Workshop 8
TRAINING THE TELEMANAGERS AND TELEWORKERS
by Jane Anderson, Director
Midwest Institute for Telecommuting Education

CONTENTS

• Introduction
• Determining the Training Needs of Your Organization
• Training Formats
• Training Topics/Content
• Training Delivery Methods
• Evaluation
• Conclusion

When implementing telework as a new work option or in refining current arrangements, managers and employees are concerned about issues such as communications, team building, personnel policy, productivity, safety, liability, and technology use, to name a few. Ironically some of these concerns may not be new issues, but they can become more important as the work force becomes more dispersed. Concerns may be inadequate management practices or management by sight, lack of defined, measurable employee deliverables, or lack of planned communications. Remember that these challenges didn’t appear overnight or as soon as the organization decided to offer telework. Most likely they have been in existence all along, but just ignored or tolerated or compensated for in some way. Telework forces an organization to not only identify these challenges, but also to develop ways to overcome them.

When employees work in-house or at a corporate site, it can be easier (but not necessarily more efficient) to find ways to compensate for deficits. If something isn’t working, you may be able to go and literally find that person or resource and confront the issue face-to-face. When employees begin to work remotely, some of the ways we compensate for office deficits no longer work.

Telework training for managers, teleworkers and coworkers can assist the organization in not only preparing to have effective remote practices, but also in refining current work processes and eliminating inefficiencies. We are all aware that training does not automatically resolve issues or that persons necessarily learn what we want them to learn. There is an old training adage that states that in order for a person to change a behavior, they must first practice that behavior 20-25 times. This holds true for telework training as well. Trainees, including managers and employees will need to practice and adapt their methodologies for getting the work done. Telework training allows you to encourage the discussion and practice of better work methods and improved work outcomes. In many ways you are reinforcing the Management 101 concepts that most employees have already digested, but with a new focus.

Telework training also assists in reducing potential problems because trainees become aware of and discuss strategies for making telework a positive solution for both managers and teleworkers.

Determining the Training Needs of the Organization

Who Should Receive Training?

Training participants may include several targeted groups: teleworkers, direct supervisors, coworkers, support staff and upper level management, if desired. Organizations can also provide training opportunities through briefing sessions that are offered to inform general employee or manager populations about the telework alternative prior to and during implementation. The organization should decide on whether to require or strongly encourage participant attendance at training. This can be addressed in the policy document.

Who Provides the Training?

The training facilitator role will vary among organizations. In general, telework coordinators and professional trainers serve as excellent resources, because of existing or prior experience with telework implementation or in working with other organizations that have implemented a program. The training department in large organizations can assist in the development of the training, particularly if it is to be rolled out to other divisions or geographic areas. Another alternative is to hire an outside consultant to assist in the development of training materials and content and utilize a "train the trainer" approach for company staff.

Doing A Needs Assessment

In developing telework training materials, you may want to assess or survey potential teleworkers and telemanagers on what their concerns are in starting the arrangement. This provides valuable information and direction in formulating training exercises and content. Some of the issues will be related to the telework policy that the organization has already established or not established. You can survey participants before the training by having them complete a checklist of typical concerns and adding additional questions they may have. Many of the issues may focus on team communication, coworkers, performance evaluation, equipment and technology, employer and employee property, and dependent care. If your organization is experiencing major changes in its organizational structure, hiring freezes, or layoffs, these concerns may also be reflected in participant feedback. By compiling these concerns before training, you can customize the curriculum content to meet the needs of your participants.

Some sample concerns are listed below that can assist you in developing a needs assessment. You may want to develop and brainstorm separate lists for teleworkers, telemanagers, and the other stakeholders involved.

1. Meeting work deadlines
2. Costs of implementation (equipment and software)
3. Dependent care during work hours
4. Communication with co-workers / team, supervisor
5. Communication with customers / clients
6. Data security and confidentiality
7. Co-worker resentment and morale
8. Screening and selection
9. Promotional opportunities
10. Feelings of isolation
11. Reliance on support staff
12. Technology and connectivity

If you find that many issues are related to technology or equipment, you may want to add a training component that is conducted by your information systems or technology division. They are able to address these concerns with more detail and accuracy than the telework trainer. At the time, they can also provide user guidelines for remote access, equipment maintenance, help desk support, installation, telecommunications and equipment tracking. This also assists the technology staff to understand what their end users’ needs are in making the telework arrangements work.

