Teleworking in

Malaysia:
A Primer

Cheah Siew Hoon

with Cecilia Ng & Swasti Mitter

Copyright
United Nations University/
Institute for New Technologies (UNU/INTECH) 1999

First published in 1999 by UNU/INTECH

Keizer Karelplein 19
6211 TC Maastricht
The Netherlands
Tel : 31 43 3506 300
Fax : 31 43 3506 399
URL: http//www.intech.unu.edu

ISBN 983-808-067-5
Contents

Foreword 3

What is teleworking? 4

Why telework? 6

What can be teleworked 8

Who can telework? 10

Teleworking - clearing the air 14

What are the basic steps I should take to

institute teleworking in my organisation? 16

Why is the government promoting teleworking? 17

Useful references 18

2
Foreword

It is my pleasure to write the foreword to the primer on Teleworking in Malaysia. The material
is based on the policy-oriented research project entitled Teleworking and Development in
Malaysia, which UNU/INTECH co-ordinated between June 1997 and April 1999.

The study project’s aim was to explore the way in which this new mode of work could enhance
the competitiveness of Malaysian companies and improve employment opportunities for
traditionally disadvantaged groups, such as women. The project fulfils the mandate of my
institute. think-tank within the UN system, my institute caters to the research needs of those
who are involved in making policies. It is for this reason I am delighted that my colleagues,
Professor Swasti Mitter and Dr. Cecilia Ng, together with Cheah Siew Hoon, the consultant,
have compiled, in this primer, the insights gained from this research project for a wide
audience. It will be rewarding if this primer is used by different sections of Malaysian society
for evaluating and implementing telework.

I would like to express my gratitude to MIMOS Bhd, the Economic Planning Unit, and
UNU/INTECH consultants for their collaboration in research and related activities. Finally, I
wish to express my sincere appreciation to UNDP and the Malaysian government, for without
their generous support, financial and otherwise, we could not have undertaken and completed
the assessment of telework in Malaysia.

Professor Charles Cooper

Director
United Nations University/Institute for New Technologies

The publication of this primer is timely and opportune as it comes at a time when Malaysia is
making concerted efforts to become a knowledge-driven and information rich economy. It is
important for Malaysia to keep abreast of developments in teleworking since it is increasingly
gaining worldwide acceptance, not only because of the economic rewards that it can bring, but
also because of the benefits that society can derive from adopting it. Teleworking is a mode of
working that, by virtue of its inherent qualities, can transcend geographical limitations, while at
the same time be a conduit for jobs and knowledge to flourish. These characteristics can bring
social equity to many disadvantaged groups in our society today. Teleworking can be a
liberating tool for the physically challenged, retirees, and workers who may otherwise have
had to drop out from the labour force due to social obligations at home or otherwise.

The Ministry of Human Resources recognises the need to promote teleworking, including a
conducive environment for it to thrive and grow. Employers will be encouraged to consider
and introduce teleworking in the workplace. I would like to thank the UNU/INTECH research
and consultancy team for their excellent work and to record my appreciation to all those who
have contributed towards making this project and primer a success.

Dato’Lim Ah Lek
Minister of Human Resources, Malaysia

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What is Teleworking?

Teleworking refers to a mode of working, rather than a type of employment. It can alter
the way we live and work and has the potential of ensuring a better quality of life. It has
pitfalls as well.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) allow work to be carried out from
various locations, often sited away from a company’s principal premises. This is generally
known as ‘teleworking’.

Teleworking can:

§ offer greater choices in the location and timing of work,

§ change traditional ways of doing business, for example, via the Internet, and
§ allow women and men to combine family and work life.

There are downsides to teleworking as well. You can become:

§ lonely and isolated if you are working from home,

§ deskilled by not receiving on-the-job training, and
§ less visible to your employer, thereby affecting rewards and promotion.

Teleworking can take place from a variety of sites and not only, or predominantly, from
electronic home-based offices. Teleworking can liberate workers as it allows certain tasks
to be performed from anywhere that has the infrastructural links.

