Archive for June, 2009
Once your firm has made the leap to recruiting using the Net, you’ll find yourself asking the next logical question: “If the candidate is already on the Net, is it really necessary to import that person into the office every day, whether that person comes from across the city, the country or even the world?” Veriphone, “Cutting Costs Across Your Enterprise,” has no corporate headquarters. It is perhaps the first large-scale major company to be unshackled by the restraints of bricks and mortar.
If a person’s brain power can be harnessed from her home, then both company and employee can have a win/win situation. The candidate saves on commuting time, clothes, gasoline, and so on. The firm saves on office space, electricity, and a host of other “built-in” HR costs. The more cynical employer can also calculate the increased worker productivity, since that person won’t be hanging around the water cooler or grousing about the coffee in the cafeteria. Assuming that all workers don’t have to work together at the exact same time, you’ll find that time-shifting is another advantage. Some people work most efficiently in the morning, while others tend to be night owls. For single- or dual-income families with children, this ability to shift workload and place can mean an essential difference in their work lives.
Some would and do argue that this is no panacea for contract or freelance workers. Many will tell you they find themselves assuming higher overhead costs for essentially the same wage. From the company perspective, the downside is the lack of “face-time.” An offsite employee can be diminished in importance if he is never seen. “Out of sight, out of mind,” as the saying goes. A tendency to marginalize ollsite employees is difficult to notice and sometimes even more difficult to correct. This is, after all, a brave new HR world. Maybe a person can come to the office two days a week and use a space that is shared by other telecommuters on other days. Your firm may choose to go halfway and have that employee commute to a telecommuting center located near him. At these centers, there are office support services, such as industrial-strength copiers, videoconferencing capabilities, faster access to the Internet, and so on. Be aware of the differences between offsite contract (or freelance) employees and part-time telecommuters, even if they are using a specific te(ecommuting center contracted and paid for by your company. There are many legal benefits and compensations that must be clarified and met for each category of employee.
Another downside is that there are things that happen in a face-to-face encounter that just aren’t going to happen in an online encounter, even using teleconferencing or video feed. In many cases, there needs to be a certain spontaneity for inspiration to spawn. That may often only happen when your employees are in the same place at the same time, sharing the same experience.