The technical proficiency of teleworkers and telemanagers may or may not be adequate to ensure efficient technology use. Some organizations require participants to practice and demonstrate specific technology skills in regard to software use, minor troubleshooting, document transfer, and error recognition, among others. For example, telecommuting medical transcriptionists who work full-time at home receive both auditory dictation and data simultaneously via two phone lines. They use these to transcribe and then send the finished work product back to a special network. These interfaces require more technical proficiency because they need to understand how to work with various error messages. Work simulation is provided at the corporate site so employees can acquire the technical skills they need before they begin teleworking. Depending upon the complexity of the technology interfaces this training may or may not be needed by your participants.

Developing Training Objectives

After completing a needs assessment, you can customize standard telework training topics to your specific audience. You can choose to include similar content areas for both telemanagers and teleworkers. Or you can adapt or customize topics that specifically need discussion within each group. When developing objectives, verbs should accurately describe what participants would gain. A sampling of objectives are listed below.

1. Identify challenges in managing remote employees.

2. Identify benefits and challenges for teleworking arrangements.

3. Summarize success factors that contribute to maximum telework effectiveness.

4. Identify ideal supervisor and teleworker traits.

5. Evaluate key supervisory strategies and responsibilities for effective telework.

6. Analyze appropriate and effective remote communications.

7. Analyze the impacts of working remotely on successful teleworker and team performance.

8. Develop individualized teleworker plans.

After developing your objectives you are ready to move on to selecting appropriate training formats, content and training activities.

Training Formats

Telework training is offered to groups of telemanagers, telecommuters, or in joint sessions when coworkers can also be included. Separate training sessions are typically offered, followed by a joint session in which all participants can plan their individualized arrangements. A joint session is best used when participant numbers are smaller. The advantages of having separate sessions are that participants can freely speak and can often discuss issues in greater detail. Most of the training can be interactive for both small and large groups.

How much time should be devoted to training?

Training times may vary but individual sessions for teleworkers and telemanagers typically average between 3-4 hours each. A joint session can involve 1½ -2 hours. If you are conducting a briefing session on policy issues and questions, this may take from 1-1½ hours. 

Training can be conducted in the following formats. 

1. Separate Manager Training

Telemanager training can cover specific supervisory issues such as teleworker selection, delegation, challenges, remote communications, documentation, and development of a telework team. Effective strategies to maximize performance can also be addressed in more detail.

2. Separate Teleworker Training

Teleworker training can specifically address key responsibilities, success factors for effective teams, work schedule, promotional opportunities, coworkers, communications, and remote work factors that affect overall performance.

3. Joint Manager & Teleworker Training

Joint training can involve telemanager and teleworkers in discussions about effective remote communications, team effectiveness and success factors. This can also be a time in which pairs of telemanagers and teleworkers plan their individualized arrangements. 

4. Telework Policy Training

If the policy guidelines have been drafted and developed, a portion of the training can be devoted to discussing the highlights of the policy to answer participant questions. If possible, telemanagers and teleworkers should receive a copy prior to training. Then participants can review and bring questions they have to the actual training. This should be conducted by a company representative or the telework coordinator because it requires in-depth knowledge of the company policies, culture and procedures. It also brings up "what if" questions that is valuable in planning further telework policy changes or expansion. Topics can include project rationale, scope, participation criteria, employer and employee property use, safety and ergonomics, work schedule, dependent care, and data security and confidentiality.

The following training topics are generic and can be addressed in both telemanager and teleworker training sessions. They can also be used in a joint training session in which teams plan their work arrangements in more detail. How will work arrangements need to be adapted or changed so the team can achieve performance results? Will part-time or full-time telework affect the need to modify the work environment?

1. Team Building

• Ensuring team effectiveness
• Work toward same goals - divide up tasks and check progress
• In-house benefits (i.e., resources, printers, copiers, conference rooms)
• Staff meetings with agenda
• Allow attendees to share
• Welcome ideas and suggestions
• Address concerns before they’re problems (how & when)
  • Will coworkers have more to do? Will supervisor have more to do? Everyone counts. Everyone’s responsible. Teleworkers are not more important.
  • Will it affect team spirit negatively? (feelings of jealousy toward teleworker and/or the non-teleworker feels slighted?)
  • Socialization
• How to handle decreased co-worker spontaneity
• Maintaining ties with co-workers
• Teleworker must take responsibility too

2. Performance Evaluation - What are the teleworker performance deliverables? Provide examples of deadlines, quantifiables, and quality measures. How will performance feedback be communicated? How will effect on teleworker performance on team be evaluated? How will teleworker provide feedback on team member performance? Will reporting standards change?