Teleworking can be performed from:

§ Home

§ Remote sites

§ Telecentres
Often sited in residential neighbourhoods, or at the community level, and usually
maintained by an agency or body separate from the parent organisations for whom
work is being done. Such centres provide ICT and office facilities for employees or
free-lancers. At these centres, teleworkers carry out work for the respective
organisations with whom they have a contractual obligation. In Malaysia, no instances
of telecentres were found.

§ Client’s office

§ Satellite/branch office
Possibly located away from the main premises of the parent organisation. Such
satellite offices can be maintained by employers, or outsourced to a third party, and
operated with full- or part-time employees of the organisation maintaining the office.

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§ Mobile or multiple-locations
Usually undertaken by sales and technical personnel linked by ICT to their parent
organisations.

§ Principal premises of an organisation

For example, in inhouse call centres, where teleworking takes the form of serving the
client-base through an ICT link. Another example is group-working with associates
and consultants in another organisation in a network-type relationship.

§ Another country (called teletrade).

Teleworking covers a wide range of tasks in diverse sectors and requires skills other than
just those in ICT.

5
Why Telework?

Teleworking offers several advantages, not least of which is the fact that it can draw into
the labour force knowledge workers who may be marginalised because of a physical
disability, age (that is, over the retirement age -55 years old) or because they are
unable/reluctant to relocate/travel to the company’s premises (for example, women with
household responsibilities). With the advent of teleworking, a whole vista of job
opportunities becomes available to groups whose otherwise important and valuable skills,
experience and knowledge may go untapped and lead to a waste of human resources.

Even if you do not belong to these special groups, if you are in the labour market and your
work is teleworkable, teleworking can still offer you many advantages.

To the free-lancer/self-employed, it offers

§ better quality of life (because it is a work style of choice),

§ convenience and flexibility,
§ greater productivity,
§ more efficient use of time,
§ reduced travel time,
§ cost savings (for example, travel expenses, rental of office space),
§ possibly a healthier lifestyle (because of lack of exposure to air and noise pollution),
and
§ possibly, increased opportunities for cross-border trade in services, (for example, for a
software consultant).

To the salaried worker, it offers

§ convenience and flexibility (because, in some cases, it allows workers to work odd
hours easily or, in cases where workers with young children are working from home or
in telecentres near the home, it allows them to be closer to the children),
§ more efficient use of time,
§ cost savings (for example, travel expenses),
§ greater independence, and
§ reduced travel time.

To the employer, it offers

§ convenience and flexibility,

§ more efficient use of time,
§ higher productivity (as focus is on results),
§ more business opportunities [for example, banks can cover a wider are with
telebanking and automated teller machines (ATMs), and software companies can
market their services overseas via the Internet and communicate via electronic mail],
and

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§ cost savings (for example, reduction in rental of office space, employees’ travel claims
and overseas business phone calls which can be substituted with Internet telephony and
e-mail).

Organisations that have successfully adopted and adapted teleworking into their work
culture tend to have more fluid, less hierarchical and “flatter” structures.

In such organisations, it helps to have an intra-net or a local area network (LAN), thus
enabling employees to be more “connected” and accessible to one another.

These organisations tend to focus (more) on tasks and outcomes, with greater emphasis on
trust, motivation, teamwork and networking, hence towards greater staff participation in
self-management.

Local Software with an American Face

An upbeat Malaysian company has developed a business-to-business electronic commerce

software product with an American company in Silicon Valley.

Apparently, the entire product was developed in Malaysia. “This is a Silicon Valley
product built in Malaysia, (and) marketed in the U.S. and Asia,” said the company’s Chief
Executive Officer. The product has an American brand name because Malaysia has still to
build its image in the global software industry.

During the process of enhancing the product in Malaysia, a lot of communication was
conducted electronically between Technology Park Malaysia and Silicon Valley. The
success depended on establishing trust between the two companies and in Malaysia’s
product.

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What can be Teleworked?

