Your Telecommuting Policy
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There are many benefits to incorporating a telecommuting policy into most businesses, over 25% of companies have some level of telecommuting even if it’s just a ‘bad weather’ policy.
However, making sure that the correct policies and procedures are in place will save on a lot of hassle down the road – think about the following aspects to ensure your trouble free telecommuting edge:
1 – Infastructure
We’ve all wasted a few hours work by forgetting to backup and save our work, frustrating but not a crisis. However, if a significant amount of company work is done outside of the immediate office network then making sure you have a backup is essential.
There are 2 broad options that can ensure the proverbial doesn’t hit the fan – Cloud computing or a direct link to the company infastructure via broadband.
Linking directly to the company’s database has been the most popular over recent years allowing telecommuters to change or add data and then the main network is backed up automatically. Although effective it can sometimes be slow, especially if the employee lives in a slow broadband area, and therefore frustrating. There is also a increased risk of a viral infection hitting your extended network.
A cloud service has three distinct characteristics that differentiate it from traditional hosting. It is sold on demand, typically by the minute or the hour; it is elastic — a user can have as much or as little of a service as they want at any given time; and the service is fully managed by the provider (the consumer needs nothing but a personal computer and Internet access). Significant innovations in virtualization and distributed computing, as well as improved access to high-speed Internet and a weak economy, have accelerated interest in cloud computing.
2 – Security
If the most sensitive data that your company uses is the price you pay for widgets then you probably won’t get any pro hackers tapping in to your network but that data could still be very powerful in the wrong hands. A simple encryption and password protected system should be more than enough to protect most data but if you feel you need something stronger talk to a professional or take another look at cloud computing with high security as standard.
3 – Time or Results
One of the disadvantages of telecommuting, or advantage depending on your point of view, is that direct supervision of your workforce is not easily done. Depending on the tasks undertaken you should either pay telecommuters by time spent on a project or by results reached, given a stated level of quality. You may have a steep learning curve to realise the greatest bang for your buck but a well observed results experiment would be well advised at the start.
Other Telecommuting Policy Resources:
SmallBiz-Info: Establish a Telecommuting Policy
More than 25% of small businesses use telecommuting. And while there are clear benefits to telecommuting, it’s not necessarily right for every business. If you are thinking of establishing a telecommuting policy for your business, …
reasons to implement a telecommuting policy
telecommuting. being in the “web sphere†as it were, 3prime has the luxury of being accessible anywhere – at the office, from home, etc. b/c we have implemented a telecommuting policy that works for the …
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- Canada leads G-8 in adoption of broadband Internet access services (newswire.ca)
Flexible working increases productivity
Flexible working increases workers’ productivity, according to Rob Lovell, chief executive of ThinkGrid – a cloud IT services provider.
UK workers spend 21.8 million hours travelling to and from work each day.
This costs the UK £266 million worth of working time each day, according to TUC calculations.
But Lovell believes that technological developments in computing mean that people should be able to work from the place that suits them best – in the process removing hours of travel every day.
“With the ability to securely access documents and remotely collaborate on them in real-time, and with desktop and phone systems able to span the globe, there is no reason why a traditional five-day working week in the office should continue,” he said.
Allowing employees to work more flexibly could add extra time to their working day and remove a commute which might impact on their productivity, he added.
Research commissioned by the government recently revealed that 82% of adults are unaware that people who care for a spouse or relative can ask their employer for flexible working arrangements.
6 Work Life Balance Tips for Chronically Overwhelmed Parents
If you’re working from home, you’re probably accustomed to the steady stream of interruptions and emergencies from your family. Here are 6 work life balance tips for chronically overwhelmed parents.
1. Schedule Uninterrupted Work Time
Set aside hours when the kids know that you’re working, and they can only interrupt if it’s a real emergency. You may have to explain to them exactly what constitutes a “real” emergency. If the house is on fire: emergency. If Timmy won’t share his toys: not an emergency.
2. Explain the Importance of the Family Business
If you launch your home-based business and you’re off and running, you suddenly have less time for the children. If you don’t take the time to tell them why the business is important and why it takes so much of your time, they’re bound to interrupt a lot. Sit them down and explain the many benefits of the family business, and how they can help by minimizing interruptions. With that said, being a parent is a higher priority and the most important job you have.
3. Take Turns
If you and your husband are working together in the business, you may have to take turns giving your children the needed and desired attention they require. Work in shifts and take turns managing and playing with the kids, while the other one is working on the business.
