Working Anywhere - Andrew Bibby

40 Pages·2002·0.74 MB·English

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SECOND EDITION
Working Anywhere
Exploring telework for
individuals and organisations
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Working_Anwhere 7/5/02 3:00 PM Page 1
Working Anywhere
Exploring telework for
individuals and organisations
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2 WORKING ANYWHERE
Foreword Since 1998,when this booklet was first published,most
of us have become more familiar with working
electronically:communicating by voice,video,text
and graphics to anywhere in the world,from both
fixed and mobile locations. Many businesses,as well as
Government,are already embracing the opportunities
from this way of working.This booklet sets out the
benefits from being able to work anywhere- whether
you are an employer,an employee or self-employed.
As more companies adopt teleworking,they have
successfully addressed managers’concerns about
managing at a distance.They have implemented
strategies to ensure distance workers are not isolated
from colleagues,so that everybody benefits from the
new arrangements. Indeed,many companies - and
individuals too - have found that a mixture of distance
working and traditional workplace-based employment
is the ideal rather than a compromise way of working.
A word that appears a number of times in this
booklet is ‘trust’. An organisation with clear objectives
that trusts and encourages its employees to work
together to meet these objectives should have no
fear of adopting ‘working anywhere’practices.
A culture of sharing information and knowledge also
creates the right atmosphere for people to work
together,while apart. Indeed for companies to operate
in a knowledge driven economy,their competence
in fostering knowledge sharing should be regarded as
a critical factor in their success.
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WORKING ANYWHERE 3
Teleworking is really about exploring new and
imaginative ways of getting the job done in a way
which benefits both the organisation and the
individual. Successful businesses depend on good
people.They recognise that the ability and skills of
Patricia Hewitt
the people who work for them are their most Minister for Small Business
and E-commerce
valuable resource. At the same time,everyone has a
life outside of work.We may have children to look
after,or other caring responsibilities,or simply want
time to pursue other interests. Finding ways to link
individual employees’needs to business needs makes
sense to both.That is very much the message of
the Government’s Work-Life Balance Campaign which
Alan Johnson
Minister for Competitiveness
is raising awareness of the business benefits of work-
life policies and sharing best practice.
Teleworking can help to reduce the amount of
travel undertaken by people both to work and in the
course of work,and can be promoted as part of a
wider package of measures through a travel plan.
Reductions in business mileage,for example through
Lord Macdonald
video-conferencing and audio-conferencing,can lead
Minister for Transport
to real cost and time-savings.Working from home,or
from nearby telecentres,is also likely to reduce the
impact of travel on the environment,provided this is
not offset by increases in non-work travel.
We believe that exploring the benefits of different
ways of working should be on the agenda of every
Margaret Hodge
company.This booklet introduces various aspects of
Minister for Employment
telework to let you see the bigger picture and how you and Equal Opportunities
can be part of it.We hope it makes a difference to you.
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4 WORKING ANYWHERE
Contents
(cid:2)
Working Anywhere 5
If you are a chief executive or strategic planner 9
If you are an operational manager 12
If you are an employee 14
If you are self-employed 18
Off to a good start 20
(cid:2)
Inside Information
Training and development 23
Employment rights and conditions 24
Health and safety 26
Taxation and Business Rates 27
Data protection and security 28
Premises and facilities 29
Some terms explained 30
(cid:2)
Further Information and Advice
Useful contacts 30
Books and publications 32
Web sites 34
(cid:3)
Telework: the statistics 35
(cid:3)
Acknowledgements 36
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WORKING ANYWHERE 5
Working Anywhere
Most of us are already used to working in a variety As technology develops, so the practical possibilities
of ways; few of us spend all our working time just sitting increase. Electronic mail is now in widespread use.
at one desk or in one building or just travelling from The phenomenal growth of the Internet shows just how
customer to customer or meeting to meeting. powerful this international network of linked computers
Work is no longer dependent on geography. People can be, whilst Internet standards are also being used by
can communicate and exchange information even though companies internally for their own computer networks.
they are miles apart. Information - the lifeblood of any There are new, low-cost ways to undertake
business - can now be passed effortlessly around the videoconferencing and data-conferencing from ordinary
country, and indeed around the world. It makes no desktop computers. Portable laptops and palm-sized
difference what form that information is in: computer files personal digital assistants are increasingly being linked to
and data, voice conversations, pictures and moving cellular phone networks. The next step forward in mobile
images, other emerging types of multi-media, all these can telecommunication, which will open up the possibilities
be converted to electronic signals and sent through for fast data communication, is just around the corner.
telecommunications channels. Meanwhile, increased competition in telecommunications
A large element of the value added by any business, is bringing down costs.
even if it is engaged in manufacturing physical articles, It is not just in work location, but also in work time
comes from the processing and management of that there are new possibilities for flexibility.
information. This means that some aspects at least of its Communications networks are available round-the-clock,
operation can now be done independent of geographical so information can be accessed and work undertaken
location. In the world of digital communications, you at the times of day which suit the individual and his or
need never be in the wrong place to do your work. her employer. There are possibilities for undertaking
You can access the information you need anywhere - work internationally, by taking advantage of time zone
from a remote satellite office or local business centre, differences. Already, for example, some out-of-hours
from a client’s premises, from home, from a hotel room telephone calls by customers of US businesses are
or whilst on the move in a train or car. routed automatically to the UK, to be answered here
This way of working has come to be known as during the day.
teleworking. Confusingly, definitions of telework can All these changes create important issues for both
vary very widely but most people now use the term for companies and individuals. If there is no longer the
any form of working which meets the twin criteria same necessity to work in centralised buildings during
of being undertaken at a distance from the conventional set times, we have a new freedom to look at a rather
workplace, and being made possible by the use of more important aspect of work organisation, the people,
information and communications technologies. and how to ensure that their skills and potential are
This broader perspective is also the one which this properly maximised.
booklet will take. Statistics for the number of people
teleworking in the UK can be found on page 35.
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6 WORKING ANYWHERE
Lasair Ltd
Developing these new ways of working is likely to
Kathleen Turneris a director of well developed - the Highlands
mean changing the way organisations are structured and
Lasair Ltd,a small company based and Islands of Scotland are more
management is undertaken. It means relying less on
on the Hebridean island of advanced in some ways than
traditional ‘command and control’ supervision techniques
Benbecula.She has exploited the some southern mainland UK
- rather difficult to maintain, if your employees are now
possibilities of technology to regions - and we can undertake
in different parts of the country, miles away. It means
develop a successful business just anything these days.
developing new collaborative forms of working, based
undertaking editing,abstracting and The Western Isles also has a
on mutual trust and an emphasis on enablement and
database compilation work.Lasair higher percentage of graduates
empowerment.
makes use of a regular pool of per capita than anywhere else
Teleworking may also have a valuable role to contribute
about 30-40 highly skilled people in the country,so we’ve found it
in reducing the amount of travel that individuals need
throughout the Western Isles quite an advantage to be here.
to undertake for work. When teleworking substitutes
who work from their own homes
for high-mileage driving patterns, this can benefit both “I think we’ve proved ourselves.
on a sub-contract basis.
the individual (through more leisure time and less stress) For example,we have a contract
Kathleen Turner herself works for
and the employer (through reduced transport costs). with the Home Office Forensic
much of the week from her home,
Teleconferencing has clear benefits - with reductions in Science service to compile
saving the necessity of a slow
travel resulting in a more efficient use of work-time and their database records.The work
journey along narrow roads to
a reduced impact of business mileage on the was previously done in London,
the office.
environment. Providing reduction in travel to work is and it took several weeks to
not replaced with other journeys made, for example Among Lasair’s current contracts turn the work around.We send
from home during the working day (or by a more general are editing and pre-production it back in five days.
shift from towns to the countryside), teleworking is likely work fora new edition of the
“The mark-up work for the Grove
to provide welcome benefits to the environment. classic reference work,the Grove
Dictionary of Music is being
Of course, teleworking does not constitute a job in Dictionary of Music.
undertaken for a publisher in
itself, only a method of working - individuals will still
“Being located where we are Oxford by ten people on the
need to have the expertise and skills to bring to their work. matters not at all.The telecom- island of Barra.Their work then
However, it can mean more business opportunities for munications links are very comes to us at Lasair and we
the enterprising small business person and the self-employed.
