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Workshop 7
GETTING READY TO IMPLEMENT
by John Corbett, Telework Programs Administrator
State of Arizona
CONTENTS
Setting the Stage
Were you ever in a high school play? I vividly
remember watching our director pull a world-class production
out of absolute chaos. It was amazing. The orchestra, choir,
cast, choreographer, stage crew and extras, all practiced
separately for several months. Then, just a few weeks before
opening night, the whole show came together on stage for the
first time. We didn’t have a clue how the show would
look. We hadn’t even seen the costumes. But during dress
rehearsal, for the first time we all realized we were part
of something wonderful. We were confident the play was a success.
On opening night, the audience sensed our enthusiasm and confidence.
In previous workshops, you and your implementation
team gathered the facts, wrote policies and selection criteria,
and you now have top management approval to prepare a telework
project within your organization. All the homework is done.
You know that telework "works" for other organizations.
Now it’s time for your organization to test it out. It
is time for a dress rehearsal, a trial program.
The Dress
Rehearsal
In the telework dress rehearsal, the cast
and crew are the audience. Each audience has its own set of
concerns and expectations about telework. A good director
takes the time to get to know his audience and tailors the
show to appeal to them. He is also careful not to mislead
the audience with false advertising. He doesn’t want
them anticipating a murder mystery, when the show is really
a love story.
Your telework credits may look somewhat like
this:
Producer:
The CEO - bought the show because he believes a telework
program will help him reduce the cost of employee turnover.
If the company can reduce the cost of production they can
better compete for a larger portion of the market.
Director:
The TELEWORK PROJECT CHAMPION - a progressive high level
manager...a real coach. The Director cares about giving
good employees the flexibility they need to manage their
lives. He or she feels that a good employee will appreciate
the flexibility and therefore remain loyal to the company’s
mission and doesn’t care where they work, as long as
the job gets done right.
Stage Crew:
MID-MANAGERS & FRONT-LINE SUPERVISORS - were
selected because they have a positive attitude towards telework,
are willing to let their employees telework, have strong
communication skills, manage by results and not by monitoring
work hours, delegate work easily, are well-organized, are
open to new ideas, and trust employees. They will select
teleworkers for the project based upon the selection criteria.
They appreciate that employees like telework. But secretly,
they are a little concerned that it will be harder for them
to manage remote workers.
The Cast: TELEWORKERS
- were selected to participate because they tend to require
minimal supervision and social interaction, have a high
level of skill and knowledge in dealing with work-related
responsibilities, work well with family members, prefer
their home environment, are self-motivated, want to telework,
are well organized, demonstrate a high level of productivity,
and have strong time management skills. They’re all
for it, but are concerned about what their co-workers will
think; since everyone has not been offered the opportunity
to telework during the trial.
Orchestra:
CO-WORKERS - come in all types and sizes:
The stringed instrument section would do
anything to help the project work. They hope that they might
also be offered the opportunity to telework some day.
The percussion section knows they can’t
telework. But they would participate in other types of workplace
flexibility (like compressed workweeks or flextime). They
welcome the new program in hopes that the other options
will also become available.
The wind instrument section is another
matter altogether. They think it’s all a lot of hot
air. They’ve heard management tooting about boosting
employee morale for years but management never seems to
carry-through on their promises.
Choir:
TELEWORK IMPLEMENTATION TEAM - Anything you say to this
group about telework is just like preaching to the choir.
These individuals were hand picked to represent the various
sections of the organization to help plan and implement
the program. They have high hopes for workplace flexibility
and have their eyes fixed on what the telework program will
look like three years from now.
Extras:
THE CUSTOMERS - In most cases they won’t have a clue
what is planned. The telework training will make sure that
all communication with customers is "seamless".
The customer will not know if the employee is working off-site
or not.
It might interest you to look at an actual
evaluation of how the various stakeholders viewed telework.
The State of Arizona commissioned an exhaustive study of telework
in 1996, after the telework program had been in place for
six years. The executive summary is on the Arizona web site
at http://www.telecommuting.state.az.us/evaluation/index.
Showtime
Tip
In the musical South Pacific, Typhoid Mary
sang a song called Happy Talk where she cautioned, "If
you don’t have a dream, how you gonna make a dream come
true?" Far too many telework programs are dwarfed by
their lack of vision. A well thought-out telework trial will
address the initial concerns of managers and supervisors,
demonstrate the viability of the organizations "business
case," and recommend future actions to expand telework
and maximize the benefits. Therefore, there are at least three
phases of implementation for which the trial is the main foundation:
the trial phase, the expansion phase and the maximization
phase.
The telework trial should confirm the direction
of the program and recommend the next few steps that must
be taken. The project should answer the questions: What is
the future potential for telework to impact the organization’s
bottom line? What are the barriers to reaching this potential?
