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The Santa Barbara STC chapter meeting tonight was on telecommuting. The
speaker quoted the following statistics from a 2 1/2 year study done by the
Los Angeles Department of Telcommunications. The study was called the
"Pilot Project on Telecommuting." (For a summary of the study, contact
Susan Herman in the dept. I don't have a phone number for her.)
Anyway, here are the numbers:
o Telecommuters in the study were 12.5% more productive than the control group.
o Companies has a 30% reduction in space requirements.
o Telecommuters were 18% more likely to stay with the company than
non-telecommuters.
o Telecommuters drove 23% less.
o Telecommuters were 15% more likely to be promoted.
o 75% of the people who telecommute in the LA area work for smaller companies.
And here are some comments the speaker made:
Companies should select people for telecommuting who can succeed because
they are self-motivated. Don't expect to increase the productivity of
people who aren't self-starters.
After the LA earthquake, the public transportation people worked with
companies to encourage temporary telecommuting. About 9/10 of these
telecommuters kept telecommuting after the freeways were mended.
Companies feel more comfortable trying telecommuting out as a "pilot project".
Managers need to learn to focus on productivity, giving clear objectives,
and establishing communication channels -- rather than figuring that "if
people are here, they are working".
To propose telecommuting to your company, find a well-defined project with
a deadline and clear goals. Propose that you do most of the work at home
and come in for staff meetings, etc.
If the company buys the computer you work on, there may be liability
issues. The company may not want to risk responsibility for kids tripping
on cords, etc.
That's all for now ... I've got to get back to my telecommuting...
Yvonne DeGraw Technical Services o Web Authoring
yvonne -at- silcom -dot- com o Technical Writing
Tel: 805/683-5784 o Human-Interface Design
