ITAC Telework America Workshops
 

Workshop 4
PLANNING THE TELEWORK PROGRAM
by John M. H. Edwards, CEO/Executive Director
Telework Analytics International, Inc.

"Clear and precise seeing becomes as one with clear and precise thinking"
Edward R. Tufte.

 
CONTENTS
Introduction
1 Who needs to be involved?
2 Assessing Organizational Resources & Deficiencies.
3 Assessing Alternative Teleworking Models to suit your activities and budget restraints.
4 Determine what resources need to be acquired or redeployed to implement the teleworking model(s) selected.
5 Tips on making a successful program - the good, the bad and the ugly.

INTRODUCTION

To insure that the implementation of teleworking policies is a success, your telework program planning should be as all-inclusive as you can afford, and seen to be both equitable and reactive to feedback. Otherwise, you may have to deal with suspicion, resentment, anxiety, disillusionment or maybe sabotage in its various forms.

The distribution away from the office environment of what was once a physically and socially close group of people – a sub culture – can have a profound effect on their lives and on their perceptions of what work is. Managers especially will benefit from teleworking, because poor managers tend to become good managers, and good managers become even better managers! The foundation for this process starts here and with Workshop #5 that follows.

In this workshop we will set out for you a systematic approach that will help to redirect and refocus any fears before they become excuses for inaction. We will provide a comprehensive checklist of telework related factors for you to include in your assessment and planning process. Some of the factors may not be worth your while isolating, but they are worthy of consideration even if you choose to ignore them.

1. Who needs to be involved?

The team should be led by the telework "Champion" in the organization. This is usually, but not always, the person who helped to establish the Business Case for telework in the first place. Ideally, this person, if (s)he does not have a "C" in his or her title (CFO, CIO, CTO etc.), should have an honestly open channel of communication with someone who does have.

The Stakeholders need to cover the following disciplines or activities, even if such a department doesn’t exist:

2. Assessing Organizational Resources & Deficiencies

A WORD OF WARNING!

When assessing organizational readiness, you should avoid becoming a victim of "Paralysis by Analysis"! Much of what follows will be intuitive knowledge to smaller organizations (up to maybe 15-20 employees) because of the daily contact between almost everyone employed and because nearly total knowledge of the organization’s assets, strengths and weaknesses will be known in detail by 2 or 3 key decisionmakers.

However, the larger your organization is, the more impossible to be as omniscient and so a more and more formal assessment will be needed. Your project team must determine where it reasonably needs to be on the analysis continuum to be able to have sufficient information to meet senior management’s expectations, and to manage and control the project without paralyzing it with paperwork!

2.A.Benchmarking or Auditing your Resources - physical, technological, human, financial and goodwill.

Determining what you have is the first step in conducting a "Gap Analysis." Then while keeping in mind the extent and type of program you ideally need (see Workshop #5 next), you can more easily identify and quantify the new resources needed or those that require reallocation in order to meet your program’s objectives.

For each of the items listed below, or whatever otherwise applies to your organization, you need to find out what is used in the main offices to get the job done and what is already available or needed at the remote location (home/teleworkcenter/satellite office etc.). Then you can draw up a schedule of what has to be purchased or relocated. This schedule will be used in the build up of your budgets, which then feed into your cost/benefit analysis.
Furniture/Equipment Computer Hardware Computer Software
Surge Protectors PDA (PalmPilot/CE device) Graphics/Design
Backup power supply Laptop Collaborative
Desk "PC" Calendar/Scheduling
Lighting Mac MS Word
Ergonomic Chair Laptop docking unit Word Perfect
File Cabinet Modem - [<33.6Kbps] MS Excel
Bookcase/shelves Modem - [56Kbps] Lotus 123
Voice phone line - residential Modem - [K56flex] Quattro Pro
Voice phone line - business               - [ISDN/T1/E1] PowerPoint
Data phone line - residential               -[Cable/DSL] Corel Suite
Data phone line - business Fax Lotus Notes
Touch-tone phone Printer - Ink Jet (B&W) Netscape/I-E
Voice Mail/Machine Printer - Ink Jet (Color) Utilities
Call forwarding Printer - Laser ProShare
3-way calling Printer - Dot matrix EDI
Pager/Cellphone Copier GroupWare
Caller ID Scanner MS Access
Desktop Videoconferencing Data backup (disk/tape) Project
Bandwidth availability Servers/LAN/WAN/VPN Network

A caveat: some organizations, not wanting to invest in what might be regarded as "only a pilot", will choose the least cash cost alternative, which generally translates into including amongst the first phase only those who already personally own what is considered the equipment required. Such a policy, besides carrying with it the potential of exposure to issues of iniquity, brings a risk to organizations that are involved in a product or service that is based on value add from Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Check with your legal council for clarification, but you will find that it can be argued that IPR-based products may follow the equipment on which they are produced.

A friendly word of advice: the schedule of what is needed at the remote location can easily become a wish list! Look especially hard at requests for copiers, laser printers and high-speed access. 56 Kbps modems and multi-function printer/fax/copier/scanner machines are very reasonably priced these days.

Benchmark/Audit attitudes to identify & assess the intensity of any concerns or fears both within & outside the organization.

Benchmarking should include attitudinal questions that will identify what training, guidance and support is required to provide the skills, disciplines and working knowledge of the tools needed to make a program successful. You should also seek to determine, on a 360° basis, what manager/operative attitudes are towards each others’ business-related abilities or lack of them. Quantify the intensity of opinions on these issues, say on a scale of 1-10 (rather than 1-5 or less), so that later you will be able to detect small shifts in opinion and so judge more accurately what changes you might make to fine tune your training and support.

Try to find out what affect adopting a Telework strategy might have on:

Management Issues:
Quality of work You must decide what determines "Quality"
Quantity of work You will already have values in place for this one.
Productivity Ditto
Labor Turnover How much might telework reduce recruiting needs & costs?
Sick Leave How much do the respondents think telework will affect it?
Teamwork Ditto
Internal Communications Ditto
Corporate Identity Ditto
Colleague Stimulation How much do colleagues stimulate good actionable ideas?
Security How much might information/data/records be put at risk?
Smoking How much time is spent on "Smoke Breaks"?
Loss of Control How big is the "Out of Sight, Out of Control" fear?
Management Style Level of comfort with using results oriented management
Loss of "Empire" How big is the fear of losing status if staff is not visible?
Accessibility of Staff How big is the fear of being unable to contact needed staff?
Delegating Work Will telework make this easier or more difficult?
Work Information Flow How much will having remote workers affect workflow?
Backup Work Support Will telework mean more or less of a workload?
Office/Travel Expense Control What affect will teleworking have on these cost centers?
Environmental Impact How much might teleworking help the environment?
Ability of Disabled to Work How much might teleworking help the disabled to work?
Disaster Recovery/Avoidance Extent teleworking will help you avoid/recover from disasters?

Personal Issues:
Opportunity to be Promoted Do respondents think teleworking will hurt their chances?
Backup Work Support Will telework mean more or less of a workload?
Management Style Comfort level working under results oriented management?
Office/Secretarial Duties How prepared/willing to do own clerical work?
Colleague Stimulation How much will this change for better or worse?
Isolation How much will loss of workplace social contact matter?
Self-Discipline How hard will it be to get started & not lose concentration?
Disruption to Work Concentration How much of your time is absorbed by this at the office?
Leisure Time How much will your leisure time be affected by telework?
Family Time Will teleworking give you more or less time?
Time with Friends/Neighbors Ditto
Environmental Impact How much might teleworking help the environment?
Commuting Time How much will telework have a positive or negative affect?
Commuting Costs/Subsidies Ditto
Meal & Beverage Costs Ditto
Clothing/Personal Grooming Costs Ditto
Personal Health of respondent Ditto
Stress Levels/Morale Ditto
Flexibility to Set Own Work Hours Ditto
Design of Work Space Ditto
Dress Code Ditto
Smoking Do you?
Unfamiliarity of Teleworking How much employees fear strangeness of remote work?
Loyalty to Employer How much might telework stop you seeking another job?

Client (both Internal & External) Issues:
Complaints Monitor how much they change over time?
Response Times Ditto
Category of Complaints Ditto
Seamless Service Have clients had cause to notice adoption of telework?

Environmental Issues:

Increasingly, employers are awakening to the realization that benefits accrue not only to society, but also to their own bottom lines by being seen to be proactively striving to contribute positively to the environment. Investment groups are seeking out "green" organizations, and people prefer to be associated with environmentally friendly employers. Consequently, if you want to be counted in this group, you should start by quantifying the factors that will demonstrate how you have contributed to the environment over time. Specifically, benchmark employees’ travel patterns to find out:

  • How far they travel to the office each day.
  • How many times per week do they travel to the office.
  • If they transfer between modes of transport, identify mileage for each mode.
  • If they travel alone or share a vehicle, and if shared with how many others.
  • How often they stop off on the way to or from work to run errands/shop.
  • What the size is of the engine of their commuting vehicle.
  • Their home postal/zip code.

From your findings you can calculate gallons of gasoline saved. From these you can compute the decrease in airborne gases (CO, NOx, Pb, other VOCs etc) and particulate matter (PM10, PM2.5), which contribute to ground-level ozone and smog. Also, how much the life of tires & vehicles will be lengthened, and traffic related accidents & deaths avoided by not having your employees exposed in traffic.

2.B. Conduct a cost/benefit analysis

Now you have the information, to be combined with some assumptions that you will need to make, you can generate a cost/benefit analysis.

The most important assumption to be made relates to the value of employee time. You traditionally would assume that the value is the total cost of an employee (basic salary + employment taxes + benefits + overhead) divided by the number of hours worked. However, this costing basis would be a significant understatement of the true cost of an employee while they are being unproductive for whatever reason. The true cost is the MISSED contribution to the organization that is NOT being made because of the different factors identified as impacting productivity.

The easiest way to calculate this contribution is to divide the net sales per person generated by the relevant cost center/dept/division by the number of hours worked. You are concerned here with quantifying how much will be contributed to the bottom line, and having that contribution released to you is what matters. Employees who don't specifically produce sales, i.e. computer programmers, marketing strategists, finance analysts, etc., will still be associated with a profit or budget center, so the principle applies. For government organizations, the contribution calculation should be based on their budget totals (their national sales number).

2.B. (i) Effortless Productivity Increases:

You should estimate what percentage of the savings from the following factors will come through to you as increased work time and so become contributions to your bottom line:

  • Commute time avoidance.
  • Absenteeism/sick leave reduction.
  • Office distractions/interruptions avoided.
  • Business travel days avoided (use of videoconferencing & IT collaborative tools).
  • Smoking breaks become anytime, anywhere events away from the office.

2.B. (ii) Savings:

You must be sure that these savings move from paper to reality!

  • Real Estate (sublet of office & parking spaces)
  • Common area costs (catering, vending, cleaning, insurance, utilities etc)
  • Subsidies towards commuting costs (metro/bus/van pooling/mileage or car allowances)
  • Business travel (use of videoconferencing & IT collaborative tools).
  • Health insurance - negotiate savings as employees move to a "wellness" program.

2.B. (iii) Additional Costs:

Costs you may have to incur: (some of these are unavoidable and some are negotiable)

  • Telework Project Team Manager unless you can divert an employee with equal commitment & status.
  • Benchmarking and Resource audit surveys.
  • Implementation training/briefings for all levels. Training is one of the key elements to success. For what training is generally required, review Workshops #6 and #8 later.
  • Capital to enable telework (furniture, hardware, software, support desks & networks).
  • Ongoing operational costs for extra line charges, "Hotelling" software, FedEx/UPS fees to transfer physical items (files, supplies, spare parts), and home office allowances; to contribute towards the extra costs of working from home such as the beefing up of electrical circuits to carry added loads, additional lighting and security, and the increased use of HVAC, and insurance riders
  • The "Opportunity Cost" of having staff involved in the project team, during which time they will not be contributing (remember that one!) to your bottom line. You can include or ignore this one, depending on how complete your analysis needs to be.
  • Policy writing, Union negotiations, Regulatory compliance (OSHA, FSLA etc.), and insurance riders to cover the remote work locations. See Workshop #6.
  • Support, which can include, besides training & guidance, field and system engineers, clerical services and help desks. Support has been identified by the GartnerGroup as one of the top 10 nontechnical reasons that telecommuting programs fail. June 1998 TeleTrends.
  • Periodic program assessments to compare practices against previous survey results. Focus group meetings can reconfirm conclusions drawn from the findings.
  • Make policy & procedural adjustments to the program in light of experience and survey findings.

