Work From Home

WHAT TO CONSIDER WHEN TELEWORKING

Teleworking will change how you communicate with management, co-remote workers, and clients. Some considerations are:

• Time management: Will you be distracted at home? Remember, remote work should not be an alternative to childcare.
• Communication with coworkers and customers: With face-to-face chats less a part of your day-to-day, how can you check in with your coworkers? Will you have phone calls transferred to your home line or check your business phone periodically throughout the day? Clients and coworkers should understand and feel comfortable about contacting you.
• Home office set-up: Do you have an available workspace? Will your employer provide a computer?
• Social contact with coworkers: If you are a full-time teleworker, what might you miss by not being in the office on a regular basis? Consider using free or low-cost technology to video conference during staff meetings.
• Workflow and project reporting: How will you report your productivity to management?
• Stay connected: Use our tip sheet for ideas for staying connected while working from home. 
• Reduce fatigue: Use our tip sheet for ideas to reduce telework fatigue.
  

Benefits for you

Teleworking can offer a variety of benefits for remote employees. Some of the benefits of remote work include:

• Increased flexibility: Working from home gives you more control over your work schedule, allowing you to have more personal time and achieve a better work-life balance.
• Cost savings: Teleworking saves money on gas, car maintenance, and public transportation expenses.
• Increased productivity: Without the distractions of a busy office, employees can often be more productive while working from home.
• Reduced stress: Teleworking can reduce the stress and hassle of commuting, leading to a happier and healthier work environment.

Benefits for your employer

Employers can also reap many benefits from implementing a telework program. These benefits include:

• Reduced overhead costs: Teleworking can reduce office space and equipment costs, saving the company money.
• Improved employee retention: Offering telework as an option can improve employee retention rates and even the company culture, as it is often seen as a valuable employee benefit.
• Increased productivity levels: By eliminating distractions commonly found in traditional office settings, employees can focus on their tasks and achieve higher levels of concentration, resulting in increased productivity.
• Expanded talent pool: Employers can recruit talent from a wider net if telework is offered, allowing the company to tap into a larger pool of skilled employees.
  

HOW TO TALK TO YOUR EMPLOYER

When discussing telecommuting with management, here are a few tips:

• Establish teleworking as a critical business issue: One company in Tennessee closed its facilities for five days due to bad weather conditions. The teleworking champion took that opportunity to document the rather high six-figure financial impact of the closings and demonstrated how teleworking could help save money moving forward. In other words, teleworking is great for employees, but it’s also great for business.
• Use an ROI cost calculator:https://globalworkplaceanalytics.com/roi. It can help demonstrate the financial savings possible if your employer implements a work from home program. Showing how this type of program can positively impact your employer’s bottom line is a great way to sell the idea.
• Form partnerships with other areas of the organization to create a multi-dimensional team approach to teleworking: This way, teleworking won't be viewed as another program but as a cross-organizational business objective.
• Identify which positions are good candidates for teleworking: By identifying the tasks and roles that can be effectively performed outside of the traditional office setting, you can ensure a seamless transition to teleworking and maximize the success of your program.

RESOURCES

Save with telework

You can save some cash by teleworking. Check out this calculator to see how much.

Win while working from home

Join our next teleworking challenge and win some cool prizes.

Have Ride Together Pierce help you go remote

Let us make telework work for your organization! Click here to request assistance.

Tips for staying connected

Check out our best teleworking tips and comprehensive toolkit.

Free tools for transitioning to a remote job

• Slack - An instant messaging app that helps you stay in touch with coworkers during work hours.
• Zoom - Many relied on this video conference program during the pandemic, and it’s still going strong.
• Doodle - Easily schedule in-person or online meetings with your remote team.
• Microsoft Teams - A great video conference tool for collaboration, ideation, and preparation!
• Google Docs - Share notes, write and edit content, and collaborate with Google’s version of Word document.