With global warming now a matter for urgent attention; with traffic congestion reaching gridlock; with the next oil crisis just one or two cold winters away, the argument for persuading people off the roads seems to be stronger than ever.

Add to this our gravity-defying property prices, the problems and costs of finding skilled staff and our increasingly stressed and discontented workforce and the case for eWorking would seem to be self-evident.

And indeed more and more businesses are adopting eWorking in some form or another. O2 estimate that almost one in three owner managers and senior executives in Irish small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) now work from home at least one day a month. But the real benefits to businesses or to the nation won’t be achieved until eWorking is the norm, not just for senior management but for all grades.

So what’s holding us back?

Lack of information about the potential benefits.

According to Darina Loakman, the creator of iamawahm.com and currently reckoned to be one of the 50 most influential women in Ireland, lack of information is one of the main reasons why eWorking is slow to become accepted in Ireland. “The government should be pro-actively encouraging eWorking”, she says. “Employers need to be made aware of the success stories in order to help them to overcome fears of the unknown.”

Nationally, eWorking has a role to play in reducing traffic, reducing infrastructural development costs, reducing fuel consumption and reducing air pollution. It can also be used to improve the work-life balance of our working population as well as our health, both mental and physical. From the employer’s viewpoint eWorking can reduce costs, increase productivity, increase operational flexibility and make the enterprise generally more competitive and more attractive to employees.

If you are interested in finding out more about eWorking, there’s a lot of very good information on the internet. See www.eworksolutions.ie  for recommended links.

Feared loss of management control.

Almost everyone I’ve ever spoken to about eWorking will cite loss of supervision as a probable explanation for Ireland’s reluctance to encourage eWorking. Joe Fitzpatrick, a  programme director with IBM has about 70% of his staff authorised to eWork on an ad-hoc basis by agreement with their manager. His advice to employers afraid of losing control is that they should first try eWorking on a small scale using people that they trust. Then, if the pilot scheme works for them, they can extend it. But he cautions them to make sure to select the task first and then the employee; then to evaluate both.

Lothar Krenge, the M.D. of Bönders GmbH, a 120 employee transport company in Germany, offers another viewpoint. He says, “…leadership does not need to take place by control and presence in the office. A corporate culture where open and direct communication is practised, where the management provides a convincing, working role model and where trust is the predominant management technique, enables the successful utilisation of eWork for everybody within the company. eWork only works on the basis of delegating responsibilities and the whole company benefits from it.”

Lack of know-how

Embarking on any project that involves remote communications will throw up a number of obstacles. Some, especially those requiring technical solutions, may appear insurmountable without expert guidance. Peter Curtin, M.D. of the Burren Smokehouse, has been using eWorkers since 2000 and warns that “businesses should do their research in advance and get help from someone who can offer a total solution”. However, he recommends eWorking and believes that it will grow in Ireland the more that people realise its potential.

Too complicated

Levels of complexity will vary from one enterprise to another. Liam Ferguson, the principal of Ferguson & Associates, Insurance and Mortgage Brokers, was able to close his offices in Dublin when he decided to work from home. He now uses a remote receptionist who performs similar duties for a number of other businesses. The move to eWorking for him was both profitable and painless. Larger businesses may require a more structured approach that caters for changes in accounting procedures, personnel management, communication methods, health and safety issues, security, employee contracts etc. Both IBM and eircom, for example, have eWorking Policy documents that define what they believe to be best practice approaches to areas affected by remote working. This has the benefit of ensuring that everyone involved, especially the managers and eWorkers, know what is expected of them and of their colleagues. The policy creation process has the additional benefit that it provides a forum in which stakeholders can raise and address any issues or concerns that they might have.

Too much effort

The effort it takes to set up an eWorking environment must be weighed against the benefits to be derived. You must be clear about what you want eWorking to achieve for you. The most usual objectives are

*      To retain key staff.

This is one of the main reasons why businesses first look at eWorking. It can sometimes be the only option if you’re about to lose a key member of staff, either temporarily (e.g. through maternity leave) or permanently (e.g. through spouse relocation).

But there is a more pressing reason. A survey last month by irishjobs.ie found that 42% of employees want to change their jobs, despite 37% having been in their current position for less than a year. Flexible working conditions, such as eWorking, were cited as one approach to curbing this trend.

*      To attract skills.

Peter Curtin, for example, uses eWorking as a way to entice professionals who might otherwise have found his company’s location, in Lisdoonvarna, a disincentive.

*      To increase the potential skills pool.

If location is not a factor then the world is your oyster. Joe Fitzpatrick currently has 2 members of full-time staff who eWork from their homes overseas. eWorking also opens the door to employ people who may not be able to travel to work – those with disability for example. A call centre in Holland, Annieconnect, with a workforce of 450, is 90% staffed by women with disabilities, working from home.