The following are examples of tasks that can be teleworked, thereby allowing for better
planning - of office space and utilisation – and more efficient allocation of equipment and
work.

§ A typist can essentially perform all typing tasks in a telework mode, often including
taking delivery of manuscripts.

§ Service personnel are generally mobile workers who may only need to report to the
principal premises to receive their daily work schedules.
Often, the latter task can easily be electronically sent into their vans, while their
location can be tracked through the network by home-based managers.

A recent study on teleworking conducted by the United Nations University’s Institute for
New Technologies, in collaboration with MIMOS Berhad, found that, generally,
teleworkable tasks in Malaysia tend to fall into the following areas:

§ Customer services,
§ Sales and sales-related work (such as demonstrations),
§ Software support and services,
§ Data entry, and
§ Design and editorial work.

Trade Tie-ups in a Borderless World

A Malaysian software company caters mainly to the Japanese market and has corporate
clients in Japan and in several other countries in Asia. It is able to penetrate the Japanese
market due to the support of its parent Japanese company. Having developed its first
trilingual accounting package - in Chinese, Japanese and English - the company aims to
market this package regionally, after having initial success in China and Japan.

According to the company’s Managing Director, teletrading through leased line and ISDN
link-up with clients has been the company’s way of doing business for many years. With
an initial start-up capital of RM100,000, the company chalked up a revenue of RM300,000
in the first year of operation and is looking at a revenue close to RM3 million in 1997.

The job functions perceived as teleworkable were those in:

§ Marketing and sales;

§ Administrative, accounting and secretarial work;
§ Supervisory and management consulting work;
§ Data collection, data processing and research work;
§ Support services, such as, public relations and customer service; and
§ Technology- and IT-related jobs.

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Newspaper Company To Go “Virtual”

A local newspaper company, with 300 journalists and 115 editors, is planning for a
“virtual editorial office”” by 1999. Editors and senior journalists can then telework from
home. They will be provided with a computer, modem, e-mail facilities, etc., with
communication costs to be borne by the company. Teleworking had already been
introduced in the company with the introduction of its on-line service in 1996. The
introduction of teleworking then was more out of necessity because the selected articles to
be put on-line had to be translated into four languages, and this had to be done between 2
am (when the final stories are sent in), and 7 am (when the stories have to be put on-line).
Thus the translators worked, out of necessity, from home. The company provided a loan
for the purchase of the computer and loan payments were deducted from the consultancy
fee.

9
Who can Telework?

You can be:

§ a free-lancer/self-employed, or
§ a salaried worker;
and still telework if you have some basic computer skills and your work is
transmittable over the computer. Teleworking can accommodate both teamwork and
individual work.

The free-lancer/self-employed a.k.a the Lone Ranger

If you are a free-lancer/self-employed and wish to telework, you can either do it from
home, a telecentre (if there is one conveniently located), or your client’s premises.

If you decide to telework from home, either because of household responsibilities or

because you refuse to relocate or to travel long distances to work, there are certain pitfalls -
which are generally true of working from home - that you should avoid.

Pitfall 1
Family/friends/neighbours may be under the misconception that because you are at home
you can’t be working.

Advice:
Inform everyone of your designated work hours during which you will not be available for
social chats or to run errands. And be firm about enforcement of these rules.

Pitfall 2
Women with household responsibilities (for example, young children or an aged parent)
are expected to be able to shoulder the extra work burden alone.

Advice:
Ensure family members understand that you are not a “super woman” and will need their
collective support to shoulder existing domestic responsibilities (such as, housework,
childminding, etc.). You may also need to dedicate a part of the house as your office
space where you can carry out your professional work.

Ex-Teacher: Teleworking Allows Me to Combine Home and Work

Ex-teacher Rani, who majored in the Tamil language, taught for one year, got married,
and had a child in 1996. Because she could not obtain any domestic help, she resigned
from the teaching profession to take care of her child. She is now teleworking from home,
working as a Tamil translator for a multi-media company. She stresses that she is working
because she loves to, rather than for the money. She is disciplined in her work and meets
deadlines. Rani, who owns her own computer and printer, is happy teleworking as it saves
time and energy. “Other things can be done at the same time; there is more control in my

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work and it is more flexible. I would not have chosen to work if I could not do it from
home.”

Pitfall 3
You may get so lonely that you end up talking to yourself.

Advice:
Battle isolation by regularly going out to meet others for lunch.

Pitfall 4
There is the danger of allowing the business to consume your personal life because there’s
always something to do.

Advice:
Discipline yourself to mentally leave the work behind at the end of the day.

To be a successful and efficient teleworker, you should ideally have certain qualities. The
qualities listed in the next page are general skills needed to telework successfully and are,
in no way, exhaustive. You should thus select and combine those that apply to your
particular:

§ situation
(for example, whether you are working collectively with others or as an individual;
whether you are self-employed or a salaried personnel; whether you are working from
home, remote sites, a telecentre, client’s premises, satellite/branch office, mobile/
multiple locations, principal premises of your company or cross country), and

§ task
(for example, if you work at a call centre, good oral skills would apply, whereas if your
work requires you to interact mainly via the e-mail, then good writing skills would be
needed).

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What are the general qualities a good teleworker possesses?

§ Good time management,

§ Ability to work independently or with minimum or no supervision,
§ Good written and/or oral skills,
§ Self-discipline,
§ Good communication skills,
§ Good with deadlines, and
§ Results oriented.

What type of work culture lends itself well to teleworking?

If you are an employer and you wish to allow certain, if not all, employees to telework,
whether it is because it would reduce cost or allow for greater productivity, improved
quality (of work/products), it is important to understand the type of work culture needed to
ensure a happy and successful teleworking relationship between you and your teleworking
employees. Your company’s work culture should have

§ an atmosphere of mutual trust,

§ work transparency,
§ clear and specific work guidelines and instructions,
§ good back-up and contingency plans in case of system failure, and
§ strong team-building network to avoid teleworkers feeling alienated and demotivated.

What type of infrastructural links do I need to put in place to telework?

Apart from ensuring the right teleworking “climate”, you of course have to invest in the
necessary telecommunications infrastructural links, which, depending on your needs, may
include LAN, wide area network (WAN), intranet and/or internet access, leased line,
laptops, etc. Your teleworkers, depending on their job/task, may be teleworking either
from home, remote sites, a telecentre, clients’ premises, satellite/branch office, mobile/
multiple locations, principal premises of your company or cross country.

Who should I select to telework?

In selecting who should telework, bear in mind that it is important that the job/task is
teleworkable and the potential teleworkers have been properly equipped with the necessary
skills (such as, basic computer skills) and, possibly, courses (such as, time management
course) which can help them to perform better. For a successful teleworking relationship
between you and your teleworking employee, select employees with the requisite qualities
as stated earlier.

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As an understanding and liberated employer, you should also give consideration to “special
cases”, such as workers who may have pressing home responsibilities (for example, taking
care of a young child or a dependent who is ageing or ill) or who may be physically-
challenged.

In some cases, such as in call centres, the relationship between employer and employee
may be similar to that in the main office.

Pensioner: Part-time Call Centre Work “Just Right”

Mr L is 55 years old and has been teleworking as a part-time call centre operator for a
telecommunications company for three months. He is a retired government servant and an
MCE (O-level equivalent) holder. Upon recruitment, he was given a 10-day training
course on how to deal with customers. He has to commute to the call centre, which is
located at the company’s principal office premises near his house. Mr L has chosen to
work the 1 pm to 5 pm shift and finds the work interesting because “you never know what
the next call will be about.” Although the company has offered Mr L a full-time contract,
he has declined the offer as he prefers to work part-time. If offered a chance to telework
from home, he would accept, provided the company sets up the equipment and necessary
infrastructural link-up.

