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Will The Olympics Encourage More Remote Working?

By Jamie Simpson

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Published: 24Feb2012
Word count: 552
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As the Olympics grow closer, businesses and employees look for ways to deal with the masses descending on the city, especially public transport.

Transport Minister Norman Baker stated the problem plainly. "If everybody seeks to travel the way they always travel every day, the system won't cope. You can't suddenly bring in hundreds of thousands of new people to travel in by train and expect the system to cope so the answer is they have to look at working differently," Baker said.

What exactly does working differently mean? For many, it could mean remote working. How likely is this?

The first question to ask is, "Can it be done?" Certainly the hardware technology exists. Many businesses already use video conferencing, document sharing, email, and instant messaging. Using these communications methods for remote work is far from a stretch.

Software also supports remote work. From accounting software to applications allowing users to access another computer remotely, packages exist to achieve almost any goal in remote work.

Mobile phones capable of messaging, video, email and videoconferencing, as well as receiving, editing and sending documents, further promote the ability to separate workers from the office.

The biggest question is not whether remote working is possible from a technical point of view. Obviously it is. However, many wonder if remote work is feasible from a human standpoint. When allowed to work from home, on their own schedule or the company's, will employees actual work?

The evidence is that they will. BT allows flexible schedules or remote work for nearly 75% of employees. BT estimates a huge savings from this flexible/remote working arrangement, with few problems.

American retailer Best Buy allowed headquarters staff to take time off for personal reasons, working evenings to catch up. This experiment resulted in a 35% increase in productivity.

Some employees will always take advantage of any opportunity. Most employees will welcome the new arrangement and work just as hard, if not harder, to make it work.

The Olympics provide a unique opportunity to test this remote work concept on a large scale. To make it work, firms should take a few steps to be sure that the working situation is ideal.

Starting a test remote work programme before the Olympics start will allow firms to work out any difficulties before everyone needs to work from home. This test program should involve creating a remote work policy and planning the infrastructure, including accounting software, messaging systems, video conferencing and the other hardware and software needed to make the programme work.

Set up a communication schedule to make sure that workers check in on a regular basis. Also encourage the use of instant messaging and email for chats between employees, to maintain the team feeling.

Most importantly, establish standards to monitor productivity and progress. Measuring hours worked is less effective for remote working.

Will the Olympics encourage more remote working? Odds are that many firms will move to remote working during the Olympics. If done well and successfully, this could lead to more flexible work arrangements, including remote work, in the years to come.

Iris provide accounting software solutions to businesses from all sectors.

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