eWORK 2000 - European Telework Week

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New Ways to Work 2000European TeleworkChoosing when or where to work might seem like an impossible dream but for staff at Lloyds TSB, the dreamhas become a reality. Under the company’s new Work Options scheme, employees can ask to work in a varietyof flexible ways – job sharing, variable hours, compressed working hours, teleworking, reduced hours andterm-time working.Company spokesperson Holly Glasspool said: “Work Options provides staff with a means to balance homeand work life effectively in a win-win initiative which aims to meet both the needs of the business andindividuals.” She said Work Options was open to both men and women and that staff of all levels could applyalthough acceptance was not automatic. “Work Options is not an entitlement,” she said. “Employees have toinitiate the request and prove the business case for working differently. The focus will be on output.”The initiative has been introduced not only to allow the financial services company’s 77,000 staff to workdifferently but also to enable the business to retain skilled staff and to attract new employees. Holly Glasspoolsaid that Work Options was not just for women with children or those with caring responsibilities but wasavailable to all staff, whether for study, sport or some other commitment. Group chief executive of LloydsTSB Peter Ellwood said: “Work Options is an initiative which meets both the needs of individual staff andthose of the business.”The Work Options Policy document :Meeting business goals will remain our priorityRequests will be evaluated on their impact for the business and the needs of customers and colleagues willbe considered first. The impact of the scheme will be expected to have a neutral or positive effect on thebusiness.Flexibility is not an entitlementFlexibility is a different way of working which is not an entitlement or a way of conferring preferentialtreatment. Managers will approve requests that are consistent with business needs. If the arrangement doesnot work for the business it will not be approved.Equity means equal access to a fair processThere are standard request forms to help you think through the proposed arrangements, how it will affectyou, our customers and your colleagues. Your manager has to make a sound business decision and the aimof the policy is to ensure it is done fairly. The same process is available to everyone but it does not promisethe same outcome at all.Working in partnershipYou and your manager should work together to get the best from any proposed work option. You shouldunderstand how well it will affect the business. The process will be monitored centrally to ensure it isconsistently and fairly applied.Job performance is relevantManagers will consider job performance when evaluating a request. For example, staff who have shownthey are able to work well without supervision are more likely to adjust successfully to working off site. Forthose who have weak time management or communication skills, this option may not be appropriate.Contacts:Ursula Huws, Analytica, analytica@dial.pipex.comAlan Denbigh, The Telecottage Association, teleworker@compuserve.com- 110 -
New Ways to Work 2000European Telework5.16 USASummaryThe USA continues to hold the lead in telework as far as the numbers of teleworkers are concerned. Theadoption of a variety of ICTs continues to be well in advance of most other countries. This position isfurthered by the low unemployment rate, particularly of highly trained knowledge workers, the lightlyregulated labour market, and high levels of entrepreneurial effort.According to the 1999 Telework America survey 26 , there were 19.6 million teleworkers in the US bySeptember 1999. This extrapolates to 20.4 million at year-end, a 20.4% increase over the 1998 year-endestimate of 17 million. These data are also close to the current forecast made by US-based Jack Nilles, whoseestimates were for 18.6 million and 21.4 million US teleworkers in 1998 and 1999, respectively. 27 17% of theteleworkers surveyed had been teleworking one year or less; this is comparable to the overall growth ratebetween 1998 and 1999, suggesting that few teleworkers were returning to their pre-telework workingpatterns.The emphasis of the 1999 Telework America survey, structured after previous Cyber Dialogue 28 surveys, wason the ways telework affects the teleworkers and their families. The primary reason why employees opt fortelework instead of more traditional work patterns involving commuting was that telework increases theworkers’ ability to better manage their personal and work lives— an objective long touted by experts in thefield.A key feature of this flexibility is the ability to intersperse work and family tasks, such as child care andschooling activities, visits to health service providers, and the like, without being absent from work for entiredays at a time. About 80% of the teleworkers reported that they had to take time during normal workdays fordoctor or dentist appointments; 34% had taken time to meet visitors at their homes; 49% had taken time off forbanking and legal affairs, car repairs, family events and/or emergencies; and 73% of teleworkers with childrentook time for school-related functions, with 44% taking time for sick children. The advantage to bothteleworker and employer is that, in a more traditional work environment, most of these activities would haverequired full days off, while the teleworkers were able to manage them in only a few hours each, with nodisruption to their productivity for more than half of them. 29 Similarly, teleworkers reportedly were relativelyimmune to bad weather days, when the roads— but not the telecomm lines— were congested. As an interestingcontrast, teleworkers were asked how they would manage personal needs if they could not telework. Theresponses were: 33% would take personal leave; 17% would take sick leave; 14% would leave work early;13% would enlist someone else to manage it; 11% would go to work late; 9% would leave and then return towork; and 8% would take a leave of absence.The Telework America survey also supported earlier reports by Jack Nilles, based on his studies of corporateand government telework programs, that telework helps employers to retain and recruit employees. 53% of thesurveyed teleworkers indicated that the ability to work at home ranged from important to extremely importantwhen considering a new employer. 26% of non-teleworking employed individuals (23 million workers in theUS) stated that they had jobs that would allow them to work at home some of the time, with 60% of that groupexpressing an interest in doing so. On the other hand, the survey indicated that more than 10 millionAmericans who would like to work at home did not believe that their employers would allow it.The teleworkers survey reported themselves as belonging to one (or more) of the following groups: Employees(52%); Contract workers (14%); Home business operators (16%); and self-employed (27%). 48% of the26272829http://www.telecommute.org/. The 1999 Telework America National Telework Survey was managed by Joanne H. Pratt Associates for theInternational Telework Association and Council.http://www.jala.com/ustcforecast.htm/.Cyber Dialogue is a New York-based market research and consulting firm; one of its principal is a long-time home-based teleworker.The remaining 46% indicated a reduction— rather than a complete loss— in work hours on these days.- 111 -
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eWORK 2000 - European Telework Week

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