Share this post

To the average office worker, telecommuting sounds like a dream come true – avoiding traffic, ignoring dress codes, working without distractions from coworkers, etc. For a manager, however, telecommuting can seem like a nightmare. How do you know your employees are doing what they’re supposed to be doing? How do you have to tailor your management style to incorporate off-site employees? If they can do their jobs without being in the office, then what exactly do they need you for?

As telecommuting becomes a more viable option for many office workers, managers will need to recognize the need to adapt their techniques to the new reality, or else risk negating the benefits it can bring to an organization. Without that adjustment, the only thing telecommuting changes for your business is how many employees wear bunny slippers while working.

Although telecommuting has been around in concept for more than 30 years, the idea didn’t truly begin to become viable until recently.

Thanks to the rise of high-speed Internet in homes as well as offices, office workers have unprecedented freedom to perform practically all of the same tasks at home as they could at work. File sharing, real-time video conferencing and cloud computing have made it possible for millions of people nationwide to work from home instead of commuting to work every day.

Telecommuting also has been shown to increase productivity and lower turnover, according to studies by groups such as the Telework Research Network. What’s more, the current level of ecological awareness makes it desirable for many to travel as little as possible to conserve fuel and reduce emissions.

However, despite the advantages and availability of telecommuting opportunities, recent surveys suggest that perhaps no more than 2.5 million Americans work primarily out of the home, not including the self-employed.

Occasional telecommuters only number about 17.5 million, indicating that telecommuting is still a relatively small part of everyday office life, and many managers are not familiar with it.

Unique Situations

Telecommuting creates unique situations for managers, and those situations require some adjustments to their typical management techniques. First and foremost, according to management consultant David C. Baker, is understanding the need for strong interpersonal skills.

“When you are managing someone at a distance, you can’t as easily pick up the personal cues about what might be happening in someone’s work life,” Baker says. “You also miss the visual part of communication and the casual verbal exchanges as you pass each other in the hallway or in the lunch room.”

Dr. Rajkumar Kempaiah – an assistant professor of business and economics at College of Mount Saint Vincent in Riverdale, N.Y. – says even though many telecommuters gladly make the transition from an office to their homes, they often report feeling isolated from their coworkers and managers. He says managers need the interpersonal skills necessary to stay connected even from a distance. “As long as managers can have open lines of communication and they are very clear in that, then the employees feel much happier,” he says.

Baker suggests that managers go out of their way to show telecommuters that they are appreciated. One method is to have telecommuters go first when sharing a presentation or department reports through teleconferencing.

Switching It Up

Just as employees have to make adjustments when transitioning to a telecommuting setup, so do managers. Obviously, it’s not possible for a manager to manage through his or her presence when dealing with telecommuters, Baker says. Therefore, managers must shift their way of thinking to concentrate on managing by results. He says setting clear goals and priorities is the key to ensuring that telecommuters are productive and effective.

Often, a conference call at the start of each day is the simplest and easiest way to make sure that all telecommuters understand their objectives for the day and beyond. Baker says managers also should request frequent reports from telecommuters and demand that they stick to a set schedule, as they would in an office environment.

Another part of managing telecommuters also is knowing which employees make good candidates for the privilege. Baker says that although many managers worry about keeping telecommuters motivated from a distance, in actuality motivation is less of an issue with telecommuting. “People are self-motivated, and there’s nothing we can do to motivate them,” Baker says. “We can kill motivation, though, and sometimes not letting an employee telecommute hurts their motivation.”

Kempaiah says trust is more important than motivation when deciding which of your employees are allowed to telecommute. “Trust is very essential,” he says. “If managers can trust their employees, things can be much better.”

Even though managers may feel that they don’t trust anyone as much as themselves, Baker says there are few reasons for managers to ever telecommute, as being in the office environment still is essential for overseeing on-site employees. “I would never recommend that a manager telecommute except for rare cases where they need to get something done without distractions,” Baker says. “Some employees, based on their functions, are a good fit for telecommuting, but managers seldom are.”

Face-to-Face Time

Hiring an employee specifically for a telecommuting position is not as common as allowing an existing employee to have the opportunity, but it’s a situation that is becoming more prevalent.

Baker advises managers to insist that newly hired telecommuters spend at least three days in the office meeting as many coworkers as possible during on-site orientation. He says making sure these new telecommuters absorb the company’s culture is the primary goal here. Under ideal conditions, he adds, the company should arrange for long-distance telecommuters to spend their first two weeks with the company in a long-stay hotel so they can spend time in the office, with subsequent week-long visits to the main office twice a year.

Although technology and convenience will make telecommuting a bigger part of management over the years to come, Baker says he doesn’t envision a world in which all office work is done by employees from the comfort of their own homes.

“I don’t believe that will ever happen,” Baker says. “Too much of the ‘humanness’ and collaboration suffers with telecommuting.”

Even if it never fully replaces the traditional office, telecommuting in one form or another likely will be a part of the business landscape for good.

Knowing how to manage a combination of telecommuters and on-site employees will become an essential skill for the future.