What steps should be taken to overcome the barriers and maximize
the benefits of telework to the organization?
Don’t skip steps
One of the quickest ways to give a telework
trial bad reviews is to skip some steps in the implementation
process.
Plan to succeed
Run the trial from the top down. An important
ingredient in a successful telework program is commitment
from the CEO and other upper-level management. To obtain management
support for a telework program, consider the following:
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Show management the many benefits of
starting a program, focusing on the bottom line.
-
Present telework as an opportunity, not
as a problem. Present ideas in a positive business case
to management.
-
Propose to creatively meet the challenges
with a trial, allowing telework to demonstrate its own
benefits.
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Start the trial with a small, manageable
group.
-
Plan to succeed by involving only the
most qualified employees and supervisors who support the
concept.
-
Build a track record of reliability and
accountability, and then recommend expansion to a broader
group of employees.
Communicate with everybody
Tell everybody what is going on and keep
them informed throughout the project. A common sequence of
internal communication might begin with management briefings.
A memo or article in the newsletter to introduce the program
to all employees could follow. Finally, telework orientations
should be held for interested employees and supervisors to
discuss guidelines, policies and employee benefits.
Keep the ball rolling during the trial program
to help to create a positive corporate memory. Remember telework
trials can be quite long, six months to a year. Your audience
can easily lose interest in the project by the time you are
ready to announce a successful conclusion. Hold focus groups
of both supervisors and teleworkers. Encourage teleworkers
to share with their working groups the benefits they are experiencing.
Publish personal testimonials and creative solutions to problems
that may arise during the project.
Bring all concerns to
center stage
Beyond frequent communication, a successful
telework program must invite open communication. Concerns
can only be addressed when they are in the open. Concerns
should always be considered as opportunities for innovative
solutions, rather than problems. If concerns are left unvoiced,
they will become land mines in the path of the expansion or
the program.
In the first six workshops, you have learned
that there are quite a few administrative, supervisory and
personal issues that must be addressed before starting a telework
program. The administrative concerns (personnel issues, legal
issues and risk management issues) are easily handled in a
trial by selecting the right participants and by adopting
telework policies. The more specific concerns of each supervisor
and teleworker are handled during training; where the two
negotiate a formal telework agreement.
Evaluate the program
Written surveys, focus groups and individual
interviews are the basic tools used to evaluate a telework
program and identify what can be done to improve it. A successful
trial will begin and end with surveys to document the success
of the program.
Sample trial action
plan
What does a project implementation action
plan look like? The State of Arizona designed a handbook to
simplify the task of expanding the telework program to nearly
100 very different State agencies, boards and commissions.
All State agencies began with a trial and then expanded their
program. The handbook was arranged in harmony with the action
steps outlined below. As you review these action steps, you
will see references to sample letters and program materials
that were included in the handbook. These references were
left in the text to give you a better feel of what it takes
to implement a telework program.
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State of Arizona
Telecommuting Program Action Steps
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| 1 |
The Telecommuting Coordinator works with
the Director to determine the parameters of the agency
pilot (which sections of the agency should be involved
and how many participants should be selected). |
| 2 |
The Telecommuting Coordinator may
wish to select a committee to help them review the established
State of Arizona Telecommuting Policies. While these State
policies are not changeable, additional policies specific
to agency concerns may need to be addressed. Any agency-specific
policies should then be added to appropriate sections
of State training packages (see Additional State of Arizona
Telecommuting Program Materials list this section). The
people most likely to be of assistance are from management
information services, personnel and agency training staff. |
| 3 |
The Telecommuting Coordinator arranges
a briefing to prepare upper management for the agency
pilot. (suggested letter provided in section 1; Management
Briefing Script and Handouts provided in sections 2 and
3) The Department of Administration will provide the briefing
if desired. |
| 4 |
Upper management then selects which managers
and supervisors will be asked to participate in the agency
pilot and provides their names to the Telecommuting Coordinator. |
| 5 |
The Agency Director issues a letter to
selected managers and supervisors instructing them to
attend an orientation provided by ADOA. The orientation
will instruct them about the pilot and how to select telecommuters.
(suggested letter to managers and supervisors in section
4) |
| 6 |
Managers and supervisors then approach selected
employees and ask them to volunteer for the agency pilot.
