If around 23% of New Zealand's working population worked from home two days a week we would reduce our transport emissions by around 402,150 tonnes per year (1). This exceeds the 1990 target for the entire road transport sector.

On these figures telework is one of the most important things we should be doing. In fact, telework will not only help meet our emissions reduction targets but could also increase national productivity by up to $4.2 billion, save around 48 million hours in time presently spent commuting and go a long way towards meeting our work/life balance and flexible workplace objectives. It can also help to reduce traffic congestion and help organisations meet many objectives. For a single company, telework can be worth up to $300,000 per annum, per 100 staff.

What makes telework work?
Looking at telework programmes that are delivering their full potential, they have all addressed six critical management issues.

1. Successful telework programmes are structured and promoted as a mutually voluntary arrangement.  Employees are not forced to telework and supervisors are not forced to allow staff flexibility.

2. Such programmes are available to all employees (within guidelines) as a normal work option.  It is not up to individual managers to allow or deny telework for employees they like or don’t like and neither is telework understood as a right or a benefit.  In successful programmes, telework is just another work option and any individual who satisfies the criteria is able to telework.  Furthermore, teleworkers and other staff are treated equally.  They have the same duties and responsibilities, the same holidays and benefits, the same pay, and they are managed the same way.

3. Management by Objective or a similar performance management system is built in to the telework arrangement.  It is important to be able to monitor work done (rather than attendance).

4. Successful telework is normally scheduled and agreed.  Supervisors and their employees know what days they will be out of the office in advance.  They have a clear communication schedule or framework in place and an agreement between the employee and supervisor will have been signed.  This agreement could protect both parties from many possible problems.

5. Telework programmes that deliver benefits have also been set up to meet specific corporate and individual objectives.  Without these objectives, it is difficult to ensure that the programme meets the requirements of all parties.  Knowing the objectives in advance will also help you adapt these template policy documents to match your needs.

6. Finally, telework programmes that have survived have become built into the corporate culture.  They have become normal: the telework guidelines have been made available to everyone and the agreement has been built into the existing employment contracts.  The telework programme probably won’t even have a name.  It will simply become “the way we do things round here”. Where flexible work programmes have failed to deliver benefit, or caused major problems, it has normally been because one or more of these six factors has been ignored.

How to make it easy
Depending on the organisation it is normally wise to set up a steering committee involving all the people who might be involved: HR, IT, existing teleworkers, senior management, and so on. In large organisations it is a good idea to get a senior champion to represent the initiative at director level.

The first job of this committee is to identify the major goals of the telework programme, the likely benefits and the possible problems that will need to be overcome. The second step is to design an appropriate programme that will maximise the benefits and minimise the possible problems. It is this ‘model’ that will help overcome many of the problems: there are many variations that can be used. It might be necessary at this stage to prepare a full proposal for senior management to consider and approve. Once you have approval it is advisable to prepare a set of documents: a formal statement of intent, a set of guidelines, a staff selection questionnaire, and a draft agreement.

With these documents in place you can call for volunteers, provide any training that might be required (for supervisors as well), assess the off-site work places and set a start date for the programme. It is a good idea to approach telework implementation gradually, allowing only a few to start teleworking to begin with, perhaps for only one day a week …

There are many resources available online: www.telework.co.nz and www.teleworkaustralia.net.au are two good starting points.

1. Introducing Telework: SBN Workshops via Skype, Telework NZ, 2009