Telecommuting Pros and Cons from the Perspective of Employees

1. Telecommuting Pros and Cons from the Perspective of Employers Telecommuting is a flexible and alternative job arrangement that allows employees to freely work outside office (usually from home) and carry out job functions remotely by using videoconferencing technology. It’s also easy to be achieved that a computer with webcam, network and videoconferencing software ensuring effective communication between employers and employees are all you need to start telecommuting. Note: As far as I’m concerned, EZTalks is the most reliable videoconferencing software for setting up real-time video conference call. You can freely sign up for EZTalks account at the bottom. Popular and convenient as telecommuting is, it also has side effects as well. Before adopting telecommuting in your company, you’d better take all possible effects into consideration. Hence, I’m to introduce both advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting that brings to employers in the following 2 parts. Part 1: What Benefits can Employers Get from Telecommuting 1) Higher productivity Telecommuting allows employees to work outside of their traditional working hours with fewer interruptions and gives them flexibility to schedule working hours, which results in higher productivity. Also, there’re studies showing that telecommuters work on average 4 to 6 hours longer than their office counterparts. 2) Reduced cost Telecommuting decreases expensive overhead, such as office space, office supplies, office furniture, lights and heat which in turn brings financial savings. It also reduces travel cost. With numerous benefits, many companies are now supporting their employees to work online from home remotely. 3) Employee satisfaction Employees get happier as they finish work in their own comfortable space, have more flexibility and feel greater connection to family. The happier employee become, the less likely they may quit jobs. Telecommuting adds up more saving for employers in a long run. 4) Environmental friendly

2. With more employees working online from home, it reduces negative influence on environment since fuel consumptions, greenhouse gases and traffic accidents are sharply reduced. 5) Saves time Telecommuting is based on advanced video conferencing technology, i.e. EZTalks. You can simply attend board meetings and interviews online while sitting at home. Part 2: What may Employers Suffer from Telecommuting 1) Startup cost for providing technology support to telecommuter Although it saves companies great overhead expenses, you still have to spend much money on building suitable video conferencing system for telecommuting. 2) Lack of physical presence The absence of physical presence and social interaction with employees can disconnect them with each other. In most cases, the manager must completely trust his team. However, lack of face-to-face interactions and guidelines may lead to low quality work. 3) Security risk Remote access for telecommuting with staff increases the risk of security leaks of the company’s confidential information. To avoid security issues, you must enter protocol into place without any gaps in the security system and update password frequently during training or other programs on remote access. Note: Rest assured to use EZTalks, cloud-based video conferencing system, which ensures you to communicate with colleagues in a secured way. 4) Difficult to monitor Though video conferencing technology provides effective and timely communication between employees and employers, it’s still not that easy for employers to evaluate how much work employees have done. Say if the employees are not motivated, then a big problem may arise with great loss in productivity and low quality work. 5) Lost opportunity for team building One of the most important responsibilities of employer is to build a good team. However, working from home eliminates the bonding time between employers and

3. employees and face-to-face encouragement and support to employees are irreplaceable. Is telecommuting business a right choice for you? Aside from above-mentioned pros and cons, you must consider the mission, values, vision, culture of your company, your workplace, your recruitment, productivity, retention goal and customer service as well!