Foundations of control: Working from home

Controlling your business is very important, but modern work standards do not always make it easy. With more and more people working from home, researchers are keen to find out the advantages and disadvantages of this work model. There are many benefits to working from home. Employers can expect greater productivity from their employees because they are susceptible to less disruptions (providing, of course, no one else is at home). Businesses then require less space and fewer facilities: desks, phones, power, air-conditioning, public toilets, and parking lots. All these can be reduced if there is less staff on site. Employees can enjoy greater flexibility because they can go to the gym at 3:30pm but make up for it at 8:30pm. Employees also save time. There is no need to commute, but also there is no need to get dressed up, apply makeup, do one’s hair; hours and hours a year can be saved that way! And finally, the environment benefits even more. A study of greenhouse gas emissions in Brisbane showed that only a 20% reduction in rush hour commuters reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 50%. This is an important contribution to the global efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

However, working from home has its downsides. The article points to two major downsides. One is the unavailability of people to make decisions. If workers are not there they cannot be part of the decision making process, particularly when complex, customer-related issues are concerned. This issue is more of a problem in industries where face-to-face contact is important. For example, imagine you saw a doctor at the doctors’ surgery and he made his diagnosis. Two days later you realise that the treatment that he prescribed is not working and you go back to the surgery. If the doctor is working from home today, and you have to see another doctor, you would have to describe all the symptoms again, recall the treatment, and explain why it is not working. This is not only time consuming and irritating, it may also be dangerous if you leave out something that you have said to the first doctor. In this case, a doctor working from home may be counterproductive.

Another major downside mentioned in the article, is the lack of casual and informal interactions between workers. Because of the reduced number of interactions, there are fewer opportunities to discuss problems, resolve issues, and innovate. There is also less of a chance for building social relationships, which can create “social glue” to keep employees engaged with their work and workplace.

The article does not mention any control issues, but surely control would be one of the main reasons to NOT have all your employees work from home. Today, technology allows for excellent communication between people even if they are at different physical locations. Many jobs do not require face-to-face contact with other workers or customers. So, why not? Well, it has been forecasted that employers will actually like employees to return to the office. What are the control issues that you can think of that relate to working from home?

Some issues to notice and pay particular attention to here are…

• What managers measure
• How to measure and compare actual performance with planned goals?
• Cultural differences and controlling

Consider the following questions for discussion…

1. What should managers measure when they attempt to control employees who work from home? What are the challenges to such measures?
2. What types of jobs are more conducive to working from home? Name five jobs that you think are suitable for it. What sort of control is appropriate for each of these jobs?
3. What sort of corrective actions can be taken when employees who work from home do not meet the standards and expectations?
4. How does controlling employees who work from home vary across cultures? Are there any work cultures that would not be easy to control in these circumstances?