7 things CIOs should know about telecommuting

Esther Schindler

Network administration - Teleworking or Telecommuting gives employees the flexibility and quietness needed to optimize their productivity. In addition, this type of labor also allows for other costs to be saved. For IT professionals, telecommuting is the most effective way of living and working.

However, the way to work from home is not always easy for employees. With telecommuting, the support to make this work must meet a number of issues, first of all, employees need to be motivated by themselves, followed by strong technical support (no term as high-speed Internet connection and VPN), clearly defined work can be done remotely. It is also necessary to make sure that their remote workers feel excited as part of the group of employees working in the office, working with remote workers on workflows and calculate labor productivity based on results instead of virtual signs.

Sometimes IT management components do not fully understand the main issues that may affect the productivity and working spirit of the groups. They can make mistakes that make their employees feel depressed and make them less productive or costly despite their dedication to the common work of the company. If you want to implement remote work, you must have a team of independent technology experts to be able to perform their work effectively; otherwise you will create distance, disagreement, distrust and clutter in the work flow.

You have a way to not repeat other people's mistakes. In this article, network administrators will show you some of the issues that remote IT workers share about the advantages of telecommuting for businesses, besides the processes. help remote workers interact with other team members, and some issues to avoid. This is what your employees want to trust you about telecommuting.

Remote workers also need special technology skills to work from home. In another article we will introduce you to some of the special skills that teleworkers should have.

1. Telecommuting saves a lot of costs, it's a fact

Many companies have the ability to take advantage of financial resources in a number of ways, from supporting remote workers. First of all, with a small number of people working at the company's main office, it will save the company a lot of expensive money about renting offices, furnished furniture and maintaining those facilities.

Secondly, companies can hire remote employees extensively, geographically. They can hire quality employees without regard to geographical location. For example, a San Francisco Bay Area company might be looking for a top programmer to work remotely from Oklahoma to significantly reduce payments to nearby developers because the rent is too high. .

The points here must include the participation of disabled citizens, 70% of these people do not have jobs, the main reason is the lack of transport suitable for them to come workplace, especially in rural areas. Working from home offices equipped with advanced technology through VPN and broadband can overcome these limitations.

2. People who work remotely can give higher productivity

One of the biggest obstacles to telecommuting is convincing bosses that a remote way of working will not lead to negligence. This problem has been experienced, many managers think that not seeing is not working, which creates a big obstacle to telecommuting.

Most remote workers believe that they achieve better labor productivity when working from home than in the office. Why? It is quieter, work is less disrupted.

3. Telecommuting not for individual individuals

Happy remote workers are the first thing to tell you that 'lifestyle' is not for everyone. They need to start themselves, need to find different ways to interact with colleagues, they must believe that the advantages are much more valuable than the disadvantages.

Some managers do not like this way of working remotely because their feelings are not good in the past. They can allow someone to work from home, but lack the necessary motivation to work remotely and be corroded by it. IT professionals working remotely expect IT managers to understand that the feeling will not be a reason for this obstacle. Different people will succeed in different environments because telecommuting does not work for you (or your spouse) does not mean it does not work for someone.

One obvious solution here is to see telecommuting as a reward for productivity office workers. However, this case is not always true. Some people need the hustle and bustle of an office environment to do their job well when it is not appropriate to work at home alone.

Instead, Telecommuting is simply an option to create a feel for IT professionals who know the best environment to inspire his productivity. For example, Steve O'Hara-Smith, a 27-year UNIX developer in commerce, thinks managers need to create for telecommuting an easy choice whenever it is feasible, instead of asking for unusual conditions before doing it. Telecommuting should not be restricted to open situations where the office is flooded, injured employees unable to reach the office or damaged railways make it impossible for people to reach the headquarters. One reason why O'Hara-Smith might start working in a telecommuting way is that he has to face his own impossible conditions - family health problems.

