The Covid-19 pandemic changed the world in more ways than one. One such outcome was the work from home, which caused a significant chunk of the population to change the way they had worked for years overnight. There were doubts about whether employees could perform their duties outside their workplace. However, the results were so impressive that companies faced stiff resistance when asked to return to office. Now, companies are serious about whether telecommuting could be the future of work.
In early 2020, 42 percent of the entire workforce in the United States shifted to work from home. In overall trends, 33 per cent of people continued to work, according to a McKinsey report. The statistics were similar across the world. And since telecommuting has now become an integral part of our work, companies are weighing the pros and cons before deciding whether it is the right way for them to move forward.
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What is telecommuting?
Telecommuting is basically when the employee is allowed to execute their duties outside the office. This arrangement is also called remote working or teleworking. The employer can perform the tasks from home or any other remote place. With the rise in technology, these employees can easily be tracked through tools such as the Human Resource Management System (HRSM) to see whether they are available during working hours.
So, what are the types of telecommuting?
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Types of Telecommuting
Full-time Telecommuting
One of the most common types of telecommuting is when employees are allowed to work from anywhere, be it their homes or other places. Employees need not visit their offices, which is primarily true in such a scenario. These are full-time work-from-home roles and are mostly in the technological sector. Software developers, customer support, graphics designers, and content writers are some jobs that fit such a role.
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Part-time Telecommuting
Five years after COVID-19, this remains perhaps the most used form of telecommuting. Also called the hybrid model, this requires the employee to work certain days in the office and certain days from home. For example, an employee may be asked to work from the office on Monday and Tuesday and from home on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. This arrangement is beneficial for both the employer and the employee.
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Home-based Telecommuting
This type of telecommuting is for employees who might be working with specialized equipment (for example, personal computers) that does not allow them to do remote work from any other location. These roles may also require minimal presence in the office (like on a monthly basis). Due to the nature of the role, employees may also need to allocate a part of their house as a designated work office.
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Distributed Teams Telecommuting
This type of telecommuting is used by teams that work remotely and in different time zones. Large multinational corporations usually deploy this setup when working on a project requiring multiple teams working across various offices. Under this setup, each team works from different locations (their home or elsewhere) across different time zones.
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Advantages of Telecommuting
Flexibility
The greatest advantage of telecommuting is the flexibility it offers the employee. With telecommuting, employees have the luxury of working from the comforts of their home. Commuting to the office requires one to wake up way before the office time, travel to the office, and arrive on time. However, telecommuting allows candidates to have a better work-life balance, allowing them to indulge in their home activities right after their work ends.
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Time and Cost savings
This is perhaps the biggest advantage of telecommuting, which benefits both the employer and the employee. Traveling to the office means the employee must spend money on transportation, food, and time to reach the office. Working from telecommuting saves a lot of time and money for them. Meanwhile, the company also manages to save costs that would have been spent on the day-to-day running costs of the organization.
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Increased Productivity
A 2021 report by Bloomberg found that productivity increased by five to eight percent during the pandemic when the entire workforce was telecommuting. Another report from Global Workplace Analytics found that companies across the United States saved an average of $11,000 per remote worker due to the increase in work productivity. This gives an incentive to both the employer and employee to promote telecommuting.
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Access to a Larger Talent Pool
Another advantage that companies have with prompting telecommuting is the sudden increase in the number of prospective hires. With telecommuting, companies can now hire talent from across the world, which massively increases their chances of getting the best talent from the market. This also helps the candidates as they can now apply.
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Higher Employee Retention
A 2023 report by Gallup found that telecommuting led to higher levels of engagement, and such employees were 87 percent less likely to leave an organization. However, even before COVID-19, telecommuting was a favorable idea among employees. A 2015 study conducted by Stanford University professor Nichoals Bloom found that remote workers had a 50 percent lower attrition rate than workers who commuted daily.
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Disadvantages of telecommuting
While there are certain advantages of telecommuting, there are also cons. This is why there was a lot of talk about ending it after the Covid-19 pandemic went away. So, what are the disadvantages of telecommuting?
Reduced Collaboration and Communication
One of the biggest challenges of telecommuting is that it leads to a lack of communication within the team. The only method is to use digital tools for even basic communication. This affects the level of collaboration and communication within the team and can greatly decrease efficiency. It also increases the chances of miscommunication between team members.
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Dependence on Technology
Telecommuting is also heavily dependent on technological tools that allow employees to execute their duties without being present in the office. However, their work gets totally disrupted when there is a technical issue. For example, a worker whose internet connection is disabled is absent for the duration until his internet issues are resolved. Similarly, even other tools could face breakdowns, disrupting work.
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Distractions at Home
Working from the office has one advantage: it gives the employees an environment where everyone around them is working. However, at home, employees have so many distractions that they might not have the atmosphere that allows them to work at the same efficiency. These include domestic responsibilities, family members, or personal distractions. This is where a structured office setup helps employees perform their duties better.
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Cybersecurity Risks
Working remotely also has huge cybersecurity risks, as employees don’t get to know each other on a personal level. Take the example of cybersecurity firm KnowBe4, which in 2024 hired a talented employee. However, that person turned out to be a North Korean agent. The company software caught the person installing malware on the first day of his job. This shows us the challenge of recruiting genuine employees remotely.
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Reduced Visibility and Career Advancement
Employees working from home are more likely to suffer from perception bias as they are not visible to management in the office. A 2022 Harvard Business Review found that remote employees, on average, had a lesser chance of promotion than their peers who worked in the office. This is because employees who are not seen in the office can be victims of bias from their seniors, who might not value their contribution as much.
At the end of the day, it is up to the company and the employee to decide whether telecommuting is the right move for them. This is why companies need to have a robust recruitment process to help them sort out the best talent available.
In the end, whether telecommuting is right or wrong may depend on the employee and the organization’s requirements. However, a great way to set expectations at the start is to identify candidates during the interview who may align with your company’s values.
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