Managing and Leading Telecommuters in the 21st Century

In mid-sized companies such as Q-tel, telecommuting is much more frequently used than work in office. According

Telecommuting has been shown to reduce absenteeism, improve retention, and reduce recruitment costs for the organization (Family, pg. 730). Increased employee moral is also a benefit associated with telecommuting (Professional Isolation, pg. 512). Offering this new benefit that is such a satisfier for employees will likely result in reduced turnover within the organization and higher productivity. A study found pubic employees who were satisfied with their telework/telecommuting benefits were less likely to leave their positions (Family pg. 732). With the reduction of office time, an increase in employee productivity is likely due to fewer interruptions from fellow employees (Lessons pg. 10). With telecommuting having benefits to both the employer and employee, this new policy should bring positive results to the

Employers allow telecommuting for many reasons, including the ability to recruit better talent, decrease overhead expenses, increase productivity, expand the employee base to include those with disabilities (Anderson, Bricout & West, 2001; Lipin, 2010; Myungjung & So Hee, 2017), and to support

In the 1990s Telecommuting became popular. (“Wikipedia”, n.d., para.1) It allowed a way for employers to have workers that still accomplished the day to day task necessary to run a business and also allowed employee’s to work without traveling into a dedicate office building or store. In today’s society, I have noticed that there are more job posting for software developers in the United States that offer working remotely versus working at an office building. The purpose of the dissertation is to find out the habits and work ethics of successful remote workers so that a hiring manager could target those traits while interviewing potential candidates for telecommuting work.

I believe that telecommuting is a solution that should be considered to solve both employee morale issues and key employee retention issues. These issues are well documented in the 2008-2009 Northrop Grumman exit survey results. The results of 500 exiting employees of 5 years or less tenure documented their desire for an alternate work schedule and more succinctly, telecommuting.

     A manager who focuses not on the structural aspect of technology but on the human resource implications would also see much positive value in the increased communication and networking. Framing the company as a family, the human resource approach would see technology as fulfilling the need for relationships and belonging that according to Maslow’s hierarchy need to be met prior to self-esteem needs and self-actualization. People will be most productive and happy when they feel interconnected in a web of relationships and communication. The principal trap of technology is that it can put an end to face-to-face meetings. This is important to avoid, and keeping people informed and involved in the decision making process requires both technological interfaces and traditional means. Still, technology is one very important tool, particularly in connecting geographically diverse

Different nations have come up with different work programs and policies that support alternative work programs. In the United States, there is the Tele-work enhancement Act of 2010 passed in to law by President Barrack. The act provides a blueprint on how to improve technology that will enable incorporation and assimilation of alternating work programs. The main objective of this program is retaining the high qualified persons, retaining valuable, and employees with great talents (Sukal, 2010). Through the Tele-work act, entails well formulated and implemented Tele-work programs that permits the federal agencies to achieve their objectives and also enables employees to improve their work and social life. In particular, this Act allows improvement

Harry Davis, who is the Human Resource Manager (HRM), is determined to discover what is causing the high turnover rate with the medical billing specialists at MedEx. According to the text, telecommuting is an example of an unconventional work arrangement where employees work from home or another location besides their traditional employer (Martocchio, 2013). Nevertheless, Harry conducts a survey, which reflects, that a vast majority of the employees would prefer to work from home. The possibility of telecommuting being offered at MedEx, for the medical billing specialist, has finally become a reality. However, telecommuting has its disadvantages and challenges.

Telecommuting can be great for organizations but there are also some disadvantages and challenges in offering telecommuting.  According to (Martochhio, 2013), Telecommuting programs may also lead to disadvantages for employers and employees.  Some employers are concerned about not having direct contact with employees, which makes conducting performance appraisals more difficult.  Some employees also feel isolated because they do not personally interact as often with coworkers and superiors. Some organizations may feel unsure about allowing employees working at home, because when you have internet or computer issues, getting your system back up and running efficiently and effectively can be an issue. There can be a lot of wasted time trying to get your system back up and running and this can ultimately cost the company time and money.  MedEx employs over 100 medical billing specialist, therefore, it is important for all of their employees systems to be up and operating at all times. Their daily jobs are intense and consist of working on specific accounts, coding medical

If these occurrences takes place on a regular basis, the company may rethink about having employees telecommute. Company rules should be explained in detail and very carefully so there will not be any misunderstandings.