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WORKING ANYWHERE 7
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Steve Mortimermanages a team of ten
Yorkshire Water engineers,responsible for
the network of reservoirs,treatment
plants and water mains in a large area of
the Yorkshire Dales.
Until recently,his team gathered at the
start of each day for their instructions at a
depot near Masham.Now eight of the
engineers can work out their day’s
itinerary for themselves from home.
Using laptops,they connect each morning
perform a quality control role,
checking for errors,before sending
the work back to the publisher.
“We are inday-to-daycommuni-
cation with our contractors,mainly
electronically.We run an e-mail
conference,and as I receive
information I put it out on to the to the company’s groupware system and Regional Telemetry System (RTS) which
conference:it could be updates to the real-time database which remotely monitors our sites twenty-four hours a
of software,or files which need to monitors the flow and quality of water day.I will look for any problems which are
be sent out.It means that people through their area. occurring,and allocate priorities.Then I’ll
for whom it’s relevant can pick log on to the groupware system and make
“Prior to our use of computer laptops,
it up immediately.We encourage some phone calls to team members.
everyone had to come in here.
people to check their e-mail
The dissemination of information was “The arrangement showed its worth
regularly throughout the day.”
difficult,and the office was full of little notes. over Christmas 1997,when we had really
“We are exploring new avenues catastrophic weather in the Dales.
“Now people are empowered more.
of innovation to provide the By 3am on Christmas Day trees were
They are able to take responsibility for
ultimate virtual service solution. down all over and sixteen of our sites
their own workload and to take decisions
were without mains power.It was quite
We have recently started a service, for themselves.Previously,people came to
a juggling act keeping a supply of potable
‘LiveGenie’to provide on-line me for things they should really have
water.I set my laptop up in the dining
interactive customer support decided themselves.When we initially
room at home at midnight on Christmas
services for busy web sites. introduced the laptops,I made a point of
Eve and was plugged in to our RTS all
‘LiveGenie’enables our clients to staying at home and not coming in to the
the time for the next twelve hours.
transform the manner in which office for a few days,to get people out of
The routine before would have been for
buying,selling and customer support the habit of coming to me.
everyone to come in to the office,in
is conducted on their Internet sites.”
“I begin a typical day at about 7am,when order to access the RTS information.”
I log on from home to the company’s
Working_Anwhere 7/5/02 3:01 PM Page 8
8 WORKING ANYWHERE
Fulcrum Pharma PLC
Jon Court is Chief Executive Officer to manage information in this
of Fulcrum Pharma PLC,an distributed environment.
independent virtual drug development
“In practical terms the company could
company which was recently floated
be anywhere and strives to be
on the Alternative Investment Market.
geographically independent,though
The company has expertise in the
the office has to be close to a good
design,execution and delivery of
drug development programmes and international airport.People spend
relies on state of the art information perhaps 30% of their time travelling,
technology and infrastructure to and also frequently work from home.
supply its services All of us can connect to the office from
home and have docking stations for our
“Drug development is very expensive,
laptops both at home and in the office.
and takes a long time - the industry
Our PCs are equipped with modems,
average is ten to twelve years.We aim
so we can access the local area network
to be more efficient and help our
and the Internet from any location.
customers get to the market quicker
and therefore get more value from “We don’t have secretaries or assistants,
their products. so we handle messages ourselves.
“Together with our clients,we set the We use a personal number service
strategy and then provide the virtual teams consisting of multiple which means that all calls and faxes
leadership for Drug Development suppliers.The work is therefore done get connected to us wherever we are.
Projects.Strategic outsourcing is a in difference companies,in different The system dials the home number,
cornerstone of the business and we countries and different time zones. the mobile or diverts messages to the
conduct our work through tailor made We use electronic communications voice box.”