Going to the office brings with a number of complications. A worker must wake up very early to take a bath, get dressed, prepare breakfast and meals for office, drive to the company and face the morning traffic or use public transport and struggle to get a space on a bus or in the underground. After all this hustle and bustle, some bosses still wonder why their employees look tired, are in a bad mood or are not very productive in their shift. And let’s not talk about returning home.

Due to this situation, in the last years, some companies have decided to implement teleworking as an option in their work dynamics.

Teleworking is the word that defines the action of working remotely. That is to say, the employee does not go to the office, but executes his tasks from his home or from somewhere like a coworking, a coffee shop or a public library near his home, in order to avoid commuting. It does not matter he is not at office because from this location, he is able to perform his obligations.

A teleworker from home must not be confused by a freelancer. The teleworker is still linked to the company, only that he does not work from their headquarters but from where it is best for him.

A study conducted by Gallup and published in the New York Times indicated that in 2016 more Americans were working remotely and they were doing it for longer periods. The survey, which interviewed more than 15,000 workers, said that during that year, 43% of US employees had worked remotely. This figure is 4% higher than what was reflected in 2012.

The survey revealed that the possibility of telecommuting significantly influences the decision of a worker when accepting or not a new job and even in his decision to quit a job that does not offer this benefit.

According to Gallup, the industries that most allow teleworking in the US are: IT, computing, art, design, entertainment, finance, insurance, real estate, law, manufacturing, health services and retail sales.

In addition, and this is a very relevant fact, the study indicated that workers who are between 60% and 80% of their working time outside the office feel much more committed to their jobs than those who must work from the facilities of the company for longer periods.

In Latin America there are not many figures in this subject. However, Dinero made a report in 2016 in which it revealed that more than 95,000 people in Colombia have worked from home. This figure represents an abrupt growth since in 2012 there were 31,500 teleworkers reported. The article assures that Argentina and Chile are pioneers in the implementation of remote work in the region . However, it does not offer further figures.

A Flexi Job studied quoted by Forbes listed the 100 companies with the most remote jobs. The top ten on the list are: Appen, LiveOps, Amazon, TeleTech, VIPKID, LanguageLine Solutions, Working Solutions, Kelly Services and Sutherland Global Services.

If you want your company to look like Amazon, implementing teleworking is a good way to start. Do you know what benefits teleworking brings to your company?

The benefits of teleworking for you company
1.- Money saving: The more employees you have working from their homes, the more money you can save on fixed costs such as: infrastructure (desks, chairs and computers) and basic services (electricity, water, Internet services).

2.- Workers with a better mood: Your employees will start their workday with a better attitude since they will have saved a good amount of time, especially avoiding traffic.

3.- More productive workers: A good attitude and a better mood translates into more productive workers. Executing tasks from home requires a greater commitment most because workers want to show their bosses that they are more productive if they work from the comfort of home.

How to implement teleworking in your company
1.- Identify the positions whose jobs can be executed from home: Evaluate each business area of ​​your company and identify the tasks that can be executed remotely and which positions can be allowed not to be physically in the office.

2.- Create a test team with employees who want to work from home: It is important that the test team is composed of people who really want to work from home. Do not impose anything because you will be rejected and there will be no genuine commitment from the worker. Take a survey and assess who is willing to be part of the test and, among them, choose the most willing and best prepared to do so. If you have an employee whose productivity is low and who easily get distracted, perhaps it is not a good idea for him to work from home without proper preparation.

3.- Establish a communication plan between leaders and employees: Once you have chosen the positions that are allowed to performing their tasks from home and the people who will be part of the test group, establish a communication plan between them and their leaders or bosses. There are dozens of online tools to manage remote teams, but if you want to keep it simple, lean on email, phone calls and communication applications such as Whatsapp or Telegram. It is important that you also establish working hours and allowed and prohibited hours to communicate (such as very early in the morning, lunch time or very late at night).

4.- Execute the test and evaluate the results: when the test group is conformed and the work rules are clear, it is time to take action. Determine what days of the week and for how long the workers will work from their homes. At the end of each week, for example, evaluate the results. For this evaluation, keep in mind things such as: hours worked, mood, fluency of communication, productivity, finished projects and satisfaction of work teams. It is recommended to evaluate this work taking into account the same parameters as the work done in company, so you can really know if the remote team achieved the expected results or not.

If the results are positive, you can increase the days of teleworking in that test group and add more people to this modality. If the results are not the expected, do not discard this option yet. On the contrary, train your employees in this new modality.

Teleworking is one of the most profitable and satisfying working models for modern companies. Venture, implement it in your company and discover with your employees a new way to achieve your goals.
Do you have teleworkers in your company? How is the dynamic? Tell us your experience in the comments section.

Tags: