UKOLN Introbyte

Remote Working
In the current environment of political change and financial downturn this is a need to explore more flexible ways of working. One option is for more employees to work from home or somewhere other than their office. This briefing paper describes the challenges and opportunities that remote working and virtual teams pose for both the information professional and the information organisation. BACKGROUND
Recently work is fast becoming something you do, rather than a place you go. Remote working, or teleworking, is an employment arrangement in which employees can complete their work from a location other than their office base, be it their home, a sub-office or even the local coffee shop. A remote worker could be defined as anyone who works from home (whether occasionally or full-time), beyond the office and/or in a virtual team.

REASONS FOR REMOTE WORKING

Remote working offers benefits in terms of flexibility and cost to both the worker and the organisation. Employees can attain a better work-life balance that provides them an enhanced capacity to work on the go and in different locations. Staff morale is often improved resulting in reduced absenteeism and higher levels of staff retention. Employers for their part are able to recruit from any geographical location, radically increasing their chances of finding the best person for the job. They also benefit from a reduction in operational overheads thanks to their reduced office space requirements. Research has shown that people who work remotely are often more productive and have better control over their workload than many colleagues working in-house. For example, they are able to check for important emails during holidays. Moreover, by avoiding the daily commute, home workers may benefit the environment as they reduce their CO2 emissions. Increasing numbers of organisations are beginning to support their staff in working from home on an occasional basis as part of their contingency plan for bad weather situations, pandemics and other threats to their risk management.

THE CHALLENGES
Remote working poses a number of challenges from both a technical and a cultural perspective. Face-to-face contact is a key part of effective collaboration within a team. Finding other ways to connect with colleagues is essential in order to maintain team morale. Although our culture is changing, perceptions of remote workers vary. Some still believe those who arent physically in the office must contribute less. Ironically, some remote workers can find that they work too much, and that the boundaries between work and home become difficult to distinguish.

Issues relating to trust, such as how out-of-office staff are managed and how corporate identity is handled, may also need to be addressed. Meeting these challenges requires an organisation to prove its commitment to remote workers through inclusion and support and to ensure that appropriate policies and procedures are developed.

TECHNICAL ISSUES
The ideal solution for employees who work remotely is for the home set-up to replicate the office environment. This is not always possible but there are two key technologies whose advancement has made this a realistic option.

UKOLN Remote Workers

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

A change in organisational culture and structured use of new technologies should be supported by an infrastructure of good working policies and procedures. A policy might cover how remote working can be operated in respect of health and safety, data protection and security, not to mention financial issues, such as when expenses can be claimed, as well as legal and contractual issues, work hours, etc. In addition to a policy on remote working it might be useful for the relevant staff to be provided with other more specific documentation. This could include a checklist of technical requirements, information on broadband providers, etc. To work effectively, policies need to be both clear and transparent; yet also be flexible enough that they can be adapted to changes in patterns of usage.

Broadband is a fast data transmission service. It uses a much larger bandwidth than traditional dial-up access via a modem. The government is committed to improving broadband access across the UK and in the next few years most people will have the option of using broadband. VPN, or a virtual private network, supports secure communications through the public Internet. Having a view of an institutions internal network that replicates that of on-site workers is essential in allowing remote workers to operate effectively alongside their office colleagues. Alongside these technologies remote workers will also have hardware (PC, monitor, printer, keyboard, laptop, DVD rewriters, scanners, audio & video equipment, headset, speakers, phone, etc.) and software (the programs they have in the office, user accounts, access to email, calendar, etc.) requirements. This will need to be balanced against considerations of security and IT support.

CONCLUSIONS
In the 21st century the working environment has changed. This change brings with it responsibilities. Remote working offers great potential for employer and employee alike; but to make it work both parties need to offer their commitment. Quite often problems that have already been observed in the office, such as feelings of isolation and low morale, can become intensified when employees work remotely. Organisations which truly address these issues by engaging with their staff, whether they work remotely or not, will find that the benefits are significant. As described in an Ariadne article (referenced below) one possible approach is through the use of a support framework: an iterative process that addresses technology issues, provides policies and procedures and takes on-board and responds to feedback.

COMMUNICATION & COLLABORATION

When physically separated from colleagues, staying in touch with them becomes essential. Remote workers will need to consider their email and telephony set-up, for example use of online chat services and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), a protocol that allows the transmission of voice through the Internet. Use of Web 2.0 social networking, collaboration and communications tools may also have a useful role to play in keeping workers connected. Virtual teams may also want to look at the use of wikis, shared applications, bookmarking tools, file transfer services, online calendars and project management tools. Meetings may need to be conducted using videoconferencing systems and even training may need to be online using webinars or video delivery.

Further Information
The Ramblings of a Remote worker blog provides a practitioners perspective on a broad range of issues related to home working. For further information see <http://remoteworker.wordpress.com/> A Desk Too Far? The Case for Remote Working, Guy, M., Ariadne, (56), July 2008, < http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue56/guy/>

Audience
This is a policy document suitable for policy makers and practitioners who have responsibilities for developing and implementing departmental policies to support remote workers..

MOBILE WORKING
Improvements in laptop, personal digital assistant (PDA) and mobile phone technologies, alongside the rapid expansion of mobile networks have meant that working on the move is now more commonplace. Remote workers may find that mobile working can prove difficult in terms of unifying communications, data cost, data and device security and usability problems. If workers are routinely expected to work while travelling, then they will need to employ an optimum set of tools and services.

Author
This document was written by Marieke Guy. The document is based on Mariekes experiences in being a remote worker and her role as a remote worker champion within UKOLN.

This document is available under a Creative Commons BY-NC 2.0 licence Version 0.2 published on 17 July 2011