Many changes are happening in the workforce today. Our labor environment consists of multiple generations, which creates fundamentally differing approaches to everything from work ethics, business management, and co-worker cooperation. The most recent generation, commonly known as “Generation Y” or the “Millennial” generation, is slowly taking over the workforce. Because they bring with them a radically new mindset and opinion of labor, the global business infrastructure should be modified to not only accommodate “Millennials,” but also to remain sympathetic to the business practices characteristic of previous generations. Doing so will provide more harmony and productivity among co-workers of different generational backgrounds.

Telecommuting will continue to grow as a benefit to the modern day workforce. Recently there has been much discussion and research on whether telecommuting is benefiting companies or whether it is actually lowering worker’s production. Marissa Mayers, upon taking the helm of Yahoo at a time of the company’s perceived decline, banned her workers from telecommuting. This caused quite a stir in the global workplace. Would this set workers back; especially working moms? According to Gallagher (2013), “Despite moves by Yahoo! Inc., and Best Buy to end policies that allowed employees to work from home, eight in 10 employers say they will maintain some form of telecommuting” (para. 1). Although Mayers’ announcement was considered controversial, research based on current day telecommuting indicates that telecommuting is a benefit that is here to stay.

According to the human resource terms, 2017 (mba skool.com) working online from home is a concept where the employee can do his or her job from home with recent advance technology, including the Web, email, internet, modems, Cheaper fax machine and voice mail. The word telecommuting first appeared in 1972. Since the growth of the World Wide Web and the internet had been developed, by 2009 telecommuting had become incredibly popular (Alex Novkov, 2016). Based on the statistics given by The Online Labour Index, US (2016) based employers dominate the market, currently representing approximately 52% of all projects/tasks posted. After the United States, there is a group of countries with a smaller market share, consisting of the United Kingdom

One of the biggest focuses of Chapter 1 was the 5 megatrends of Information Technology. The textbook identified Mobile, Social Media, Internet of Things, Cloud Computing and Big Data as the big five (Valacich 2016). Personally, I have observed this shift in my IT career in K-12 Education. Initially, schools were primarily Windows OS desktops and laptops. However over time, it’s definitely shifted to a Post-PC environment. 1-1 device programs have triggered a heavy shift to mobile devices such as ipads and other tablets. As a district IT department this has greatly changed both the demands of our physical infrastructure as well procedures and expectations of our staff. New metrics, knowledge and in some cases positions are needed. Social Media, has also changed the workplace. Districts, can utilize social media to better connect with parents. As a result, there is now less emphasis on older means for connecting with parents such as analog messaging systems. The internet of things also comes into play. Nowadays, there are an ever increasing number of systems that need connectivity. GPS on buses, HVAC systems, smart watches, prox cards and background check machines to name a few. Cloud Computing is always a factor. With high speed WAN connections and more affordable storage we are constantly evaluating and transitioning systems to the cloud to decrease our hardware and overhead costs. Google Apps for education provides out stuff with

This paper will discuss the processes and pitfalls faced by Information Technology managers in today’s world of business. Today’s IT managers need not only be savvy about existing equipment and upcoming technology; but must also understand the budget issues they face and how to properly address them. The IT manager is asked to look into a crystal ball and predict what products will be beneficial and which requirements can be cut from the budget. They must be able to differentiate between the new shiny fad and products that will be a true asset to the company’s visions and goals. An IT budget can no longer be a static number on the company’s finance sheet; it must be a clear vision of the department’s future spending while falling in line with the goals and expectations of the company.