Making Telecommuting Work

Currently we have people in California, Wisconsin and Arizona. The question comes up, how can we be certain everyone is fully contributing their best efforts?

BusinessWeek magazine had a brief article edited by Michelle Conlin (Out of Site, Yes. Out of Mind, No, February 18, 2008) about this issue. It was great to learn Hewlett-Packard offers a personality test for workers so they can determine whether they can work effectively remotely. We offer our Talent Assessments to identify winning behaviors and values rather than personality, but the concept is similar. Our experience is matching behaviors and values is more reliable than personality.

According to the article IBM researchers have determined if teams of people go more than 3 days without gathering then their happiness and productivity suffers. IBM now requires managers to bring teams together at least once every 3 days - physically or virtually - for discussions or activities that often have nothing to do with completing assignments.

What’s the most important ingredient in making telecommuting work? Trust.

That’s why it’s so important for you to hire the right people in the first place. Recently I was talking with a company in who is interested our services. His struggle is the people he hires do not behave as expected once they start in their job. We can fairly easily solve his problem. If you are having difficulty hiring great people, email us (info@successwithpeople.com) to learn how we can help.

Let’s make 2008 our best year ever. Have an awesome day!