Executive Summary
The paper aims to find about the flexible work program of telecommuting and its acceptance among the employees. For this purpose, a survey was conducted in which 85 respondents participated by answering to close-ended questions. The questions of the study were about the research question and were aimed to identify the willingness among the employees towards the acceptance of the telecommuting program. The findings and discussion of the survey are provided to understand the analysis of the survey. In the end, conclusion and recommendations are provided towards the implementation of a telecommuting program.
Introduction
Telecommuting in a layman language is working from home. It is a working arrangement do not come at a central point (office) rather work from home or other locations like libraries, coffee shops, etc. The element of commuting is eliminated in telecommuting while the different modes of communication are used to coordinate with coworkers. The employees and employers do visit the office to attend important meetings while most of the meeting are done through distance conferencing.
Telecommuting jobs are offered by many industries like sales, marketing, customer services, etc. The jobs that require computer work software programming, developing and graphic designing can be easily done through telecommuting. In addition to it, some of the medical jobs like healthcare analysts are also involved in telecommuting. It is noted that radiologists have also started telecommuting. Telecommuting is not as easy as it sounds and there are certain things that must be met before telecommuting. One of the most important aspects of telecommuting is that an employer must know that every employee is not a telework. It is difficult for many employees to work without the working office environment. Moreover, education and training are necessary for telecommuting as it helps the telework to complete its given tasks in an efficient manner. It is also important to understand that telecommuting is a business strategy rather than a perk. Therefore, proper steps must be taken to implement telecommuting. In order to make telecommuting more effective, Human Resource (HR) and Information Technology (IT) departments must work together. It is important because the working strategies are made from these departments (Rayburn-Trobaugh, 2012).
Problem Statement
Telecommuting is a flexible work practice which allows the employees to work from their homes or locations other than the office. It is considered as a perk for the employees as they can work with ease. The study is conducted to determine whether it is a good practice and to what extent the employees are willing to accept its implementation.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of the study is to determine if the employees consider telecommuting to be a good practice or not and the extent to which they are willing to implement it in their organization.
Research Question
What is the acceptability of telecommuting among the employees?
Are the employees willing to compensate small part from their salaries to implement telecommuting program?
Methodology
Research Design
The research work involves qualitative, quantitative, or mixed research approach to carrying out the study. For this study, a quantitative research approach is used to assess quantitatively the information extracted from the results of the questionnaire. The survey related to the preference of employees towards telecommuting is the main concern of the study.
Sources for Data
For the completion of the study, primary and secondary sources are used. The primary sources are the first-hand information attained from the employees. For the primary source, the survey questionnaire was developed, and the information gathers from it are the primary sources of the study (Appendix A). The secondary sources are the information attained from past literature. For the secondary sources, books and peer-reviewed articles are used. Peer reviewed articles were taken from Ebsco host and books taken for Google Scholar.
Data Collection
Research Findings and Discussions
In this chapter of the study, the researcher carries out a detailed analysis of the findings from the data collected through the questionnaire. In addition to it, a detailed discussion of the findings is also presented in this chapter which is related to the research questions identifies above.
The respondents belonged to different age groups. The highest number of participants belonged to the age group of 35-50 that is 45%. 35% of the respondents were in the age group of 25-34, and 14% belonged to the age group of 18-24. Only 10% of the respondents were from the age group of 51-70. A graphical representation of different age groups is presented below (Appendix A).
About the research question, it was asked that if the employees are willing to pay a certain amount from their salaries to implement the telecommuting program. From the results, it is noted that 84% of the employees did not agree to it while 16% were willing to pay for the implementation of a telecommuting program. It is observed that most of the employees are want their company to implement the telecommuting program, but they do not tend to promote this program by giving away a small part of their salaries.
According to Allen, Golden, & Shockley (2015) telecommuting has become a popular mode of work. The program has become popular because of the advancement in the technology which has allowed people to connect from far places. The work timings are flexible in this method and employees enjoy it as they are free from various hassles (Allen, Golden, & Shockley, 2015). Similarly, Mayo, Pastor, Gomez-Mejia, & Cruz (2009) discusses the benefits of telecommuting in the article and claim that it is beneficial for both the employer and employee as the work can be completed efficiently and it also reduces the cost to a great extent. Employees adore telecommuting, but it should also be noticed that it is not for every employee as most of the employees consider it to be a challenging and no proper work environment demotivates them (Mayo, Pastor, Gomez-Mejia, & Cruz, 2009).
Rocco (2014) states that telecommuting is a program that favors both the employers and the employees but claims the education and training for it to be the most important element (Rocco, 2014). Most of the employees do not have proper resources to complete their given tasks. Therefore, all the employees should not be allowed to telecommute. Moreover, it is discussed that the employees are willing to implement the program of telecommuting in the organization as it is a flexible work practice. It is noted that majority of the employees claim that they should come to the office for a day or two to discuss important tasks and the rest of the work shall be telecommuted (Rocco, 2014; Allen, Golden, & Shockley, 2015).
Conclusion and Recommendations
It is concluded from the research that telecommuting is a preferable by the employees and majority of the employees are willing to telecommute most of the days a week. It is also observed that the employees want to implement telecommuting program at work but are not willing to lose a small amount of money from their wages for the implementation of the program. It is also recommended that the company must allow the workforce of certain departments to telecommute and not deduct any amount from their salaries. The company should also build a strong communication between different departments and must take a report of the work from every department to determine if the program is effective or not.
References
Allen, T. D., Golden, T. D., & Shockley, K. M. (2015). How Effective Is Telecommuting? Assessing the Status of Our Scientific Findings. Psychological Science in the Public Interest (Sage Publications Inc.), 16(2), 40-68.
Mayo, M., Pastor, J.-C., Gomez-Mejia, L., & Cruz, C. (2009). Why some firms adopt telecommuting while others do not: A contingency perspective. Human Resource Management, 48(6), 917-939.
Rayburn-Trobaugh, C. (2012). The Field Guide to Telecommuting: The Definitive Handbook for Current and Potential Teleworkers. Marble: Word Branch Publishing.
Rocco, D. A. (2014). Telecommuting as a Reasonable Accommodation: A Remote Possibility? Employee Relations Law Journal, 40(3), 48-52.
Appendix A
Survey Results for the Telecommuting Option
NOTE: Results for each question are shown in red.
Telecommuting is a good option. Choose one.
16 Strongly agree
42 Agree
18 Neutral
6 Disagree
3 Strongly Disagree
If a telecommuting option were offered, how many days per week would you prefer to telecommute? Choose one.
6 0 days per week
47 1-2 days per week
23 3-4 days per week
9 5 or more days per week
Would you be willing to take a small salary deduction to cover the costs of implementing a telecommuting program?
14 yes
71 no
