Piloting A Home Worker Program
Businesses Can Access Rare Talent By Allowing Them To Work From Home
Businesses should use more remote workers to help with their IT skills shortfall and gain understanding by piloting a home worker program.
The UK technology industry needs an influx of more than 150,000 people per annum, according to e-skills UK and Gartner, and given that only 34,005 students graduated in computer science in 2005/06, the UK may be facing a future IT skills shortage (Silicon.com report). A recent report from Microsoft suggests that the UK faces a major shortfall in programming skills and that 200,000 basic IT jobs could be off-shored by 2010 (ZDNet on offshoring). As a result of such a lack of qualified people moving into IT, the UK may face a £20bn IT skills shortage (VUNet). Therefore, UK businesses need to be as flexible as possible when recruiting staff to gain the most from the pool of people currently available.
There are a number of factors someone being recruited for a new role should consider. A potential employee has to consider if a new role might require a long commute, or the prospect of relocating to a more expensive part of the country or that such a move may require them to uproot their family away from relatives and friends. For these kinds of reason, UK businesses can find it difficult to recruit the right IT person for the role.
One possible way to address this is for UK businesses to consider remote working for certain staff.
Remote Working Overview
Remote working (or telecommuting) means that a worker stays at home and contributes to the business via telephone and computer. The technology exists today to let people easily do this. Broadband communication speeds and virtual private networks (VPN) can provide a secure connection to the office-based IT infrastructure and voice over IP (VoIP) technology can be used to provide free or very low-cost telephony to the office and beyond.
Effect On The Employee
People that work from home need self-discipline. They have to put in a full day of work when surrounded by things that could distract them. This is why it is a good idea to have a separate office-area so that the employee can separate their work and home life. To help cut down on interruptions, the family and friends of the home worker should be informed of their new way of working. Some people miss the social aspects of work, the personal interaction with colleagues and the special occasions. Those that work from home are obviously not as involved with this aspect of their company; however, they don't have to spend time or money commuting and they can dedicate more of this part of their day to their family.
Effect On The Manager
As an employee isn't in the office as much, some managers feel that they won't be able to manage this member of staff as effectively. However, if both the manager and the employee understand what is expected of them and the home worker is made aware that the only difference in their employment is that they are now working from home, the relationship should work out fine. Home workers need to be trusted to do their job. They have deadlines to meet and they should realise that if they are not focused on their work, these deadlines will not be met. Therefore, the work motivators are exactly the same for a home worker as they are for someone working in an office. The productivity of a disciplined home worker can be greater than that of someone who works in an office because home workers are interrupted less. The employee should be expected to attend important meetings and events on the company's site; however, the manager should agree with the home worker how many of these there will be per year.
Proposed Approach
A company thinking of taking this approach can reduce risk by piloting a remote working program. This program has to have the backing of senior management and should be monitored with monthly reviews in the first 6 months to see how all the stakeholders are adjusting to it. Such a program should last about one year to allow all of those involved time to settle into it. Too short a time will give too much weight to the initial period of adjustment. Both management and employees should agree a set of standards that all of those involved will work to. For example, management should be prepared to let the remote worker get on with their job without constantly checking up on them. In return, the remote worker should work the hours that they have agreed to. It is important that someone's day-to-day role is considered before they are engaged on the pilot. Someone who needs to attend a lot of meetings and interact with many people on a daily basis isn't a good candidate.
Once the pilot program has finished all the stakeholders should meet to discuss its outcome and a mutually-agreed upon report should be written. This report can then become an input into any possible decision to roll out the program more widely in the organisation.
Conclusions
Remote working may be a viable option for some companies who are finding it difficult to recruit certain IT staff. Such an arrangement can work effectively if everyone involved is aware of what is expected and if the progress of the pilot is monitored to help ensure its success.