4. Trust your people

Trust is a core issue for remote workers. Its presence or absence represents a big difference in their spirit. If you hire a reputable professional, and he is the one who manages his time, while you treat them like a high school boy, they will definitely go find a job. other.

Clearly trust is important to get success with telecommuting. This took years in the experience of some employees, one who was approved to work from home two days a week. However, her manager reluctantly agreed and it was shown out by his behavior. That reluctance to agree has influenced the morale of this employee and made her feel as unbelievable and respected as before and have a clear influence on her work.

5. Management skills for Telecommuting

Telecommuting is a true test for a manager's management skills. It was difficult to assess labor productivity while working at the office, now supervisors need to add complexity to this way of doing things. And not all managers have the necessary skills to manage remote work.

Managers need to know how to manage resources, other issues, etc. that can affect their work. If they do not have good communication skills, do not know how to manage their time, it is certain that the work will not be smooth and productive.

Remote workers want managers to focus on work results. Focus on managing jobs on behalf of employees. The supervisors must explicitly communicate to a certain concept and their target dates and dependencies. Don't just give them an arrangement and a due date; managers also have to make sure he knows the content inside the project and where the task is more appropriate.

Focusing on the output is not simply a matter of finding people who have errors in production. It must be in harmony with the way people do their jobs. For example, if a remote worker finishes the project before the deadline, the employee manager should find out if the employee can start a new task or he only spends his free time. free to do other things. Some people who always meet the deadline must have a reward for them. Conversely, if someone leaves the job beyond the limit, the manager needs to find the root cause of the problem; not only acknowledge the incompetence in the staff's working capacity.

6. Contact the remote person to follow a loop

Focus on the tasks but should not neglect the test of the human needs of people working remotely - especially if they rarely have the opportunity to interact with other employees. It is said that there is a need to spend some time to celebrate their birthday (even if only by email), expressing concern about the problems they encounter and sharing feelings with they at certain times. Whatever you can do, it is necessary to make them feel like part of the company.

Managers should stipulate that remote workers must have a significant number of face-to-face meetings with management staff and the rest of the group in order to gain enough problems that may be lost. by phone.

Some people recommend that managers manage to set up 'one-to-one' telephone meetings on a regular basis - not for the purpose of managing the presence but to ensure the management's interest. Remote is revealed. Meetings, face-to-face or on the phone, allow managers to have the opportunity to connect with their teleworkers while also receiving a lot of feedback and issues. other value.

7. Tools and technologies make a big difference

Interestingly, technology is not a barrier when it comes to telecommuting. In fact, it is what allows employees to work from home (except when there is no network and server). Anyone who has an Internet connection (sometimes a VPN) can do their job well. However, if you want your teleworkers to succeed, you need to provide them with some necessary tools and ensure that they are integrated into the workflows of the business.

The minimum set of tools for remote workers includes:

IM is a useful tool for remote employees and their managers. It can help remote workers connect with their offices and their employees. The advantage of IM also allows part-time employees to exist more often, so the managers of those part-time employees see their employees more, creating the closer in work.

When you set up a VPN and other company software, make sure that it can work with an operating system other than Windows. Even if your company is a Microsoft store, you need to make sure that remote workers - especially those who use their personal computers - can use any operating system. which they like. This requires companies to purchase additional VPN registrations for this support.

However, pointing out software and services that a certain group needs is not always an easy task. The biggest thing to face is to find tools and spaces to share and collaborate.

Besides, the IT support department of enterprises also needs to actively support those who work remotely. Remote workers must be considered as part of the infrastructure and technology support for these employees to be on par with those in the office. In order for telecommuting to achieve success, you need to have close monitoring.

Telecommuting brings many significant benefits to many people, with great flexibility and power on their scheduling capabilities. It helps a lot of businesses to be able to hire the right people for the job without regard to geographical location or rush hour. Even so, like many other types of work, in order to increase benefits, IT managers must learn new skills, establish new types of work and expand their understanding of productivity. labor of employees.