Consider Teleworking

A small business is a lot like a high school football team: talented and courageous players, but with limited depth on the bench everyone has to play more than one position.

So what do you do when a key employee tells you that, due to circumstances beyond his or her control, he or she is now required to stay at home at least part of the work week?

If you don’t want to lose a valuable team member, the 21st century answer to this management challenge is teleworking.

Teleworking – where an employee works full time or part time off-site, perhaps from home – is becoming much more prevalent in the marketplace. The need to be able to work off-site isn’t new, but only in the past few years have the technological tools been available to make teleworking a viable management option.

And as more and more business owners and executives realize that all work in the 21st century doesn’t have to be done under their roof, teleworking has become more acceptable as a management practice and a valuable alternative to losing a key employee.

Here are some thoughts on how to establish and execute a teleworking relationship.

The first step is to sit down with a prospective teleworking employee and find out how much work can realistically be done off-site. Then, determine how the off-site and on-site schedule would be coordinated. If the answer is acceptable to both parties, make sure everyone has a clear understanding about the schedule, work guidelines and expectations.

Next step – the tools. Get your teleworker a notebook computer (which will allow work to be taken back and forth) and pay for a broadband Internet connection at his or her home. With the new notebook PCs and telecommunication capability, often the only difference between a teleworker and any other employee is that theyjust aren’t always in plain sight. Also, you may have to provide your teleworker with furniture that will make his or her home office as productive as possible.

Next, talk with your other employees about why this step is being taken so they can support the new plan. If handled properly, I predict you’ll get major points for being such a cool, 21st century manager.

Finally, execute your teleworking plan with the knowledge that all parties will benefit from this new working arrangement. You should also anticipate the need to make adjustments, so schedule a periodic review with your teleworker to discuss progress and modifications.

By the way, if you have trouble imagining having an employee who’s not under your roof, here’s how to get over it: Think about how many hours a week your key employees are in your building without you actually seeing them. I’ll bet that number will surprise you.

And it might make you feel better knowing that the teleworking model is being implemented by small businesses like your every day.

Write this on a rock…
Don’t lose a key employee because you didn’t consider teleworking as an option.