Managing employees who are home alone and working
By Jenny C. McCune • Bankrate.com

Telecommuting played a part in keeping the employees of Loofbourrow Inc. safe on Sept. 11.

Although the investment banking firm had offices on the 15th floor of Two World Trade Center, not a single employee was lost. Six of the company's seven employees work from home and the lone in-office staffer was late because she dropped her daughter off for her first day of kindergarten.

While telecommuting proved to be a dramatic benefit for the firm last fall, company president and namesake John Loofbourrow thinks the system is great on routine work days, too. His only regret: "I should have done it sooner. It's worked out very well for us."

If you're considering letting workers telecommute, don't kid yourself. It takes more than a few PCs and modems. The small business owner must be a skillful manager and the telecommuters have to put in a lot of hard work.

You can make the teleworking transition easier and end up as satisfied as Loofbourrow by following these 10 tips.

1. Educate yourself about telecommuting.
Most experts agree that it's harder to manage a teleworker than someone sitting in the same office. A big question to answer before letting employees work from home is can you, the small business owner, handle it? Can you let go?

Make it easier on yourself by getting some training. Check telecommuting sites, such as the International Telework Association & Council or AT&T's Telework Web, that offer instruction and advice.

Managerial preparation is critical, since the move to telecommuting can make matters worse. A supervisor who doesn't do a good job handling in-office reports is likely to have more difficulty when people start working from home. "Telework amplifies pre-existing problems and poor management skills," says Michael Dziak, president of InteleWorks Inc., a telework consulting firm outside of Atlanta.

A good telemanager, says Dziak, is a person who:

• is good at delegating,
  
  
• has earned the trust of employees,
  
  
• can work the big picture and not be overly worried about the details,
  
  
• has a good rapport with workers,
  
  
• is a born communicator,
  
  
• prefers an adult-to-adult relationship, not a paternal one, with employees and
  
  
• has good organizational skills.

2. Choose your telecommuters well.
Make certain the person wants to telecommute. "Telecommuting takes a lot of self discipline, so somebody has to want to do it," says Minda Zetlin, author of Telecommuting for Dummies.

In addition to having the desire, employees must have certain telecommuting traits. Key is an ability to work independently without requiring a lot of face-to-face interaction with managers and coworkers. Being a good communicator doesn't hurt either, since the onus usually falls on the teleworker to stay in touch with the home office.

3. Start with existing employees.
The move to telecommuting is likely to be easier if you shift your current workforce where possible rather than hire new home-based workers. Ion Interactive, a Web design and consulting firm based in Boca Raton, Fla., began a telecommuting program out of necessity when critical employees were planning to relocate. "One got married, another wanted to move closer to family," explains Anna Talerico, vice president and co-owner.

What's helped make the telecommuting work is that Talerico and the company's other managers had worked side-by-side with the employees before they headed home to work. That face-to-face experience built trust on both sides. Plus, Talerico had some sense of these employees' capabilities.

4. Make sure the job fits.
Despite technology's reach, not every job can be done from home. Make sure the person's responsibilities are suited to telecommuting. Many white-collar jobs are easily transplanted from the office into the home. In other situations, a manager and employee need to look carefully at job requirements.

Zetlin cites the case of a local animal shelter employee, a situation that turned out to be tailor made for telework. "What she did was find homes for animals that needed placement," Zetlin recalls. "Most of her work was done by the Internet or by the phone so it was a good telecommuting job."

5. Take telecommuting for a test drive.
It's easier to iron out the kinks when working with a couple of telecommuters in a pilot program. "Use the demonstration program to identify which departments and workers can gain the most from telecommuting," advises consultant Dziak.

6. Write down the ground rules.
Sit down with your telecommuters and draw up a document that describes what the employee will be doing from home, how often he or she will visit the home office, what the hours of work will be, etc.

Put in as much detail as you can and feel free to amend it later. "It's much harder to add structure after the fact," Zetlin says. "It's easier to have too much in the beginning and then set it aside if it's not useful."

Be sure the arrangement contains an escape clause for both sides. Sometimes a boss discovers an at-home employee needs to be brought back in-house. Or an employee may find that he doesn't like telecommuting and would like to return to working full time in the office.

7. Consider using part-time teleworkers.
Although there are exceptions, the best telework arrangements are part time, with the employee dividing time between the regular workplace and the office at home.

"Working full time at home is fairly rare," says Dziak, author of Telecommuting Success. Employees who spend some time at the office, two or three days a week or month, generally fare better than full-time home workers because they have more chances to interact with co-workers and "stay in the loop," according to Dziak.

8. Take advantage of technology.
Companies that have successful telecommuting programs agree that technology is crucial. Ion Interactive uses an intranet, a private Internet, to post projects, who's working on them, status of the work, etc. Loofbourrow swears by his phone system, which forwards calls to his company's employees no matter their location.

"Somebody can dial our number in New York [City] and get instantly connected to our employee in California," Loofbourrow says. "They have no idea that their call has been transferred to California."

9. Keep communication flowing.
Because teleworkers spend time out of sight, it's important that managers remember them and include them in all planning. Schedule regular check-in times, whether it's once a day or once a week, by phone or e-mail. Touching base can ensure that the employee feels connected and that managers stay on top of what employees are doing.

Loofbourrow Inc. has a monthly meeting when its entire staff gets together at the corporate headquarters. Zetlin recalls one telemanager who required people working from home to leave their phone number and, if available, a picture at their desk at the office. "It was a reminder to other employees that these people were working even though they were at home and that it was fine to call them at home," Zetlin says.

10. Fix problems promptly.
If a telecomuting situation isn't turning out as planned, both you and your employee will be better off dealing with the problem before it turns into a big headache. Discuss any complications as soon as they appear. Don't hesitate to offer pointed feedback on why telecommuting didn't work in this case.

As these tips demonstrate, managing telecommuters is possible as long as they aren't simply left home alone. With appropriate guidelines, input and management, you can ensure your employees do their best jobs, whether they are working down the hall or across the country.

Jenny C. McCune is a contributing editor based in Montana.

-- Posted: Aug. 14, 2002