When you finally net out all these costs & savings, do it in terms that your organization can integrate with its other management control systems. Avoid relating it in terms of days or minutes per week, which is tempting, because of the nature of what you are dealing with. You can use these more colorful comparisons as footnotes. Instead, bring your calculations back to $'s per budget cycle.

3. Assessing Alternative Teleworking Models to suit your activities and budget restraints

There are four main types of telework that will result in different configuration requirements, and will enable work either from home, from a teleworkcenter/satellite office or as a "road warrior". The next Workshop (#5) will help you decide which alternative suits which jobs. Keep these models in mind during your decision process.

I am assuming that an appropriate work environment is a given for each of these, except the poor road warrior!

  • The Casual Teleworker usually teleworks irregularly on a special project, in the evenings, or at weekends. They will need a basic desktop or laptop, a modem to access files or to do research. The biggest issues with this type of teleworker are providing support after hours and security of data and the network associated with getting at that data. Also, because these activities are often done on an ad hoc basis, there is an element of risk control required to prevent the employer being exposed to potential liability. See Workshop #6 for suggested policies to regularize this type of telework.
  • The Formal Teleworker works at least 2-3 days per week from home. They will need at least a mid-priced desktop with a decent modem or ISDN/xDSL modem if they videoconference or work with large files & graphics. Because they will be making regular and lengthy calls, a second phone line will be needed. Again, support and security are big issues.
  • The Teleworkcenter/Satellite Office-based Teleworker again works at least 2-3 days per week from these locations, which are usually only a short drive from home. Alternatively, they can be used when project teams are away from the main office for short periods. Their needs can be a blend of A. & B. above, depending on the scope of their activities.
  • The Mobile/"Road Warrior" works away from the office and will now only go to the office for special & infrequent meetings, leaving to visit clients directly from home. (S)he can be on the road for most of the week. To do all this, a powerful laptop with good communications capability, which can be used almost anywhere, is called for. Wireless/cellular modems now make this possible. Support and security are big issues.
4. Determine what resources need to be acquired or redeployed to implement the teleworking model(s) selected.

By now you have made an assessment of what your assets, strengths and weaknesses are, and what the shape of your telework program might need to be to meet the various activities that can be teleworked (see Workshop #5). You are finally in a position to add in to the cost/benefit analysis the schedule of resources that you have to buy to fill the gap between what you can redeploy and what your analysis tells you is needed to get the job done.

5. Tips on making a successful program - the good, the bad and the ugly.

  • Avoid "Paralysis by Analysis"- gather sufficient information for decision-making, but don’t become buried by excessive paper. However, it is important to pull together a comprehensive database, because you will need it later to fine-tune your program and as a basis for making the decision on how quickly and by how much to roll out telework to more of your organization.
  • Be sure to include all "Stakeholders" in the planning process.
  • Don’t let the determination of what is needed to enable teleworking degenerate into a wish list. You should establish guidelines early on.
  • When valuing the cost of lost productivity, it is the MISSED CONTRIBUTION to the bottom line that counts, NOT the traditional employee cost.
  • Be generous with your training and support budgets. They are the keys to success.

This Workshop was authored by John Edwards, CEO of Telework Analytics International, Inc., which provides Telework software-based decision making tools. He is Vice-President of ITAC and President of MATAC (Mid Atlantic Teleworking Advisory Council). He can be reached by e-mail at: [email protected].

The Small Print: You may make copies of this article, but we ask you to do so in such a way that the source is acknowledged and the Intellectual rights of the author are reserved. All registered product names and trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

Closing Remarks

We hope this Workshop in the TELEWORK AMERICA series is a resource to you as you take the step toward implementing a telecommuting program. Each month we will raise challenging issues and share the expertise of our members with you.

Revisit this session as often as needed.

     

© 2002-2006 ITAC
All Rights Reserved