*     To increase organisational responsiveness and flexibility

In the case of a study by Hopkinson, James and Maruyama (2001) for the UK Automobile Association, for example, the pre-eWorking situation was that the staff who worked normal daytime hours, were relatively under-employed, because the peak demand in calls often came through outside these times. By moving to eWorking, their working hours could be varied in order to match the volume of calls.

*      To reduce costs. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment is examining eWorking as part of their decentralisation strategy, thus allowing them to benefit from lesser regional property costs. IBM have a “hot-desking” policy. This allows them to have approximately one desk for every two employees based in their office in Ballsbridge and so significantly reduces their property and administration costs.

*      To reduce the risk of disruption to the business

At present, this is of particular interest to U.S. state and federal agencies who are concerned about the affects that terrorist attacks may have on their administrative infrastructure. But we in Ireland aren’t immune to the causes of disruption, for example

o       Traffic congestion. The number of cases of gridlock, particularly in Dublin, are breaking records.

o       Blockades. We had the taxi drivers’ blockade of O’Connell street last year. Can we expect a blockade by the HVG drivers in response to the ban on 5 axle vehicles in Dublin’s City centre?

o       Petrol shortages – anyone remember the chaos in 1973 and again in 1979? The oil situation has stabilised considerably in the last few months, largely due to the mild winter. But there are many who argue that we’re very close to “peak oil” with the International Energy Agency stating last year that huge investments will be needed in exploration, production and refining capacity to meet demand after 2010.

o       Epidemic. An out break of bird-flu, for instance, would quarantine large numbers of people.

o       Strike action by transport personnel (buses, trains, trams etc.).

o       Severe weather conditions (e.g. Flooding, snow-storms, hurricanes etc.). With the climate changes that we’re experiencing, who can say what to expect?

*      To improve management processes

Just because an employee is at their desk at the required times does not mean that they are performing any useful function for their business. Managers faced with a requirement to enable eWorking will probably feel the need to discover exactly what it is that each employee should be doing; just so that their productivity can be measured. This process can lead to some interesting discoveries e.g. duplication of effort, missed process steps, inefficient procedures, non-existent quality control etc. Most importantly, by truly becoming the process owner for each job that they manage, the manager moves into a much stronger position when required to manage change.

*      To improve employees’ work-life balance.

eWorking does not suit everyone. It can lead to a sense of isolation and disorientation. And some people are just not good at self-motivation and are most comfortable when being closely managed. But for most others there are significant benefits to be had from eWorking.

o       Reduced travel time. It’s estimated that over 30% of the working population spend between 1 and 2 hours commuting, while almost one person in eight spends between 2 and 3 hours. This is time that could be used more productively elsewhere.

o       Improved time management. Every employee has domestic duties that will need to be attended to during normal working hours – workmen with impossibly loose appointment times, parental duties, visits to lawyers and doctors, etc. eWorkers can usually attend to these matters without disruption to their work deadlines.

o       Reduced negative stress. This refers to stress that can have no positive outlet, e.g. the stress caused by the frustration of driving in road traffic or trying, and failing, to get to an appointment on time. Ongoing negative stress affects both the outlook of the person affected and ultimately can cause health problems. eWorking respondents to the European Commission’s Sustel project in 2004 claimed to feel healthier and the companies taking part reported sickness rates and absenteeism well below their national averages.

o       Reduced transport costs.

In 2003 the Irish government and other interested parties ran a pilot eWorking project called “Ease to eWorking” (see recommended websites). The eWorkers reported significant savings in the cost of commuting; savings of between €400 to €1,500 over the 9 month trial period. Petrol prices have increased by about 30% since then.

*      To increase productivity. 

Research carried out by Pinsonneault and Boisvert (2001) estimates that the productivity of eWorkers increases by between 10 and 47 percent. Their literature suggests that this benefit arises in three main ways. The first is through concentration, i.e. by working away from environments where there is a high likelihood of interruption and interference. People can focus more intensively on their tasks and therefore do them more quickly and effectively.

A second productivity benefit is greater ease in matching staff to tasks, especially those which need to be done outside normal office hours.

A final productivity benefit is that of increased motivation of staff. This can lead them to work at higher rates than might otherwise have been the case.

Given the complexities of measuring changes in productivity and output quality, researchers will usually stress that their findings are mainly based upon the subjective opinions of the managers and workers themselves. Nevertheless, one cannot discount the fact that feedback on eWorker productivity tends to be almost unanimously positive.

We have now explored the principal obstacles to eWorking, though you may be able to think of others, specific to your own environment. However, experience shows that where there’s a will, there’s a way and that these problems significantly diminish with analysis, preparation and good management, leaving measurable and sustainable benefits.

Ranald Milne is Managing Director of Tri-Cubic Consultants Ltd., who provide guidance and practical assistance in eWorking, and can be contacted via www.eworksolutions.ie