The Hard Truth About Telecommuting

Telecommuting, referred to as work-at-home in this case, is defined as employees given the opportunity to work from home based on a merit system. In this case, KGDV has no specific guidelines in their policy regarding working remotely. Employees are given the opportunity to telecommute based on their level of outputs and telecommuters are solely assessed based on their ability to maintain and increase their levels of output. For those employees whose output allows them to work at home, further increases in their output have been seen. However, there is a concern that those employees who are not given this opportunity, non-telecommuters, would feel like “second-class” citizens which might lead to them leaving the company. Now that the company has to make the decision whether or not to expand, the organization needs to implement a strategic plan moving forward as

As can be seen in this case, employers benefit as they save money on infrastructural cost, as well as experience greater revenues from the increase in productivity of their telecommuting employees. Research done on this topic states that benefits for employers comes in many forms. In the article “The hard truth about Telecommuting”, the authors state that in instances where telecommuting has been evaluated, it boosts productivity, decreases absenteeism and increasing retention rates (Noonan and Glass 2002). Employees who have the flexibility to work their own hours have no need to be away from work and understand that these opportunities are not widely offered. Although there might be concerns related to telecommuting, it can be seen that the benefits of a well-managed telecommuting policy, once it is feasible to the type of organization, outweigh any negatives that the company might have to