3. Support Duties - How will support staff duties need to change? What tasks could be reassigned, eliminated, streamlined or added to support staff duties? What tasks will teleworkers absolutely be required to do in office? What are tasks done best off-site?

4. Other Department Work Interfaces - What are current interfaces with other departments? Will other department functions need to change to support key results? How will their work products be made available to teleworkers? How will response times be maintained? What kind of adaptation in information exchange or flow will be needed? How will speed of communication be maintained?

How will work process momentum with work team be maintained or increased? (sharing of documents, file transfer, signoffs, approval levels?) How will part-time telework affect work processes?

5. Communications - What types of coworker, supervisor and team communications, both written and verbal, are needed to maximize performance result? Frequency? Checkpoints? Face-to-face meetings? E-mail checks? Technology to support? (E-mail, voice mail, cell phone, etc.) How will teleworker access key staff? Who needs to know teleworker schedule? Do routing and mailing procedures change?

6. Document Security - How will legal/confidentiality guidelines or company policies affect or impede data sharing, document transfer, telecommunications? What documents can be removed from office? What is "return policy?" How will documents be destroyed?

7. Database - How will current database requirements (availability, speed, accuracy) need to change to support teleworkers? What are short-term and long-term needs?

8. Equipment/Technology - What equipment/technology is needed to provide adequate capacity and speed? Will equipment be supplied? If yes, what specifically? What types of technology are absolutely essential? What are secondary? What are financial limits for purchase or leasing of needed technology?

9. Teleworker Work Schedule, Attendance - How will employee’s flexible work hours affect result? What types of back-up or emergency support are expected from teleworker? Attendance requirements? What are work schedule and core hours requirements?

10. Emergency Back-Up - Define what an emergency is. What types of emergencies or exceptions occur that will need in-house staff back up? Define disaster recovery requirements and identify contact person responsible. What is hot-line strategy to reach teleworker in an emergency?

Key Telemanager Content

The following content may be topics to specifically address with managers as a group.

Delegation

• Start small and increase
• Learn to "let go"

• How to demonstrate trust

Decision-making authority

• Manager not always available
• Learning experience for everyone

Documentation

• What is important to track? (phone calls, meetings, challenges, issues, procedural improvements, tips learned)

Monitoring work performance and providing feedback

• Clearly define instructions and deadlines
• Focus on defined results - adjusting schedules and priorities

• Accountability by reporting

Development of a telework team

• Create a team-oriented support system
• Supervisor, teleworker, work group, support staff, computer and/or telecommunications staff
• Peer group telemanager team
• Learning from other managers’ experiences

Key Teleworker Training Content

The following topics may be topics to specifically address with teleworkers as a group.

• Co-worker Communications. In most cases, co-workers are very supportive of teleworkers, especially if consistent communication occurs. The supervisor and teleworker can use staff meetings to discuss work plan and communication issues or adaptations. Subtle comments can occur though and the teleworker must decide on how to handle these.

• "I wish I had your schedule."
• "Oh sure you’re working. Must be nice."
• "Seen any good soap operas lately?"
• "I wish I could work at home. You are lucky you were selected."
• You must feel isolated.
  

• Resistance from Non-Telework Co-workers

Consider the ways that co-workers may benefit (i.e., by having fewer distractions if enough people in the work group telework and by having faster access to scarce in-office resources such as computers, printers, photocopiers, and conference rooms). The first staff meeting to introduce telework can be used to discuss the use of the teleworker’s office or desk. Is this space always open for use, open by permission only, or not available?

• Supervisor Communications

  Telework often forces the communications with the supervisor to be defined. Spontaneous or as needed communications tend to occur less just because of limited face-to-face contact. Discuss with your supervisor your needs for 1:1 contact. This may vary depending upon the job, project status and individual needs of the teleworker and supervisor. Draft a plan and re-evaluate in three months.

• Customer/Client Communications

  Is the fact that you are teleworking seamless to the customer? How can it affect your customer relationship positively? The teleworker may be able to ask the customer or key contact directly to ascertain whether the telework arrangement is invisible.

• Teleworker Phone Etiquette

Professionalism - Phone use from a remote location should provide the same professional demeanor as required in the office. This holds true, not only for your customer callers, but also for co-workers and supervisor. You should have a work-related message on your home voice mail, not, "You’ve reached the Smith residence." Accessibility - Most callers find busy signals to be extremely frustrating. In some situations, teleworkers prefer not to have their home line made available to all staff or customers, primarily to limit interruptions. If so, the teleworker must take responsibility to check voice mail at designated times.

