Wednesday, 30 October 2013

Telework needs structure and training

The results of what is perhaps the largest study into teleworking undertaken in Australia and New Zealand have just been released. Its findings on the benefits of teleworking for both employees and employers are pretty positive.

However the study, the Trans-Tasman Telework Survey, also uncovered a significant lack of formality around teleworking.

Only 22 percent of respondents said they had formal written agreements around teleworking, 27 percent had verbal agreements, 47 percent said: “The organisation and/or my manager is aware that I telework but nothing is formally agreed,” and the remaining three percent were teleworking on the sly: “I telework without the knowledge of the organisation and/or my manager.”

Formal polices are clearly desirable to ensure that everyone knows were they stand on teleworking issues, but the lack of these has wider ramifications that impact the effectiveness of teleworking.

The survey report said: “Training specifically related to telework was not provided to either managers or employees in the majority of organisations studied. The exceptions tend to be where specific roles or an entire team are classified as teleworkers and training is provided to all personnel involved prior to commencement of the new arrangements.”

Several survey respondents quoted suggested that such training was unnecessary but their comments focussed purely on the practicalities of teleworking.

“People know enough of the work they are doing, so it’s just another place with a similar looking look and feel,” and: “We are all OK with that [training] if you remotely access our services, you use the same software programs that everybody uses, so the standard training is enough.”

However the report noted that others had identified a wider management issue: “Some concern was raised in public sector organisations about managers being rather traditional and conservative, lacking skills specific to managing workers who are not office based.”

It quoted one respondent saying: “Older managers don't seem as comfortable with managing in a flexible environment, but HR spends a lot of time empowering managers to work effectively in a telework environment. We should provide some induction across the board for managers and employees, but at the moment all we provide is some training material on the web regarding telework, but I'm not sure how many people actually access it. Best practice means that we should ensure that everyone has exposure to this training and preparation for teleworking."

Contrast this with Cisco, which sponsored the study. What could be called “extreme teleworking” is widespread in Cisco. According to Tim Fawcett, general manager, government affairs & policy with Cisco Australia, 52 percent of Cisco employees globally work in a location different from that of their manager - which means they might not meet face-to-face for months on end. “You need to be able to work remotely and to manage staff remotely to be part of the company,” he said.

When I asked him what was done to ensure managers had the required skills he replied: “It is quite sophisticated. It is part of the culture, you are expected to do it, and there is a whole bunch of support services, mostly online. There is also a specific course designed for managers that are managing remote workers.”

The Labor Government was a big supporter of teleworking - it initiated the National Telework week in 2012 - which will be held again from 18November. It promises to do something to address this lack of training. “This year the Telework Partners and Telework team will be bringing you a Telework training kit to help employees and employers join in the anywhere working world.”


Labor had a much-publicised goal that “By 2020, Australia will have doubled its level of telework to at least 12 per cent of Australian employees.” The Coalition, in its pre-election Policy for E-Government and the Digital Economy, dismissed this goal as “misleading and irrelevant,” but failed to make any specific statements about what it would do to replace it.

No comments:

Post a Comment