Some Companies Encourage Telecommuting

By Gary M. Stern

Investor's Business Daily Merv Adrian meets weekly with each member of his team. It's not a problem that he's in Santa Clara, Calif., while others are in places like Bow, N.H.; Norwalk, Conn.; and even Frankfurt, Germany. Adrian, a manager at Giga Information Group, uses teleconferencing to meet with his staff of 50 analysts.

Welcome to the virtual office.

"In our business the intellectual asset is most important," Adrian said. "Clustering people around physical locations is nice but no longer necessary."

In fact, there are benefits for companies that employ people who work from home. Jack Nilles, author of the book "Managing Telework: Strategies for Managing the Virtual Workforce," said such firms "minimize infrastructure costs by reducing rent, size and expense of buildings."

While Giga is based in Cambridge, Mass., research analysts work from home throughout the U.S. and Europe. Giga encourages its analysts to live where they choose.

And it's not the only firm going virtual in a big way. Johnson & Co., a technology marketing and public relations firm based in Salt Lake City, has 17 associates. They work from their homes in places like Princeton, N.J.; Richmond, Va.; Ridgeland, Miss.; and Durham, N.C.

"Clients are interested in results; they don't care about glitzy offices. We're using technology in creative ways to connect people," said company founder Jennifer Johnson. For example, employees "talk" to each other with instant messaging.

"I can immediately communicate with anyone online and obtain a real-time answer," Johnson said. Firms like Giga and Johnson & Co. believe that if workers are happy, it helps the bottom line. Enabling workers to live wherever they choose enhances job satisfaction, which in turn affects their work.

"A happy knowledge worker is a productive worker," Adrian said. Giga wants to attract "independent thinkers who can optimize every aspect of their life."

Jennifer Johnson has a similar idea. "Our staff strives to have a full-time life and an appropriate job, not a full-time job," she said. ...

For workers who can adapt, telecommuting offers advantages, says author Nilles. "It's more cost-effective, and workers' productivity increases because they face less stress from commuting time," he said. And it's relatively easy for companies to gauge remote employees' productivity.

Giga tracks how quickly analysts respond to inquiries from clients and others. It also measures how satisfied each analyst's clients are, and it evaluates each analyst's contributions in weekly staff meetings. At Johnson & Co., staff members write daily reports.

But two major traps can arise when workers telecommute. Workers can feel isolated, says Nilles. "If you don't communicate with them regularly, they feel left out of the loop and misconceptions arise," he said. "But the biggest trap is workaholism. It's harder to get people to stop working when they're all by themselves and working out of their home."

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