Telework Policy Development: Top Ten Tips

Telecommuting offers many benefits for both the employer and the employees. For the business, the setup means a more cost-effective way to run business functions because less power is consumed to perform daily tasks. There’s also little need to manage a large workspace when most workers perform their assigned tasks from outside the office. For employees, working from home allows them to save on expenses incurred in commuting to and from the office. It also gives them the opportunity to spend more time with their families, as in the case of WAHM (work at home mom), and reduce work related stress.

Developing a Work at Home Policy: A Guide for Human Resource Managers

Managing telecommuting programs is different from supervising actual workers in person. To maximize the benefit of telecommuting, it is important that supervisors learn to work with remote teams from a virtual office.

Before anything else though, you need to design a policy that covers flexible work options and virtual worker management. Concepts such as maintaining flexibility in the workplace and wage and hour laws must be considered.

Here are the top ten tips for developing a telecommuting policy.

1. Identify your business needs.
   It is important to list how having people work outside the office would benefit your business and assess whether the benefits outweigh the consequences. Your policy should sufficiently address your company’s expectations regarding labor performance and human resources.
2. Identify who can telework.
   Understand that not everyone at your company can and should be able to work from home. Managing telework arrangements means monitoring the productivity of people who aren’t within arm’s reach so you can’t check the quality of their output until the job is actually shipped to you. As such, the development of a telework policy should include creating requirements for those who want to telework. For example, you need telecommuters who are organized, exhibit strong problem-solving skills, and have excellent communication skills, among other skill sets. Your policy should provide clear criteria for who can work from home so that you can easily defend your decisions later. Beyond the individual’s skill sets, you should also look at which positions in your organization lend themselves to telecommuting. Some positions will not be affected at all if the worker becomes a telecommuter; others may not be able to fill with a remote worker.
3. Implement guidelines for dependent care.
   While working from home has the added benefit of spending more time with family, it should not be taken as an alternative to making dependent care arrangements. Work productivity will be compromised if the teleworker has to attend to the children while writing documents for the virtual office.
4. Formalize equipment agreements
   Your policies should also consider the types of equipment a telecommuter would need to be able to work efficiently outside the office. The agreement must stipulate who will provide the equipment for the worker. Some companies provide computer and Internet service allowances to their remote teams, while others do not. In the latter case, flexible work options are often offered as alternatives to working in the office. Employees still have the option to report to and finish their work in the conventional workspace provided.
5. Ensure the safety of employees.
   It’s also important to make sure your agreement clarifies who is responsible for employee safety when the worker performs their duties from home. You can hold your workers accountable for keeping your home workplace safe. Additionally, you can provide a rider that allows you, the employer, to inspect the home workspace to make sure it follows the guidelines set forth in the agreement.
6. Guarantee confidentiality.
   Company information is another consideration when managing virtual workers. Business data can be compromised as workers access it from outside the office. As such, it is important to stipulate in the agreement ownership of company information and documents in the event the employee leaves your company. This should be clearly explained and the confidentiality of the job information should also be underlined.
7. Make sure the technology is available.
   If you are hiring virtual employees, you should also include a technology checklist of what you require the applicant to have to qualify as a telecommuter. Technology is important when maintaining a virtual workspace, so new hires should have devices like a dedicated business phone line, three-way calling systems, high-speed Internet access, and a fax machine, among others.
8. Wage and hour laws
   If not prepared, a hiring manager can be forced to deal with a minefield of wage and hour law issues. You must navigate this carefully to avoid liability. Record and track all hours worked by employees who telecommute. You may consider installing timekeeping software for the equipment/computers provided to employees, as regular clock marking is not possible. Determine a system to adequately compensate telecommuting workers for all hours worked, plus overtime (if not exempt). The biggest problem here is how to compensate telecommuting employees who sit idly by, waiting for instructions. Please note that telecommuters may be considered “on call” 24/7. Make sure it’s clear to employees whether they “committed to wait” (as in the case of firefighters, for whom wait time is work time) or “waited to be hired” (meaning they can do whatever they want whenever they are available by email, cell phone, etc.)
9. quality metrics
   To measure the effectiveness of a telecommuting program, you must apply certain metrics for the quality of service. It is important that you ensure that your employees continue to perform according to your expectations. As in any work situation, quality, quantity, profitability, and punctuality are the four main measures to review. Once you have established performance measures, you must establish a feedback system, which helps maintain good performance. In addition, employees who work remotely need a channel to keep their managers informed about the progress of their work.
10. Communication
    Finally, an important detail to keep in mind when developing a teleworking policy is communication. Policies should include information about how often you expect your workers to check their emails, for example, to keep them up to date. Communication should never be one way; therefore, you should also establish and follow guidelines for how employees can communicate with their supervisors, who may also be working remotely.