4. Involve Your Children
Even if you have very young children, they can still be involved in the family business. Young children can learn to stuff envelopes or help clean the office. Older children can learn simple bookkeeping tasks and even answer the phone for you. Pay your children for the work they do, and it will help them to learn to appreciate the family business (and understand the importance of it all). You can also assign household chores as part of the “business” tasks that they complete. Every dish that’s washed and put away is time that helps you work and contributes to more family time together at the end of the day.
5. Set Up a Rewards System
If you meet all your business goals for the week, take the family out for some special time together. Let the children know that they can help earn these treats for the whole family by being responsible, completing all their chores on time and minimizing interruptions while you’re working.
6. Schedule, Schedule, Schedule
Your schedule doesn’t have to be set in stone. In fact, it can’t be since you’re working from home. However, having an overall schedule for the whole family can help balance work and life issues. Post the schedule in an area where everyone can see it. Have a set routine for each day of the week, and include times for each child. It can list everything from independent coloring time to chores and more. No matter what subjects go into the schedule, setting a routine for the kids will help teach them responsibility, and it will keep them occupied.
Remember, you’re running a home based business for the benefit of your entire family, not just yourself. Keep this in mind and remember that there has to be a degree of flexibility when you implement these work life balance tips. If there’s a short-term family crisis, be prepared to lose a little sleep if you have to in order to continue meeting your business goals.
Love this post, originally written by Daphne Mallory at wahm.com
We must be bonkers!
In total UK workers spend 21.8m hours travelling to and from work every day, with £266m-worth of working time lost to travel each day.
Workers spend on average 52.6 minutes commuting every day, but London workers have the longest commute, averaging 78 minutes, followed by workers in the South East who travel for 56.4 minutes a day.
Workers in Wales and the South West have the shortest average journeys to work of 41 minutes and 44.8 minutes respectively.
Data from the official Labour Force Survey revealed that men working full-time spend 7.6 minutes longer commuting than women who work full-time.
Men in the South East spend 13.6 minutes more commuting to work than women – the largest gap in the UK.
Meanwhile workers in well paid jobs, such as managers and senior officials (68.6 minutes) and professionals (61.4 minutes), have the longest commute times while those in low paid occupations, such as cleaners and labourers (40.4 minutes) and retail and customer services (41.4 minutes), have the shortest commutes.
Employees working part-time hours were also found to have shorter average commute times than full-time workers.
Men working full-time spend 60.4 minutes commuting compared to 42 minutes when they work part-time, while women working full-time spend 52.8 minutes travelling to work compared to 38.6 minutes for part-timers.
Brendan Barber, the TUC’s General Secretary, said: “UK staff experience a double-whammy of working some of the longest hours in Europe and then spending nearly an hour every day getting to and from work.
“All that wasted working time spent stuck on crowded trains and congested roads costs the economy over a quarter of a billion pounds every year, not to mention the stress it causes staff and the time it means they miss spending with friends and family.
“Parents who can’t do long commutes because of school or nursery runs often have to take lower-paid work nearer home instead.
“With employers focused on getting through the recession, many will have taken their eye off the ball in offering flexible working.
“But remote working and flexible shifts can reduce commute times, save on office space and reduce energy costs – saving companies money and helping staff enjoy a better work-life balance.”
Article from Personneltoday.com
Career Planning: The Step Ahead
Career planning is an excellent way to prepare for what the world ahead has to offer you. While many people find that career planning is something that is done in university, it can be and should be done throughout life as a way of making sure that you are on the right track. There are many opportunities to get the planning that you need. In fact, it can start a long time before university or college as well. So, what can career planning do for you?
To start, we need to understand when you can get career planning started. You can find a wide range of options right from school level. You’ll find that career planning can and does happen as an introduction to college as well as all through college. But, you can also take advantage of services long after you have graduated. Career planning can happen anytime.
What happens in career planning? There are a number of different things that can happen in career planning. You will be able to get an understanding of what the career you are considering has to offer. Or, if you are unsure of what you would like to learn and do, you can take a wide variety of testing solutions that will help you to determine what you are interested in as well as careers that you are talented for. You will also find that in some college level classes of career planning you will be able to learn about many different careers and test your hand at what they have to offer you. This is an excellent way to see what’s out there.
Career planning is important because it allows you to be able to get a good idea of what you would like to do with your life. Counsellors and teachers can help you find the answers that you need to your questions and give you options to consider. Career planning can help anyone, at anytime in their lives to find solutions to their needs. Beyond being able to help you plan for the classes you will take, career planning can help you to begin your future.
Resources: http://www.careerplanner.com/ – http://careerplanning.about.com/