Managers and supervisors notify the Telecommuting Coordinator
who will be telecommuting from their section and bring
them to the agency training. |
| 7 |
The Telecommuting Coordinator distributes
pre-pilot survey to participating supervisors and telecommuters
to be completed and returned to the Telecommuting Coordinator
prior to the training. (draft pre-pilot survey provided
in section 5) |
| 8 |
The Agency Trainer reviews the pre-pilot
telecommuting survey results in advance of telecommuter/supervisor
training. The pre-pilot surveys will highlight the attitudes
and concerns of the pilot population about telecommuting. |
| 9 |
The Agency Trainer uses the video and workbook
entitled The Telecommuting Zone to train pilot telecommuters
and supervisors (see additional State of Arizona Telecommuting
Program Materials list this section). During the training,
telecommuters and their supervisors will develop a Telecommuting
Agreement outlining the new work arrangement. The Telecommuting
Coordinator attends the training to discuss agency-specific
policies. The names and work addresses of all telecommuters
are then forwarded, with the training evaluations, to
the Department of Administration. |
| 10 |
The Telecommuting Coordinator meets
with pilot participants in periodic focus groups to
learn of their experiences and to address problems and
suggest resolutions if necessary. (Sample memo inviting
telecommuters and supervisors to focus groups and sample
focus group questions provided in section 6)
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| 11 |
The Telecommuting Coordinator issues a
six-month pilot survey to supervisors, telecommuters and
non-telecommuters. (six-month surveys and suggested transmittal
letters to telecommuters, supervisors and non-participants
in section 7) |
| 12 |
The Telecommuting Coordinator meets
with upper management to discuss survey results, recommend
program revision, and identify program expansion opportunities
within the agency.
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| 13 |
The Agency Director publishes the results
of the pilot, affirms current population of telecommuters,
and directs new managers and supervisors to attend ADOA
telecommuting orientations designed to help them identify
additional telecommuters for agency training. (suggested
program expansion letters to upper management in section
8; to current program participants in section 9 and to
the entire agency in section 10) |
| 14 |
Agency Trainer uses the training video
and workbook entitled The Keys to Telecommuting Success
to assist all new telecommuters and their supervisors
to complete formal telecommuting agreements.
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Selling the Program
Since a telework trial typically includes
only the most foreword thinking supervisors and the best employees,
there may appear to be little or no management resistance.
But be assured that as the program is expanded beyond the
trial stage, management resistance will become a barrier.
Therefore it is important to the organization with a vision
to collect lots of data on management issues during the trial
and publish the experience broadly. For example, Arizona’s
program evaluation focused on the myths concerning telework.
These myths are commonly heard in any organization were telework
is being introduced. We found that the myths are perpetuated
by lack of experience or information and can become barriers
to the adoption of a telework program. The evaluation’s
executive summary published what experienced State employees
had to say about these common myths. The executive summary
may be found on the
Arizona web site
Management can change
their act
Focus groups conducted during this evaluation
demonstrated that the exchange of information based upon actual
experience increased positive attitudes about telework among
front-line supervisors and mid-level managers. The ASU research
team stated the following in their evaluation of the focus
groups:
"It seemed to be a relatively easy
process to change the perceptions of managers and supervisors
regarding the barriers to telecommuting where those perceptions
were based on unfamiliarity or misinformation. In each focus
group, participants described the focus group as a learning
situation about telecommuting. The least familiar members
of each group were the most likely to express this opinion.
The focus groups in general appeared to move participants
into a position of being more supportive of telecommuting."
How are organizations
doing when it comes to management resistance and telework?
The Families and Work Institute survey of
188 Fortune 1000 companies in 30 industry groups found management
resistance to change as a barrier to implementing family-friendly
programs (like telework) in the workplace. In each of the
three stages of family friendliness described by the Institute,
organizations can be categorized by how they overcome management
resistance. It is revealing to note that one third of all
the US companies surveyed by the Families and Work Institute
fell short of the first stage of family-friendliness as described
below. Forty-six percent of the companies were stage one organizations,
nineteen percent were stage two organizations and two percent
were stage three organizations.
Pre-stage one companies struggle with family-friendliness
as not being a business issue and grapple with the appearance
of unfairness by implementing a family-friendly program to
ease the work-family conflict of only one segment in their
workforce.
Stage one organizations realize that they
can make a business case for offering policies or programs
that help employees manage work and family issues. Such programs
and policies have been proven to improve morale, reduce stress,
increase productivity and reduce turnover. Stage one organizations
also come to redefine fairness as being fair about offering
everyone some assistance instead of offering everyone equal
assistance.
Stage two organizations realize that even
though they implement a comprehensive package of policies
and programs, unless they have the commitment of top management
these programs will not be successful.
Stage three organizations focus on changing
their corporate culture and train management to recognize
the intrinsic value of being family-friendly and how to work
with employees to utilize their family-friendly policies and
programs.
Conclusion:
A well thought-out telework trial will help
to address the concerns of managers and supervisors, demonstrate
the viability of the organizations official business case,
and help to recommend the future actions that must be taken
in order to expand telework and maximize the benefits for
the organization and its employees.
John Corbett
Telework Programs Administrator
State of Arizona
Phone (602) 542-3637
Fax (602) 542-3636
[email protected]
www.telecommuting.state.az.us
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