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Flexible working - teleworking

Author: Jim Riley  Last updated: Sunday 23 September, 2012

Teleworking

Teleworking is a method of workforce planning that allows employees to spend all or part of their working week at a location remote from employers’ workplaces. Home working is a form of teleworking but there are several different categories:

Traditional mobile workers, like sales representatives and delivery drivers. They receive instructions and information via telephones, computers or fax machines at home or in their vehicles;

Managerial and professional staff who spend working days away from their office base and also communicate via telephones, computers or fax machines from their home car or other remote location;

Specialists or office support staff who carry out a range of duties from home or other remote locations and communicate via telephones fax machines and computers;

Other workers who operate from local centres with computer and telecommunications facilities sometimes known as ‘telecottages’

Advantages of Teleworking

- Teleworking can reduce costs by providing savings on office space and other facilities

- It can improve productivity as people are not interrupted by the day to day distractions of office life and politics

- Employees have more freedom over where they live, how they organise their work and when they carry it out

- Employers who help people with disabilities or caring responsibilities to work at home can benefit from the additional skills and expertise of workers who may not be available to attend the workplace.

- Teleworking also reduces or eliminates time spent on traveling and lowers absence and turnover rates

Disadvantages of Teleworking

- Remote working is not suitable for all types of job

- Providing suitable technology can be expensive

- Some employees may feel socially isolated; successful teleworkers tend to be self motivated, self-disciplined, competent and able to work with little supervision

- Despite improvements in communications technology, managers may find it difficult to communicate with and manage remote workers

- Career development and training may suffer

- Health and safety issues arise - are employees’ homes or other available premises suitable for teleworking?

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