Telecommuting
Discuss about the Workplace and in Critical Social Theory.
Recently many companies are changing towards alternative workplace arraignment due to globalization and advanced technology. Typically, Alternative Workplace (AW) is a combination of nontraditional locations, settings and practices with the purpose of replacing the traditional offices. Working from home, teleconferencing, office incubators, hot-desking, and office suites are all legitimate alternative workplace arrangement and if used effectively, can help reduce the operating cost (Chin 2014, p.64). Businesses, whether small or large, are no longer confined to operate from offices. It is estimated that between 30 and 40 million people in the United States are either working from home or telecommunicating. The most obvious factor that motivates business managers to adopt these alternative work practices is cost reduction (Rockwell 2016, p.173).
Having some employees working from home and others telecommuting from whatever location from the office means that an organization can get rid of offices that are not in use and also consolidate others. Doing this helps an organization the overhead cost in a big way. The other reason for adopting alternative workplace arrangement is that it can lead to employee productivity since they are relieved from routine office practices (Cherry 2009, p. 43). Employees working under alternative workplace arrangement tend to use less energy and time compared to when they are working in a typical office. Finally attracting government incentives and avoiding heavy sanctions is the other thing that motivates businesses to develop alternative workplace practices. Although alternative workplace developments are working well with companies such as AT$T, such methods can be challenging to adopt. The secret to succeeding in launching these programs is to understand which arrangement among the many that are there works well with the employees (Manrai 2016, p.87).
Different companies use different alternative workplace arrangements depending on their needs. For example, one company may choose to use shared officers and it works for them while this may fail terribly in another organization (Giovanis 2015, p.98). Selecting the appropriate alternative workplace arrangement requires proper planning about the implementation process and the possible challenge that may arise from such arrangements.
Telecommuting is one of the commonly used forms of the alternative workplace. Telecommuting also called telework is an arrangement where people work away from office maybe from home or any other location such as a library or a coffee shop using smartphones, laptops, and tablets (Chin 2014, p. 182). People do not have to travel to an office every day to work but instead, they keep in touch with their bosses and their colleagues through emails and phone calls. One of the things that motivate businesses to change towards telecommuting is that the arrangement helps increase employee productivity which is an advantage to the company. According to Manrai (2016) approximately 3.9 million U.S.A employees are working through telecommuting arrangement and this is an indication that the alternative workplace arrangements are overtaking the traditional offices (Kaplan 2014, p.56).
Hoteling
There are many benefits of telecommuting which includes employee flexibility which helps them balance between personal life and work. This means that employees do not work under pressure and direct supervision from their managers. As a result, employees’ productivity increases which then increases the profitability of the company. Working out of office increases employee’s concentration because they work under no disruptions (Cooper et al. 2017, p. 229). Additionally, when people work at home, they are happy and they get the motivation to do their work perfectly because they know that it is their responsibility to complete that particular work within the set deadline. People work best when no one is giving them direct orders. To the company, telecommuting saves money in office expenses such as printing expenses and staff tea. The company is also able to minimize real estate cost because they can use offices that are no longer in use for other purposes (Kaplan 2014, p.79).
Hoteling is another office arrangement that is gaining popularity in companies today. Hoteling is being used to save the cost for a company and increase teamwork among the employees. Unlike the open office arrangement where workspaces are assigned permanently to individuals, office hotel arrangement allows desks to be shareable. Employees have movable file cabinets and lockers for storing personal items but the desks remain unassigned (Manrai 2016, p. 81). Employees can then book a desk space either for an hour, a day or even a week using the office reservation systems. Use of hoteling arrangement by organization helps save the office place because employees can share a desk which is not possible when desks are individually owned (Cherry 2009, p. 127).
The other advantage of hoteling is that it motivates collaboration among the employees where they can share new ideas and come up with new ways of growing the organization. An excellent example of a company that has successfully implemented hoteling is American Express. The company adopted the model in 2012 and more than 1000 employees in the New York headquarters are currently working from unassigned desks. The company vice president says that this arrangement is practical because it helps save office spaces which stay unused when employees are on leaves or are out in the field working (Chin 2014, p.39). Although hoteling is a model that has clear benefits to businesses, the idea of sharing desks and moving from one desk to another is not ideal for all businesses.
