I like the title of Alexandra Krasne's new piece in PC World: "Manage Telecommuters Without Losing Your Mind." And she points to one of those delicious metrics that everyone hungers for around issues like virtual teams, collaboration, and telecommuting:
According to a survey commissioned by the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA), 67 percent of survey respondents said their organization has experienced greater worker productivity as a result of allowing employees to telecommute, either full- or part-time. The main reason for the increase in worker output: less commute time.
Here are the "key findings" in the CompTIA web-based survey, "Trends in Telecommuting: Organizations are Realizing Benefits and Addressing Challenges:"
- The majority of respondents (78%) report that some employees within their organizations telecommute, at least part-time.
- However, most organizations do not have a high
percentage of full-time telecommuting employees.
The vast majority of organizations (82%) say that less
than 25% of employees telecommute full-time.
- Employees in IT management (41%), field technical
support (37%), and administration (35%) most
commonly telecommute (part-time or full-time).
- Top benefits of telecommuting to organizations include
improved productivity (67%), cost savings (59%),
access to more qualified staff (39%), employee retention
(37%), and improved employee health (25%).
- Significant challenges of telecommuting to organizations include securing corporate information systems (53%), limiting use of unauthorized and unsupported devices (38%), and controlling personal use of corporate mobile assets (33%).
To the last point, please note emphasis here on "control" issues rather than mentioning the behavioral ones.