Is_Telecommuting_Good_or_Bad_for_Business

Is telecommuting good or bad for business Telecommuting is a phenomenon that has clearly changed the way business has been conducted though out the years. Whether it is good or bad for business can be debated, but its impact is irrefutable. When one looks at the overall impact it has one most businesses throughout the world, the overall conclusion, despite the minuses, is overwhelmingly positive. Telecommuting is defined as work arrangement in which employees work away from a company’s standard workplace and often communicate with the office through the computer. Based on the definition, it is clear that telecommuting would not be a sustainable form of conducting business without computers. There is a direct a correlation between the strides made in computer technology and the increase of businesses using telecommuting as part of their day to day operations. Virtual private networks, goupware, conference calling, videoconferencing, and Voice over IP (VOIP) are current computer technologies that have facilitated telecommuting, especially in the last decade. Historically, some form of rudimentary telecommuting existed starting in the 1970s. The technology consisted of linking satellite offices to downtown mainframes by computer terminals using telephone terminals as a network bridge. With the development of personal computers, laptops, as well other “computer age” technologies, the use of computers became a necessity for all business to grow and compete in the era of globalization. The benefits of telecommuting make a huge difference in terms of cutting down on expenditures for most businesses. Decreasing the amount of office and parking space needed in any given office location cuts down on a large portion of real estate investment or office lease costs most businesses have to make. For example, IBM consolidated 400,000 square feet of office space into a 100,000 square-foot facility at Cranford, New Jersey. This information is from June Langhoff's "Telecom Made Easy." In a more “extreme” case of telecommuting which is technically called offshoring, businesses like Dell have moved entire departments to other countries to take advantage of the low ages they pay in countries like India. The cost of maintaining offices is also significantly cheaper outside of the United States. There is also the benefit of recruiting and retaining employees who will be attracted in eliminating the need for transportations expenditures whether it involves public transportation or using their own cars and incurring fuel and parking costs. The commuting time that is usually unavoidable for most workers is also something that contributes to the overall well being and happy disposition of an employee. Juliet Shore in "The Overworked American: the unexpected decline of leisure," that the average amount of time the average American spends at work has steadily increased over the years. For example, Shore reports that the equivalent of one month has been added to the work year since the 1940's. The hours freed up by telecommuting can be fruitfully used by employees for other pursuits, including spending time with their families, shopping, in hobbies, etc. In general, it brings up the possibility of managing the often overwhelming time commitments in peoples' lives. The environment is also another aspect that is impacted by telecommuting. In 1990, the U.S. congressed passed the Clean Air Act which among other things, stipulates that every company with 100 or more employees must "reduce solo driving among their employees" [Levin 94]. Even though car pooling has been one of the direct results of this measure, telecommuting makes an even bigger impact since it makes it easier for businesses to comply when they can easily reduce the numbers of “commuter” workers by allowing them to work from home for a certain portion of the time depending on their position. Despite the many positive attributes of telecommuting, there are also a few issues that have been introduced. For larger companies, it is not always easy to implement a telecommuting policy. Some positions are easily adaptable to telecommuting while others are virtually impossible to adapt to a telecommuting model. This can impact the employees who will not have a sense of equity if they are forced to come in while their colleagues don’t have to come in to fulfill their job requirements. Team building and supervising are also challenges that can arise from telecommuting. Some employees have also questioned how their leadership skills, etc can be properly assessed if they are mostly working from home. Security is also another issue that has to be addresses in terms of telecommuting. In addition to the existing computer security threats, IT managers also have to contend with any additional threats that may become an issue in terms of securing a company’s information system. It is difficult to ascertain the number of people that are telecommuting since studies have not been able to decipher and categorize the number of people who work from home part time, full time, as well as business owners and consultants who work from home full time. Regardless of the challenges that telecommuting has introduced, even government agencies are starting to slowly embrace the idea of telecommuting even if it is on a much smaller scale and usually entails an employee having to borrow a laptop from work following strict security guidelines. In a recent study conducted by AT&T over a period of 5 years, allowing 30,000 employees nationally to telecommute on a regular basis, the company experienced a net annual gain of over 11 million dollars. According to various studies, 40% of the US workforce holds positions that are compatible for a telecommuting structure. But the current numbers are less than 5% if we don’t include businesses that have gone offshore. There are always pros and cons when we change the way businesses have been conducted. The overwhelming financial gain that telecommuting has and can introduce in the future makes it an inevitable way of conducting business even as we continue to deal with various computer security threats that have to be dealt with every day. In addition to businesses, telecommuting is also good for the environment since it reduces the number of cars on the streets and the amount of fuel we have to use.