Some smart ass said that “Work is something you do, and not something you have to travel to”. Probably correct in the essence that many people drive to work, and the minute they get their coats off, they grab a cup of tea and read the paper for fifteen minutes. This renowned word “work” has become linked with a place we go to, rather than an action we have to perform. “Honey I’m off to work.” or “That’s the work calling” are expressions which have seeped into our subconscious over the years. In any case the positions are changing as more and more office personnel in Online Jobs are being asked to Work From Home.
With this migration from the office, managers are now confronted with no physical personnel in the premises and therefore no instant way of knowing what their workers are working on(or not working on) as is the case. Internet Business has always been like this, so perhaps other market sectors need to review how these web based companies manage their workers. Chances are that they have taken on board “Management by Objectives” to set goals and assess their staff by. It makes sense, as managers cannot see what their workers are up to if they now Work From Home some thirty odd miles away.
This move to remote working is a huge adjustment for managers as well as staff. The belief that a lot of managers will have, is that their workers will be less productive if they have no face to face supervision. Evidently that may be the case, but in a normal office it is estimated that over an hour a day is squandered by staff gossiping at the photocopier or with smoking breaks etc. It is really up to the manager and the employee to sit down before they exit the office and set out some system, some objectives and some set times to assess progress. Whether you fall in with Management by Objectives or not, it does look like a way of ensuring both parties know what requires to be done and by when. How it is accomplished is another matter, and I think some latitude needs to be given to staff who Work From Home. It is a big adjustment for them, especially if their previous Online Jobs were in a sizeable office with lots going on and lots of social contact.
Undoubtedly without some type of suitable appraisal scheme, personnel that work in some type of the Internet Business, may be passed over for promotion, because they are no longer spotted back at HQ. That is where first rate MBO’s can be employed to compare personnel doing alike work, regardless whether their Online Jobs are in the main city office or far away in a suburban semi-detached house. It is a new mode of working so there will be slip ups, but with any luck lessons will be learnt. After the first bedding in period, managers might find that remote employees are in fact more productive. One such analysis from CompTIA found that two thirds of companies indicated that productivity had improved.
So although not conclusive, it does seem that productivity may not be as big an issue as managers believed. One thing is for sure managers in any sort of Internet Business will have to count on their staff to do what is needed and it’s up to them to manage them suitably through “Management by Objectives”.