Telecommute Meaning, Benefits & Drawbacks
Telecommute meaning
Telecommuting or more commonly known as work from home (wfh), e-commuting or working remotely is defined as an arrangement of work where employees can fulfill their duties outside of the four corners of the office.
Basically, by telecommuting, company employers are allowing their employees to work from home or at any location such as public libraries, co-working spaces, or coffee shops.
What is telecommute means in the conventional sense? Everything is quite simple.telecommute means or work at home is a form of employment in which the employer and employee are at a considerable distance from each other, transmitting and receiving terms of reference, results of work and payment using modern means of communication.
As the trends in the business industry change, more and more companies are incorporating telecommuting as part of their work culture.
Telecommute meaning: working from a location that is not the company office. For example, working from home, or connecting from a hotel lounge as a digital nomad or teleworker.
As a matter of fact, some companies even provide their employees with the essential devices such as smartphones, tablets or laptops to facilitate a more suitable work environment.
Instead of traveling from home all the way to the office, the employee can save so much time by using telecommunication tools such as online platforms, telephone, emails, and video conferencing.
What is a telecommute? A telecommute is a distant way of performing an office job from a remote location, by the use of conferencing software or other remote collaboration tools.
However, employees do occasionally go to their office for important meetings or other essential matters. On the other hand, as for the companies, they view telecommute meaning as a way to reduce their costs and increase their production at the same time.
Benefits of telework
There are a handful of benefits to telework. In a nutshell, telework allows employees to break free from the four corners of the office and the exhausting 9am to 5pm job.
Furthermore, it also gives employees more freedom and control over their time, which is helpful especially for single parents or working students who are juggling up their responsibilities.
Another notable benefit of telework is it eliminating the travel time spent by employees. Those wasted time can be used for more productive activities in order to get more job done and to spend time with loved ones. Moreover, telework eliminates the money spent on commute, gas and other travel related expenses that can be set aside instead as savings.
As for the employers, they benefit through the increased levels of production in a lower cost. Also, companies who incorporates telework as part of their work culture are found to have less lay offs and employees are happier with their jobs, as compared to normal 9am to 5pm office employees.
And not to mention, telework also allows companies to lessen their office expenses. This constitutes to a long-term reduction of office resources such as ink, paper, water usage and electricity consumption. In some cases, telecommute meaning is cost reduction.
Drawbacks of telework
However, despite all the benefits of teleworking, there are some perceivable drawbacks to working from home. One of the possible downside is self discipline.
1. Difficult to stay focused from home
An employee should be extremely focused and self-motivated in order to get the job done efficiently, instead of being tempted to stay idle and binge watch movies at home. The key here is to provide a separate and dedicated workspace away from all the possible distractions.
Telecommute vs remote: While telecommuting might mean that the employees are mostly working from home and sometimes coming to the office for an occasional meeting, remote workers typically do not come to any physical meeting and might be located in remote, meaning far away places from where they will never travel for business meetings
2. Lack of social contacts
Another thing is, some employees find this method isolating since it involves minimal contact with coworkers. By working remotely, employees spend little to no time with their coworkers. Nonetheless, routine online conferencing can alleviate this problem.
3. Sticking to the work hours
Also, it might be difficult especially for new teleworkers to stick to the contractual work hours.
Indeed, it can be very tempting to keep working late at night to finish a deliverable, as it is more difficult from home to have clear boundaries, such as seeing coworkers leaving the office, or having to catch a public transport.
In conclusion: telecommute meaning that everybody should do it?
Is telecommute meaning that everybody should do it isn't the case. It really depends on the exact job, the employer flexibility, the level of interaction required with coworkers or customers, the technological limitations, but also the employee's personal station.
However, even if in your company the telecommute meaning isn't well accepted, you can start slowly for example by doing a few days per week of telecommute.
What do you need to telecommute?
Typically in order to telecommute you will need a smartphone to be reachable, join teleconferences or contact clients, as well as a laptop to join video conferences and perform regular office job, as well as a standing desk to setup a healthy work environment from the comfort of your home.
Telecommuting is very similar to working from home, but while working from home means that you are supposed to be full time at home, telecommuting might mean that you are available to visit client or to go to the office for an occasional meeting.
If you are wondering if it is better to work from home or in an office, it depends on the job you are performing and on the company you are working for, as well as how your team is setup. However, nowadays it is generally very common to work from home to keep social distance and to use telecommuting software to recreate the office environment from remote working configurations.
The benefits of telecommuting are multiple, from allowing you to spend more time with your family, to avoid traffic congestion during daily commute, save time from public transport commute, keep social distancing, and eventally giving you the possibility to become a digital nomad and work from any location you want, for example a place with a lower cost of life to benefit from an increased work life balance.
What Can I DO to telecommute?
If you want to telecommute or to implement telecommuting in your workplace, start by assessing wether you need extra equipment or not, what will be the cost, and if you are able to conduct business remotely.
There are plenty of companies already fully implementing telecommuting and allowing their employees to become digital nomads or to spend more time with their family, and to let them have the flexibility they need in their private life to be able to pick up their childrend from school when necessary without any negative impact on business, but with a huge beneficial impact on their satisfaction, creativity and at the end on their productivity.
Telecommuting is an amazing way to do more with your life while conducting business. If you need extra advice what can you do to implement it, contact me for a consultation on the best practices of telecommuting.