Telenor Xpress 4 - 2000

Home-work

Telecommuting is the triumph of telecommunications technology over transportation. Thanks to ISDN connections, smart calling and advanced security solutions, working from home is increasingly sought-after by businesses large and small. Telecommuter Svein Erik Simensen of Telenor Business Solutions sees the advantage for both employer and employee.

At the dawn of the Internet Age, speculations on new working methods ran rampant. It seemed possible that anyone with a lap-top, mobile phone and online connection could work from a sub-tropical beach resort with piña colada in hand.

John-Willy Bakke, Telenor's reigning expert on the field, shatters that idyll. "A future of businesses with looselycoupled employees scattered to all of the world's corners was never a realistic expectation. The concept of 'colocation' - sharing a cup of coffee or lunch with co-workers, personal meetings, etc. - is important. Empirical evidence points to telecommuting once or twice a week, with a business base at the office," he says.

Telecommuting is catching on as a business reality for greater and greater numbers of employees, particularly in the United States (where it all started) but also in Europe. And particularly in the IT and telecommunications sectors. Telenor is both a supplier of telecommuting solutions to its clients and an employer that uses the service in-house; hundreds of Telenor employees telecommute on a regular (weekly) basis. As both provider and user of telecommuting services, Telenor has seen telecommuting's steady rise among customers and experienced the benefits that explain why both employees and employers implement it.

A 100-KILOMETRE TELECOMMUTE
Svein Erik Simensen is senior vice president at Telenor Business Solutions. He lives in Fredrikstad, an idyllic and slightly bohemian community neighbouring Oslo's fjord. He likes living in Fredrikstad, but his office - Telenor Business Solution's headquarters - is 100 kilometres away, or over an hour by car.

"I have three children, a wife and a large house to think about. I made an agreement with my family to take my Fridays at home. So, I work from home three Fridays a month at my home office, which has video-conferencing equipment, a PC with ISDN connection and a simple call-for-warding system," says Simensen.

One way or another, Simensen has been telecommuting since 1993. Now, he is part of a management team that largely depends on telework. Of eight managers, only two live in Oslo and one lives in a city in northern Norway, which is as far from Oslo as Rome is from Oslo.

"We have video-conferenced management meetings three Fridays a month. The level of the technology is more than adequate. Widespread knowledge of the possibilities of telecommuting is just beginning to spread. When full immigration to IP networks is a reality, I believe there will be a renaissance for telecommuting," he says. With three kids running around, television and other distractions tempting the remote-control trigger finger and the absence of typical office accoutrements, one wonders about productivity. Simensen, however, explains that his productivity improves.

"At home, I have the peace and quiet to do things like get to the bottom of my e-mail in-box and consider vital longterm strategy questions. Although I value the open-plan lay-out at the main office, it is nice to get some seclusion once a week," says Simensen.

TELECOMMUTING IN PRACTICE
Like employer-subsidised continuing education, subsidised lunches, bonus packages, company cars and company mobile telephones, telecommuting has become a fringe benefit that many companies are using to lure employees to their ranks.

Recent studies indicate that today's new economy employees appreciate flexibility in when they work, how they work . . . and where they work. But few companies are ready to allow their employees to work from home more than one to three days per week.

John-Willy Bakke explains: "A base of work-related operations (i.e., the physical office) is important for many companies so that they can retain their unity and incorporate a real feeling of belonging. One to three days has been seen as a de facto maximum. The potential disadvantages of telecommuting increase significantly the more days employees spend working from home."

Bakke explains that telecommuting requires organisational adjustments. Information dissemination must be renewed. The necessary tools must be in place. There are also implications for management and employee collaboration. From the employee's side, it is surprisingly easy to begin working more, rather than fewer hours once telecommuting begins because the home/office, or personal/ occupational, dividing lines get blurred.

"It is important to consider the potential difficulties, but, once properly established, telecommuting has proven to be a success for many companies and employees. Companies have cut down office space by up to 50 per cent and transportation costs have sunk. Security is an issue, but solutions are in place," says Bakke.

According to Bakke, Telenor sees telecommuting as an interesting market and has begun to focus on flexible work as a consultancy-based solution.

"European businesses and Europe's work-force are seeing the advantages of telecommuting. Telework solutions are available and company telework schemes are coming into place, often as a result of employee initiative," concludes Bakke.



Text by: Ryan Skinner