Satellite Offices
Some people value the sense of privacy, ownership and belonging (Pride 2017, p. 26). The idea of hoteling may not work well for such people because it may be a burden to them especially to those who spend most of their time in offices. Besides, it is not advisable to use hotel arrangements in businesses which handle confidential and sensitive information because moving consistently in the office with such information may cause security concerns. It is of the essence to note that hoteling model is designed for employees. Therefore, the success or failure of this system depends on how they will preserve it. It means that if the workers support the arrangement, it will be beneficial to the company since it assists to cut cost, encourage collaboration, and promote efficiency in office space usage (Chin 2014, p. 244).
The other commonly used alternative workplace model used by businesses is satellite offices. Offices are sectioned into smaller divisions which are located closer to employees’ homes and customers as opposed to large centralized office buildings (Cherry 2009, p. 51). Companies are motivated by the reduced cost of operating these smaller offices because most of them require only basic technology to operate which others do not need a lot of furnishing. These offices save a company about 50% in real estate cost because most of them are located in small towns and suburb areas (Chin 2014, p.94). The advantage of running these satellite offices is that they attract potential and qualified employees because they do not have to travel long distances to reach the office. People have fewer expenses when they are working in an office which is near them because they do not incur costs such as transport and housing cost. As a result, workers are comfortable working in such environments and may not complain about salary increment. Secondly, maintaining these offices is relatively cheap because most of them require minimal furnishing and maintenance. Diversifying these offices also assists organizations to reduce the risks associated with over-concentration in offices (Cooper et al. 2017, p.57).
Working from home is an arrangement where employees are allowed to work from their homes at their own expenses and discrete. Just like telecommuting, employees do not have to report to work every day and instead, they are supposed to work from where they are using laptops and phones. Millions of people today worldwide prefer working from their homes to going to work. Most of the people who work from home have fully furnished home offices where they do their activities without going to the office (Giovanis 2015, p.12). All that is needed from them is to communicate with their supervisor ant their bosses as well as their colleagues on issues concerning the work they are doing. Although most of the people who work from home use their resources such as internet and power, some companies provide their workers with these facilities (Chin 2014, p.37). Others give them allowance to cater for these expenses. Working from home has many benefits to the employees and the company as well. Working from home to some people makes them happy because they know that they do not have to prepare for work every morning. When employees are happy, they are more productive and they are not in a hurry to leave the organization.
Working from Home
Working from home also helps employs concentrate on their work because there is little or no disturbance in an office at home concentration helps an employee produce quality work and this leads to higher level of productivity. One of the most effective ways of motivating employees is giving them the freedom to balance their work and their personal life (Swink 2011, p.159). Spending most of the hours in a day drains workers time leaving them with no time for themselves. Thanks to the introduction of home offices where employees can now comfortably balance these two critical parts of their lives. Companies benefit from this arrangement through cutting the office expenses with a significant margin because when people work from home, it means that they will not be able to consume anything from the office (Ortlepp and Hloma 2006, p.221).
Businesses are now replacing private office plan with the open office plans where workstations and team rooms are located in an open space (Mas and Pallais 2016, p.21). Traditionally, offices were set in such a way that one was confined to one particular facility. This limits movement and interactions in the office since people spent most of their time in the office. With the open office plans, people are now operating in an open place where some are even sharing desks. Employees have their name tags at a specific workplace. Thus it is simple to identify who they are. The advantage of this model is saving on the office space it means that open space can accommodate more people compared to small office segments (Pride 2017, p. 45). Secondly, this arrangement brings employees together and they can work together as a team. The company benefits from this model by minimizing the real estate cost.
Managers today have the challenge of remaining ahead of the game in the current competitive market. The global economy is changing every day due to technology and other factors such as globalization and climate change (Ortlepp and Hloma 2006, p. 47). Due to all these changes, businesses are now forced to embrace new procedures that will boost their productivity and give them a competitive advantage. Enterprises are adopting office structure that will assist them to minimize their cost of doing business while increasing their productivity. As explained above, most of the models directly or indirectly involve employees (Kaplan 2014, p. 16). This means that the employees’ interest must first be considered before choosing the appropriate arrangement to implement. Besides, using more than one alternative workplace model in an office is advisable because it will help accommodate most of the office operations.
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