Call Centre Operator’s “Frozen Smile”

Ms S, who works as a call centre operator in a bank’s credit card department, provides the
“not so rosy” picture of call centre work. She describes the job as stressful, mainly due to
the highly competitive environment. The company she works for provides incentives to top
performers, but these are dependent on call success rates so many of the workers tend to
overwork to ensure good results. Overwork and stress are health hazards that can be
exacerbated by “unergonomic” work stations that could result in backaches, repetitive
strain injury (RSI) and poor eyesight. To make matters worse, in the present unfavourable
economic climate, many of the calls tend to pertain to credit collection matters. Thus the
call recipients are generally depressed, abusive, or even, in some instances, hysterical.
Satisfaction is gained if call clients are co-operative, polite, and friendly, but such
instances are irregular. Furthermore, there does not seem to be professional counselling
on coping techniques for the workers who are adversely emotionally affected.

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Teleworking - Clearing the Air

The following facts are true of teleworking.

§ A relatively “new” phenomenon and an alternative mode of work aided by

§ information and communication technologies.
§ As yet not widespread and exists only in pockets of industries and in selected areas of
job functions.
§ Left to develop in industries and areas mainly through a process of natural selection.
§ Adopted in organisations where the key decision-makers use it as a competitive tool.

The teleworking study found that most employers and workers did not have a deep
understanding of teleworking. This partly explains why they have brought out several
concerns regarding teleworking.

The main concerns from employers are:

§ High cost of set-up,
§ Difficult to set up,
§ Difficult to supervise,
§ Lack of skills, and
§ Lack of trust.

Some companies that deal with “sensitive” information, have registered security as a major
concern, but this can be overcome in a number of ways depending on the circumstances.
There are several technological approaches to this “access” problem, all of which act
either to keep the information out of the hands of unauthorised persons or to make it
useless to them if they do get it. In a typical situation, the sensitive information is kept in
the company mainframe or a LAN. The teleworker can gain access to it via a modem. At
this stage, there can be several built-in layers of protection, such as:

1 Server as firewall - all incoming data streams must have authorised signatures.
2 “Smart cards” with passwords that can change, say, every day, in tandem with a
password identifier in the computer being called.
3 Call-back system - assuming all password routines are completed correctly.
4 Positive identification check - such as, retinal scan, fingerprint, or hand shape detector.

The main concerns from workers stemmed from a fear of casualisation and redundancy in
the workplace.

Their concerns are:

§ Lack of trust of management,

§ Lack of training opportunities,
§ Potential for isolation (resulting in dim career prospects), and
§ Lack of social interaction with peers.

14
In cases of home-based teleworking, lack of adequate space at home can lead to a certain
loss of professionalism. Particularly for women with children, home-based telework can
lead to an increase in stress as there will be no separation between work space and
household responsibilities.

15
What are the Basic Steps I should take to institute teleworking in my
organisation?

Step 1
Understand the medium that is teleworking - what it can and cannot do.

Step 2
Study the work organisation, its operations and methods, and its work culture and
philosophy. In order to convince the key people in the organisation that teleworking is
worth trying, it is necessary to have a well-organised and well-thought out plan.

Step 3
Identify the jobs/tasks that are teleworkable. One way to see whether a job (viewed in the
light of a collection of tasks) can be teleworked is to study its work location requirements.
It also helps to consider the completion of job tasks over a time period (for example, a
week or even several weeks) as most jobs vary their structure and work demands from day
to day.

Step 4
Identify potential teleworkers. Select/consider only volunteers, but only after you have
carefully outlined the whole programme to them. Give special priority to those workers
who may have special needs (the physically challenged, the employee who has a young
child at home, or who has an aged or ill dependent to care for, etc.) otherwise you may lose
valuable workers.

Step 5
Conduct a cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The following are some factors to take into
account in such a CBA.

a) Costs
(such as, training; telecommunications and computer hardware, software and
operating costs; moving expenses; facilities leasing; and insurance),
and

b) Benefits
(such as, increased employee and organisation effectiveness; decreased sick leave
and medical cost; saving on rental of office space; and increased ability to attract
new staff and retain existing ones).