• Family Issues and Guidelines - The teleworker should request the family’s cooperation by establishing guidelines regarding privacy, interruptions, and use of work area. When is it not okay for a family member to interrupt the employee? Is phone usage or answering by family members restricted during working hours? Is it clear that family use of equipment and work area is not permitted?

Teleworker can establish rules such as:

"I’m on work time right now."

"When I am on the phone, I should not be disturbed."

 

• Supplies/Delivery/Reference Material

Will teleworker pick up supplies?

Reinforce that family members will not have access to supplies

What reference materials or resources need to be duplicated in home office?

There are various strategies to engage participants in telework training. They are summarized below: Interactive discussion on solutions for telework issues has been proved most valuable. Discussion can lead participants to higher levels of thinking in terms of analyzing and evaluating solutions.

Brainstorming

The trainer can divide trainees into groups of 4-5 persons that brainstorm ideas on telework benefits or challenges, ideal teleworker and telemanager traits and success factors. . Then each group can self report and bring ideas back to the larger group. This training exercise can be used effectively at training start to stimulate discussion.. The trainer can also bring up relevant issues that surfaced during the needs assessment to discuss in more depth and detail.

Questioning

Another discussion format is to develop a set of questions and provide to participants such as:

"How do you know teleworkers are being productive?"

"How do you ensure that communication is not lost?"

"How do you handle co-worker resentment?

"What kind of family guidelines should be in place?"

"How does the teleworker avoid feeling socially isolated?"

Ranking Exercises

You can summarize the set of issues that were presented in the needs assessment and have each participant rate which ones are of most concern. Then ask the group as a whole to rank the major issues. When using these techniques, the trainer should be prepared to list participant ideas, discuss them and also add other ideas as needed. In most cases, the group will come up with excellent solutions.

Scenarios

One strategy to promote discussion is to provide "real life" scenarios to both teleworkers and telemanagers in which they generate solutions. These scenarios can relate to safe remote work environment, coworkers, communications, promotions, performance, selection, trust and other issues.

Have participants divide into small groups and devise solutions for each scenario. Each group is assigned one scenario they will report on to the entire group. Each small group has 5 minutes to react to a scenario, pass it on and then move to the next scenario. At the end of the exercise, debriefing and discussion is held on each scenario. This is a fast moving activity which energizes the group and stimulates in depth discussion. Sample scenarios are included below:

Scenario - Coworkers

You are an information systems engineer who works at home two days a week. You also work after hours as needed to get the job done. Due to a 1-hour commute, you have been an enthusiastic advocate for telecommuting.

Recently you have received several subtle, teasing remarks from a couple of co-workers such as "it must be nice" and "wish I had the same opportunity and luxury of working at home." As a telecommuter how would you handle this situation?

Scenario - Performance

Leslie telecommutes full-time from his home 25 miles from the corporate site with work hours from 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. His job as billing clerk requires phone communication and data entry. A storm the night before has caused an electrical outage in a 2-3 block area with no power expected for at least two workdays.

Leslie says he cannot work out of the corporate office because he recently volunteered to pick-up neighborhood kindergartners at 12 noon each day. Meanwhile, it is the end of the month and there is a backlog of work to be done. As his supervisor, how would you handle this situation?

Case Studies

Case studies can be utilized that require participants to develop a communications plan or to examine other factors that can effect performance. Participants can also devise their own case studies in which a teleworker or manager presents a potential problem, briefs the group, and then discusses solutions.

Simulation Activities

This type of activity typically requires a game or resources that enable participants to put themselves in a situation that simulates remote work or communications. It often involves props or hands-on activities.

Lecture

Lectures tend to work best when the trainer is presenting new information related to guidelines or policy. Telework training is more effective when lecture is used minimally.

Evaluation

At the conclusion of training, it is important to have participants provide feedback on the effectiveness and value of the content and activities. You can develop a simple survey form (maximum of two pages) that asks participants to provide ratings on each of the following training factors:

1. Delivery of presentation
2. Quality of material covered
3. Value of session
4. Quality of documentation

You can also add several questions asking for suggestions on how to improve or adapt the training. What was most valuable to you? What was least valuable? What improvements can be made? What suggestions do you have for future training sessions? This information is valuable in helping you to develop an effective training package that can be repeated for future groups of involved in the expansion of your teleworker program.

Conclusion

Telework training is an essential tool in building the success of your program. You have been provided with various ideas on formats, content and training strategies. The essential key to training success is the opportunity for the stakeholders involved, but especially the teleworkers and telemanagers to discuss and plan the strategies that will enable them to implement effectively. The good news is that the training allows participants to refine and make their current work processes better, and so to help ensure the success of the program.