Ann All of IT Business Edge recently reported on how small and medium size businesses (SMB’s) are less likely to have employees telecommute than are larger companies. According to a recent survey by Citrix Online, 40 percent of SMB’s allow employees to work from home, compared to 76% of larger companies. It seems that the main barrier in the way to doing this is technological: while employing remote workers can lead to higher productivity and job satisfaction, it also requires the expenditure of initial investment in the proper technology to support these workers. Without being able to fully and securely integrate into the office remotely, telecommuting is often not worthwhile. Correspondingly, according to the survey cited above, 43% of SMB’s have the technology framework in place to support remote workers, compared with 76% of larger businesses.  As the different technologies needed for telework become cheaper and easier to implement, the percentage of small businesses supporting telecommuting should rise.

In the meantime, if you work for a small or medium-size business and want to pursue telecommuting, consider the following options:

• Build up the trust - Small businesses that are not used to employees working from outside of the office will tend to be more reluctant to let you out of their sphere of influence than would be a larger corporation that has internal policy and technology built to do just that. Although the company can theoretically gain in productivity from employees working where they are most comfortable, they also risk more by giving up on direct oversight. To overcome this, give them good reason to be able to trust you in the scenario where you would be working from outside of the office. Only with this trust in place will they feel more comfortable investing in the technology needed to make it work.
• Do your own research - Though a small business may be more open to change and innovation than a corporate behemoth that has dozens of people employed to set corporate policies, and thus a small business may be the ideal candidate to make the move towards supporting telecommuting, small businesses are also less likely to have extra man hours available to set up and support telecommuting policy and technology. If you feel that it is appropriate, take the initiative yourself. Research the pros and cons of telecommuting for your company and for your position. Look into the different technology requirements (you would be surprised how many free or relatively inexpensive solutions are out there that can help make the technology work for you). Present your findings to your managers. This saves them the work, shows them that it may be a very worthwhile proposition for them financially, and is an indicator that you are taking it seriously.
• Start Small - There is no need to go all-in from the start. Suggest that you start telecommuting one day a week. Keep a log of how your work is going, how it affects your productivity, commute and overall job satisfaction. One day every week or two is much more palatable as it does not require that every last piece of technology be in place and allows management to see first-hand how it is affecting you.

The National Defense University (Wikipedia) has released a report for how organizations should respond in the case of a (flu) pandemic outbreak. In this report, under the section of “Making the Workplace Safe”, employee telecommuting is given as one of the things that an organization should prepare for in the case where large numbers of workers are unable to make it in (page vi).

The report also compares preparation for a flu pandemic to the preparation for the “Y2K Bug” that swept through the IT world a decade ago (page 13). Although much of the panic over Y2K was not really necessary, the investments that companies made to fix their computer systems also gave other benefits, as other upgrades, enhancements and bugs were taken care of at the same time. The case could be the same if a company chooses to prepare its infrastructure for telecommuting now, with worries about a flu pandemic as part of the impetus. We all hope that this infrastructure will never have to be used for this purpose. However, a business setting up its infrastructure to allow for telecommuting may also yield some other unexpected positive returns:

Once a company has prepared its workforce for telecommuting, however, the potential for increased productivity is considerable. A 2001 survey from the International Telework association and Council noted that almost three-fourths of managers polled reported slightly or greatly increased productivity from their employees who were working at home. About one-fifth of managers felt that productivity stayed about the same, and only about six percent felt that productivity declined. The impetus for spending money to remove old code was preparation for Y2K. Similarly, the impetus for preparing the workforce for telecommuting may be pandemic preparedness. In the end, the chicken with bird flu may eventually be the source of a golden egg for your organization, as the pandemic expenditures may well prove as beneficial to organizational efficiency as the Y2K expenses.

Though this is not the normal sales-pitch for telecommuting that we are used to hearing, the argument does have some merits (and in the eventuality that there ever would be a flu pandemic, those companies prepared to support their employees while working remotely will have a very large advantage over their competitors who do not have any such infrastructure in place). (Via ThreatsWatch)

CBS News reports on a new multi-screen video conferencing system designed to make meeting from afar even more realistic:

Movie mogul Jeffrey Katzenberg helped Hewlett-Packard design the $350,000 multiscreen system that lets film makers across the globe meet face to face. “It’s not all smoke and mirrors,” says a smiling Katzenberg. “To be able to see the detail on your face, your expressions — that you’re understanding and connecting with what I say — you know, that is part of how we, as humans, communicate.”

…For businesspeople who have long wished they could be in two places at once, technology is making that almost a reality. The cost may be high — but for big companies, the savings in airline tickets from here to there can make the system almost pay for itself.

As these systems become cheaper (and they will), look for them to become more common outside of the large corporation boardroom. One big downside to telecommuting and remote working is that you lack personal contact with your coworkers, and during meetings you feel left out and have difficulty communication. Systems like this will help lessen this problem (found via Tim McGhee).