact of the Internet on Telecommuting

The Internet is widely becoming part of the plan when implementing and integrating telecommuting solutions. The Internet can add a powerful dimension to the management of both internal and external information functions and strengthen the organization’s human resource management informa...

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...ivity remains an objective for management as we approach 2000. But we realize today that significant gains in productivity may not be achieved not through division of labor but by creating mechanisms for people to communicate more effectively and to manage information more efficiently.

Bibliography:

Apgar IV, Mahlon. (May/Jun 1998). “The alternative workplace: Changing where and how people work”, Harvard Business Review, pp-121-130.

Berhard, Frank. (March 15, 1998). “Upside economics of telecommuting”, America’s Network, pp20-23.

Harler, Curt. (March 15, 1998). “The good, the bad and the fattening”, America’s Network, pp26-28.

Hein, Kenneth. (May 1997). “Virtually always at work”, Incentive, p9.

Kuzmits, Frank and Santos, Brian. (Spring 1997). “The Internet: A key tool for today’s human resource professional”, S.A.M Advanced Management Journal, pp33-39.

Manire, Ross W. (January 1997). “Remote access: The “drive to work” in the information age”, Telecommunications, pp50-55.

Riggs, Lynn. (June 1997). “New approaches to management”, Credit Union Management, pp46-48.

Thompson, Courtenay. (October 1998). “Telecommuting exposures”, The Internal Auditor, p67.