Telecommuting, a Solution to Employee Morale and Retention Issues

The purpose of this brief is to determine wether to establish work-at-home policy for selected employees at the Q-tel Pty Ltd. Information and communication technologies (ICT) make it possible for employees to work at home and deliver their work output to the firm by those ICT. This work arrangement is called telecommuting (Sarbu, 2015).

Telecommuting for our agency will be defined as an employee is working away from the office for one or more days within a given week (Managing pg. 9). Employees will be permitted to work from home or elsewhere if they prefer. By allowing telecommuting we are reducing the amount of travel time required for those who may need greater flexibility in their schedule. As well as giving our employees

Working in the ITS field, we have been asked to research the plausibility of allowing our 600+ employees the ability to telework. Currently half of our managers have the ability to work from home. With this ability we have security concerns, but we also have the expectation to be available to work no matter what the time of day is or how the weather is outside. When the credit union is closed for snow day’s managers with the ability to

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.

Justification 
The Bay Area is a traffic nightmare. The option to take public transportation, the CalTrain, for example, is a huge benefit and saves time and money. Telecommuting is also a great way to avoid the hassles of traffic and provide a flexible work schedule. Autonomy goes hand in hand with Telecommuting, with allowing people to have a flexible schedule. Also, it fosters a feeling of trust and encourages productivity and creativity.

A revolution is spreading through the world of work because of changes in information, technology and communication. Information and technology has lessened the gaps between individuals and it is no longer necessary for people to be in close geographic location to enhance working capabilities. Telework means working at a distance and technology makes this possible. Teleworkers are defined as employees or contractors who work at least one day per month; they are also referred to as telecommuters. Research shows that teleworkers work nine days per month at home with three hours per week during normal business hours. Teleworkers seek to blend work responsibilities and personal benefits to enable them handle their work better and life responsibilities.

MedEx should roll out the telecommuting on a voluntary basis for employees with high performance evaluations. I feel this will show the employees the organization cares and has addressed their concerns based on the survey. If the telecommuting policy is implemented correctly, telecommuting can increase productivity and overall job satisfaction. If the policy is crafted to tied the privilege of telecommuting with positive performance evaluations, it will motivate employees to not lack off while working remotely. The option of telecommuting can work as a way to attract high performing top professional to the organization. Telecommuting should also reduce turnover and absences. Work life balance will always be a very important part of keeping

The company will save on heating, cooling and lighting. The lesser employees that are in the building the lesser the energy consumption will be. By telecommuting to work instead of using the traditional methods, companies have a great potential to save energy.

MedEx has reported having a high employee turnover rate and based on the employee survey, there are a lot of employees that are not happy with their work commute, lack of parking downtown, and the challenge of balancing their personal life with their work responsibilities. Telecommuting is a great way for the employer to address all these employee concerns. The incentive of telecommuting would eliminate the commute time and parking associated with the commute, allow an employee a comfortable work setting, and offer a more flexible schedule allowing for employees to deal with personal issues when needed (Young, 1991). As you can see, telecommuting would benefit MedEx since it would improve the employee- employer relationship by promoting employee

Many Interns are working full time at ISEC, performing the same duties as other non-Intern employees. Because of that, Recent Graduate Interns qualify for full benefits. Interns deal with the same day to day life issues as anyone else. For example, a contagious illness or an injury which, although preventing an in-office work day, does not necessitate work stoppage, if working from home is an option. Under normal circumstances an Intern would need to take leave, and miss work. They would have to pass off their work to somebody else, who likely knows less about the project subject matter. If he/she could telework the Intern could support their current mission and continue to work and stay in contact with their management team. Many employees enjoy health and fitness. If an intern had the ability to telework he/she could go on a run, lift weights, or do yoga and not need the extra time to drive to a gym, and shower if they are already home. Interns that have commutes of an hour or more can shave two hours off their time and dedicate that to their training and their projects. Within the Intern population at ISEC FDED, the benefit of teleworking would easily increase moral in the work force and increase our retain rate of new employees, with no cost to the organization. Productivity has been shown to increase, with the increased work-life

Watch the video titled “More People Turning to Telecommuting” (5 min 21 s), found on NBC Learn.

As far as innovation, institutions can implement innovative approaches, such as telecommuting. In telecommuting, “employees can carry out their regular work activities from the privacy of their own home” (Lazar, et al., 2010). In the Healthcare Clinic, telecommuting can be applied so that nurse practitioners can perform uncompleted task at the privacy of their own home. This may reduce the toll of working long hours and receive compensation while working at home. The other advantages of telecommuting are that it reduces “commuting time, to be able to work in a less disruptive and stressful environment, reduce work-related expenses, and most importantly, allows the employees to organize their work around their family and personal needs”

Since the telecommuting job requires adequate office space to ensure the employee has everything they need to

* Everyone is not cut out to be a remote worker. People who are self-starters, savvy with the computer and do not have many distractions are prone to do well with a telecommuting job. When interviewing someone for this position. It should be emphasized that distractions will not be tolerated. Also employees should have a place that is dedicated for their office.