Big Picture by Sheryle Moon

As children, parents and teachers were our mentors, but as adults in the working world, mentors can be hard to find. In Big Picture, industry leaders share their views, experience, advice and tips on making today’s followers tomorrow’s leaders.

Throw away the suits and telework!

Posted by Sheryle Moon @ 11:34 4 comments

Sick of suiting up each day and tackling the traffic to get to the office?

More and more Australians are choosing to work from home for at least part of the week, saving time, headaches and CO2 emissions into the bargain.

Telework Australia says that having a workforce that works at least partly at home can reduce costs of heating, air-conditioning, car parks and lighting by 17 percent of salary costs.

And teleworkers are happy workers! In Australia, telework reduces avoidable staff turnover by over 20 percent, while managers report that employees are up to 40 percent more productive.

As we look for ways to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions and minimise our environmental footprint, teleworking provides an answer. Teleworking helps companies get the most out of available resources. It provides an alternative to traffic congestion, office distractions and tying up capital in expensive office space or car parks.

It's time to get smarter about how we manage our businesses. Technology has delivered the solutions which enable people to work from home -- it's time for businesses to embrace them.

Advertisement

Talkback 4 comments

    Teleworking needs controls Anonymous -- 04/12/07

    Teleworking is a great way to retain employees and expand the reach of your employment pool.

    The main problem most organisations have is they have no idea on how to quantify the productivity - how to set goals - how to monitor assigned work.

    They don't get the fact that having someone in the office is no different to having someone working remotely - set goals - set targets - set deliverable dates - review - monitor - correct. Its actually quite simple.

    They must also remember that social interraction is important - so regular on-site team meetings are essential to maintain a connected community.

    throw away the suits Anonymous -- 05/12/07

    30% of IT workers from the 1980's are within 5 years of retirement (ABS census) . They will be lost to the industry if this kind of flexibilty is not provided. Given, here in Canberra, a major amount of government service delivery is via Cobol systems built in the 1980's (centerlink). there is a major crunch comming from lack of new IT staff and retirement of the old ones.

    Teleworking Simon -- 05/12/07

    Teleworking was the "killer ap" for IPVPNs in the late 90s and there was much fanfare about the business benefits and cost reductions. There was a big push before the Sydney Olympics that went nowhere. It's interesting to see the same supporting arguments 10 years on with little takeup of the option. Granted, there are some niche roles where it has been embraced but mainstream roles are still office based.
    From my observation, the biggest obstacle has always been lack of trust by management.
    My belief is that any organisation wishing to embrace teleworking needs to train management and staff on do's & don'ts and strategies supporting teleworking. Until management learns to tele-supervise, it is doomed to be a niche player in our working lives.

    Video Eliminates Barriers to Telework Jeannie McPherson -- 13/06/09

    Video conferencing is the key to eliminating the remaining barriers to teleworking. By enabling employees and managers to instantly connect face to face, trust is no longer an issue b/c they can actually see each other working and collaborate as if they were in the same room. Video conferencing also has other far reaching business benefits like reduced travel costs and increased productivity. Once video conferencing is more widely adopted, there is no doubt enterprises will embrace teleworking because the business case is just too strong.

Add your opinion

Sheryle Moon

Sheryle Moon

CEO, Australian Information Industry Association

[+] Read bio

Latest Videos

Sponsored content

Power Centre - Content from our premier sponsors

Tags

Back to top

Featured