Step 6
Identify the changes - physical, organisational, and mental - that have to be made to
facilitate the tasks to be teleworked and set guidelines and performance standards.

Step 7
Identify the necessary training needed (including troubleshooting) for those who wish to
telework.

Step 8
Monitor and review the progress and make any necessary modifications.

16
Why is the Government Promoting Teleworking ?

In an increasingly competitive global environment, nations, corporations and individuals

need to use and manipulate ICTs creatively and effectively.

This is because ICTs, as generic technologies, have had a great impact on the way we work
and live. For example, in the area of banking, there is now telebanking and ATMs, both of
which depend on ICT. For the general public, telebanking has meant less trips to the bank,
while the proliferation of ATMs has resulted in greater convenience for consumers. For the
bank, it has translated into cost savings as it means the need for less branches, at the same
time enabling easier monitoring and, possibly, boosting efficiency.

This technology has given us wider options in the area of management It has also
presented new business and job opportunities. It has given us the choice to telework from
diverse locations, thereby saving travelling time and cost. It has created new job
opportunities for those who are reluctant or unable to commute to a specific workplace
where their skills can best be harnessed.

The incidence of teleworking in Malaysia is expected to increase rapidly, in tandem with

the increase in the spread of computer networking among organisations and the rise of
electronic commerce (e-commerce). Teleworking reduces the relevance of distance; thus it
opens up new opportunities for Malaysia to take part in the national and global trade in
information processing. Software is a good example of these new possibilities.

Teleworking can be a tool to help Malaysia thrive and operate in an information economy.

It can be a liberating tool to those women who generally shoulder household

responsibilities to come back into the labour force. However, care must be taken to ensure
these women are not consequently burdened with having to ”do two jobs”.

Even, or more so, in a difficult economic situation, it is essential for Malaysia to harness
presently untapped skilled labour of knowledge workers, especially those with IT-related
skills. Malaysia needs to respond to critical areas where there is a shortage of skills.

17
Useful References

Huws, Ursula (n.d.), A Manager's Guide to Teleworking, Employment Department.

Ismail Haji Abdul Rahim (1999), “Labour Standards And Issues In Teleworking
Employment,” paper presented at the National Workshop on Teleworking and
Development, 11 March Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Khoo Khay Jin (1999), “Telework in Malaysia: Patterns, Perceptions and Potential,” paper
presented at the National Workshop on Teleworking and Development, 11 March Petaling
Jaya, Malaysia.

Mitter, Swasti (1999), “Placing the Malaysian Question of Teleworking in a Global

Perspective,” paper presented at the National Workshop on Teleworking and Development,
11 March Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Ng, Cecilia (1999), “Towards an Enabling Environment,” paper presented at the National
Workshop on Teleworking and Development, 11 March Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.

Nilles, Jack M. (1998), Managing Telework: Strategies for Managing the Virtual
Workforce, John Wiley & Sons: New York.

Useful Contact

Mr Anis Yusal Yusoff

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), PO Box 12544, 50782 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 603-255 9122 Fax: 603-255 2870 e-mail: anis.yusal.yusoff@undp.org

§ Cheah Siew Hoon

is a writer, researcher and editor. She was a consultant on the Teleworking and
Development in Malaysia project conducted by UNU/INTECH, in collaboration with
MIMOS Berhad, from 1997 - 99. Her areas of interest are in current affairs, politics
and socio-economics.

§ Cecilia Ng
is an Associate Professor at Universiti Putra Malaysia, on secondment to
UNU/INTECH as a Research Fellow. At UNU/INTECH, she co-ordinated the
Teleworking and Development project. She has conducted research and published
widely on gender, development and work, with a focus on technological change and
women’s employment.

§ Swasti Mitter
is Professor and Deputy Director of UNU/INTECH, as well as Project Director of the
global study on Teleworking and Development. Her research focuses on information
and telecommunications technology and its effects on women’s employment in the
developing world. She is one of the world’s leading authorities on the social and
economic aspects of ICT (information and communication technologies).

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