Managing a blended workforce: Telecommuters and non-telecommuters

Abstract

{There’s a} split community between telecommuters and non-telecommuters. Feelings non-telecommuters have of perks and favoritism. –supervisor of a work group with a mix of telecommuters and non-telecommuters Telecommuting is growing and — as the opening statement suggests—thisgrowth posesnewchallengesforsupervisors in managing a ‘‘blended’’ workforce. Telecommuting, also known as remote work, homework, virtual work, telework or distributed work, is work that occurs outside of a traditional office setting, but that is connected to it via telecommunications or computer technology. A report by the Gartner Group states that as of 2008, 41 million corporate employees globally telecommute at least 1 day a week, a figure that jumps to 100 million for telecommuting at least 1 day a month. Most of these are U.S. employees, as U.S. Census Bureau statistics show that as many as 15 percent of employed people now telecommute one or more times per week. Telecommuting doesn’t just alter the jobs of those who adopt this virtual work arrangement. It also makes new demands on managers, who must now interpret, adapt and implement nascent organizational policies regarding this growing flexible work form. Supervisors also often serve as gatekeepers, deciding whether or not individuals have access to telecommuting. Managers must learn how to supervise, maintain contact with, and elicit performance from telecommuting subordinates despite the fact that they are out of sight. In this article, we identify key challenges that supervisors with telecommuting employees face, and provide suggestions for supervisors to successfully implement telecommuting policies. Although most telecommuting literature has focused more on how to manage those working offsite, in this article we demonstrate how important it is, in developing a managerial strategy, to consider not only the telecommuters, but also their non-telecommuting colleagues. Managing a blended workforce raises challenges for coordination, equity, and for the motivation and social integration of workgroups. Throughout the article, we discuss challenges and remedies in managing new ways of working, using examples from telecommuters, non-telecommuters and supervisors with experience in blendedworkgroups to illustrate their perspectives on these issues.