Telecommuting used to only be an easy solution for the big companies - those with enormous IT organizations that could easily build an entire service for the employees to remotely (and securely) access the company intranet. But now, there’s more need than ever for small businesses to offer telecommuting. However, the question is, how?

Small businesses have the same need as large companies to offer the benefits of telecommuting to their staff to stay competitive, and have the same need to be able to access their employees during non-work hours for emergency situations. But the challenge of working out all those technical details to allow staff access to the small business’s network can be pretty daunting.

Fortunately I just came across an article in Small Business Computing.com that goes into some of that technical nitty-gritty and gives a few details on new solutions that can help you easily make the leap.

So take a read and see if any ideas in the article might just help you quickly take those next steps. Don’t let a small size stop you from competing with the big guys!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, small business, work from home, telecommuting advice

Apparently there are many people who want to telecommute but are afraid of losing the opportunity for promotions if they do. But if you know the right methods and techniques to maintain your visibility, you can benefit from all the advantages of telecommuting without worry about any downsides.

An interesting article in US News and World Report comments on a survey by Steelcase that although half of office workers are able to telecommute, less than a third do for fear that their manager wants them in the office and they need to be there to be noticed.

There are many techniques that will help keep you in your boss’s virtual line of sight. Schedule more frequent 1-on-1 meetings with him, by phone. Send him a weekly status update by email. Do the same with your key co-workers too. Simple actions like this can combat the out-of-sight-out-of-mind phenomenon. If you’re really concerned, try telecommuting just 1 day/week first, then increase it as you feel more confident.

Read my other blog posts for many more helpful suggestions!

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, work from home, work at home moms

I just read an article in Businessweek about how a lot of British workers want to telecommute but their managers, in general, are reluctant. But one part made me mad. They quoted a survey which seemed to support manager concerns about productivity of telecommuters. They said:

Almost half (46 per cent) of home workers confessed to spending over an hour of every working day on non-work activities—with ‘personal internet use’ and paying bills being the biggest guilty pleasures. One in 10 home workers even confessed to watching TV and taking a nap on work time.

‘Multitasking’ was also popular with WFHers - almost half (42 per cent) of female home workers said they regularly do cleaning or laundry during the workday—and almost a third of men say they use work time to prepare meals or keep fit.

However, there’s two major problems with looking at these results in a vacuum:

1. They fail to mention (if they even surveyed them at all) how many workers who come into the office spend over an hour per day on ‘personal internet use’ or ‘multitasking’.
2. They don’t factor in that most people who work from home end up working more hours, because they’re not wasting time commuting, and they often take shorter lunches since they’re on their own. So telecommuters’ workdays are typically a little longer and taking a break is not unreasonable.

I actually wrote an article in my blog just recently on this exact topic - about how to fairly fit in personal activities during your workday if you telecommute.

Remember, it’s not about how you spend every waking minute. It’s about whether you fairly put in your time and how much (and at what quality) work you get done.

Technorati Tags: telecommute, telecommuting advice, work from home, work at home moms

More and more these days, people are starting to work in environments where they are not face-to-face with others. When it comes to co-workers, this applies to telecommuters, to people who work in teams that are geographically distributed, and to people who work with teams that are in low-cost off-shore locations. When it comes to clients and customers, this applies to anyone (whether they are at a large corporation or run their own small business) who interacts with non-local clients and customers

Whenever you have relationships, professional or personal, you have to maintain some level of presence with them. You need a way to keep yourself in their mind, to maintain a rapport, to make sure they think of you when they need whatever it is you want to provide, and to keep them sufficiently vested in the relationship to be willing to help you when you are in need.

When you see your coworkers in the office every day, maintaining that presence is easy. However, when you aren’t face to face, your relationship with someone can slowly erode as the out-of-sight-out-of-mind phenomenon can chip away at any level of comfort and familiarity that person has with you. Maintaining that presence virtually requires a new set of skills and techniques that may not even occur to you.

Let’s take Stan, a friend of my family who has a great humor mailing list – and frequently sends out some really good ‘funnies’. He really takes the time and effort to maintain this. I replied to one of those emails and happened to include my standard email signature which asks people for their feedback on their challenges with telecommuting and virtual presence. Stan wrote back and told me he didn’t even know what “virtual presence” means.

I find this ironic as Stan’s funnies list actually makes him very successful in maintaining his virtual presence with his friends and family. I told him that every time I get an email from him I think of him. His emails keep him up near the top of my mental awareness. If I were to encounter something that would be useful or valuable to him, I’d be more likely to think of him and send him a note than I would other friends of the family who are not as successful in maintaining their virtual presence with me. When I do see Stan in person I feel closer to him and more comfortable, more eager to catch up on his life and plan to see him again.

As technologies advance, the people we interact with are less likely to be located in our home town anymore. Having the right skills to maintain your relationships with them is becoming a critical necessity in the business world. And it’s even starting to become, if not necessary, then definitely advantageous, in personal situations.

Whether you use the term “virtual presence” or something else, now more than ever you still need the ability to interact with people and successfully maintain your presence in a non-physical (virtual) manner. There are many different techniques and methods you can use to maintain that virtual presence, if you know what they are.

How good is your virtual presence, and is there room for improvement?

Technorati Tags: telecommuting advice, telecommute, virtual presence, work from home, work at home

Building relationships can be harder when you telecommute, and there are always little incidents here and there that remind me of techniques that telecommuters should be more conscious of to make their working relationships more successful.

My boss is relatively new to our team, and a lot of people don’t know him very well yet. Especially those who work in other parts of the country or world, who don’t get to talk to him face-to-face. Some people aren’t comfortable with him, don’t feel like they know his personality, and haven’t seen the personal, human side to him yet.

I noticed that when we have a team meeting, once my boss dials in he immediately stops any chit-chat and gets right down to business. I imagine part of this is because he is busy and he knows the team is busy too and doesn’t want to take up any more time than necessary. But those first couple minutes of chit-chat are a valuable way for people to get to know you, know what you’re like, and to build a connection with you. Even if it’s simple talk about the weather or tossing around a few jokes.

Today my boss reviewed the results of our company’s annual employee satisfaction survey. He struggled getting people to give their thoughts or comments on the statistical results. He urged people to feel comfortable being honest with him and that he wants to hear what people think and they shouldn’t be afraid of speaking up. He even said he welcomed any personal constructive criticism. Good for him.

So after the meeting I politely gave him the feedback about having a few minutes of casual conversation at the beginning of team meetings. He appreciated it and said he’d give it a try. Hmm - it will be interesting to see if he was just being polite (and that giving my ‘constructive criticism’ was actually a career-limiting move) or if he actually gives it a shot. And of course, it will be even more interesting to see if it helps. Keep reading - I’ll keep you posted in future blogs on how it goes!

Anyway, this same lesson can be applied to telecommuters - to help maintain your relationships with those people you don’t see very often.

Technorati Tags: telecommuting, telecommuting advice, distributed teams, work from home, work at home