The financial results have been dramatic: more than $40 million per year of savings in real-estate costs, since 60 to 70 percent of office space in the field organization has been consolidated. According to Jackson-Cheatham, the key to making a system like this work is standardizing hardware and software. "Each employee has an IBM ThinkPad laptop, along with standard connectivity software and Lotus office application software," she says. And every time the employee connects to the corporate server, the laptop is automatically upgraded with the latest version of the software.
According to Jackson-Cheatham, IBM is experimenting with extending this kind of hoteling to staff employees who can telecommute from home, but hasn't done much with it yet. At Pacific Bell, however, hoteling recently became a necessity when one site expanded by 800 employees. "We would have needed 144,000 square feet of space. At $25 per square foot, that's $3.6 million for annual rent," says Emily Bassman, PacBell's director of virtual office development, adding that the first-year costs would have been $9 million, to pay for partitions, furniture, and so forth.
Instead, the company implemented a virtual office scheme. "We just took over an atrium that wasn't being used," says Bassman. There was space for about 100 offices, which were allocated to the new employees by hoteling. "The total investment for the alternative space was $3.5 million the first year and $200,000 after that."
According to Bassman, it was necessary to use an "evolutionary perspective" to cajole people into giving up their offices. "Our culture is very traditional, and part of the perk is getting an office with a door, getting a door with a lock, a bigger office, an office with a window, and so forth. We weaned people from that culture by looking for other ways to recognize them for their accomplishments." Some companies, however, are finding that the virtual office scheme can backfire. Advertising agency TBWA Chiat/Day Inc., for example, based in Santa Monica, California, is returning office space to employees after finding that some employees were storing files in the trunks of their cars.
Despite the potential savings and productivity increases, telecommuting is not for everyone. Some managers fear the impact such programs will have on teamwork and training. And a common concern is that there may be oversight problems. "The big fear is that remote workers will be unmanageable," says Gordon. But, he maintains, "managers who are fearful of not having control of people away from the office probably don't have control over people in the office."
To Motorola's Lopez, however, "Basically, it's an integrity issue. If they say they're working at home three hours, I expect they are working three hours. And I can see from the constant messages and E-mails I get that they are at work." Adds Sachdeva, "I haven't had anybody take advantage of my being offsite. At Koss, we have a hands-off attitude and don't get involved in an employee's work unless we have to."
Still, telecommuting isn't embraced by all employees, either. "One person declined because he had small kids at home and couldn't get any work done there," says Tynan. "But he still uses his computer at home for overnight software runs." And there is always the risk of being "out of sight, out of mind," says Michigan's de Pietro. Telecommuters, she explains, run the risk of being passed over for promotions because they are less visible and do not have the networking opportunities of other employees. "That's why we recommend that telecommuters come into the office at least once a week," she says.
Telecommuting 2000
All indications are that telecommuting will continue its phenomenal growth as an alternative work style. One reason is that in such a growth economy, companies are looking for any competitive edge. "Part of our motivation," says de Pietro, "was to recruit the best and brightest people in the technology field in our area. We want creative employees who are responsible enough to work on their own, and we believe that this will help us attract those employees."
In addition, companies are also looking to leverage their current work force. Says consultant Russell, "The success of the new work environment depends on what kind of incremental productivity can be created." All the effort that goes into launching a telecommuting program is well worth it, she explains, "if it results in a reduction in absenteeism, better loyalty, less commuting time, reduced overhead, and increased productivity."
Finally, Parente points out that advances in technology make it possible to offer telecommuting at practically any company. "Telecommuting is no longer a question of do you have the right technology," he says. "It's a question of, Is your organization ready and will your culture support it?"
Not Rocket Science
Telecommuting does not require leading-edge technology. Most telecommuters can get all their work done with an ordinary desktop computer, some form of interactive software, a phone line, and a fax machine. But newer technologies are making telecommuting more mainstream.
The principal enabling technology is wide-area networks and communications. These allow huge volumes of data to be transmitted quickly around the world over an ever-burgeoning infrastructure consisting of everything from fiber-optic cables to satellites. These capabilities make it possible for financial data captured in, say, Uzbekistan to be transmitted instantaneously to a field office in the United States. They also make it possible for a telecommuter's desktop computer to obtain data from a server at the office, at an affordable price.
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