More companies today are finding that it can work to their advantage to have employees not report to the office, at least part of the time.

According to a recent report from Gartner Inc., a technology research firm, the number of employees worldwide who work from home at least one day a month reached 82.5 million at the end of last year, double the figure from 2000.

Jan Burch, president of Jan Burch & Associates, a West Des Moines human resources consulting firm, has seen heightened interest in telecommuting from companies she works with, which she attributes in part to increased competition for skilled workers.

“I would say that companies are continuing to be more open to telecommuting, and I think some of that is a reflection of the tightening of the labor market that we’re seeing,” Burch said. “When you have fewer candidates for jobs, you tend to be a little more open to creative and non-traditional ways to getting the work done.”

Pat Simon, the operations manager for Urbandale-based Vodaci Technologies Inc., which installs voice and network security systems for businesses, said companies are showing more interest in updating their security systems to allow employees to work seamlessly from outside the office.

“We get quite a few people inquiring,” Simon said. “I see it becoming more common in the future as people learn more about it.”

He thinks the rising cost of gasoline and a desire to keep employees connected to work at all times also support the trend.

“The companies that express the most interest are ones that have sales forces that travel to other locations, like insurance agencies,” Simon said. “The companies that we work with to integrate their communications tend to have 50 employees or more.”

Retention tool

Burch said innovative companies turn to telecommuting as a way to retain an employee they might otherwise lose, usually because the worker’s ability or desire to report to the office on a daily basis has changed. Often, this is the result of a family situation. She sees more cases of an existing employee making the transition to telecommuting rather than a company turning a traditional office job into one that can be performed by a telecommuter.

“It seems more prevalent if you’ve established your track record with the employer versus an employer advertising for someone to telecommute,” she said. “This type of arrangement requires a great deal of trust between the manager and the employee, trust that the work will get done and that the company’s proprietary information will not be compromised.”

Indianola resident Nancy Byrd has been a telecommuter for the past year since moving here from Indiana.

Byrd is a vice president of human resources for Ohio-based Fifth Third Bancorp, where she has worked for the past five years. Prior to relocating to Iowa when her husband, John, became president of Simpson College, she managed employee relations for four markets: Lexington and Louisville, Ky., Evansville, Ind., and Nashville, Tenn.

When she found out she would be coming to Iowa, Byrd tendered her resignation, assuming it wouldn’t be possible to do her job from a state where Fifth Third had no presence. But her supervisor at the time was confident that she could continue doing the same job from her new home.

“I was already managing three-fourths of my region remotely when I lived in Evansville,” Byrd said. “My boss was incredibly forward thinking and a risk taker, and she said she didn’t see why I couldn’t continue what I was doing.”

Byrd and her employer worked out an agreement that detailed who would provide her office equipment, how often she would travel to her territory and how many hours she would work – she wanted to reduce her hours by 40 percent so she would have time to be actively involved at Simpson.

“I had already developed the face-to-face relationships with the company,” Byrd said. “They knew that I worked 50 to 60 hours during a normal workweek in Evansville, so there was never the question of whether I’d be working or doing my laundry when I made the change to working from home.”

Productivity concerns

Sara Deich, a human resources specialist for FBL Financial Group Inc. in West Des Moines, says only a small number of employees at her company telecommute on a regular basis. Some people in information technology have arrangements where they work from home part of the time or full time, and employees who travel for their jobs work while they’re on the road.

“With some of our positions, it’s not always practical,” Deich said. “We have a lot of customer-service oriented positions where it’s better if they can be here to answer the phones and bounce ideas off their co-workers.

“With information technology jobs, you can track how long certain tasks should take, but for many of our positions, it would be impossible to track if you are getting a full eight hours from the employee if they’re not in the office.”

But when a company puts trust in employees to get their work done outside the office, the outcome can be surprising. Becky Stadlman, a regional human resources manager for Ames-based Sauer-Danfoss Inc.’s Americas division, says allowing employees to work from home can actually increase productivity in some cases.

“Working from home has its pros and cons,” Stadlman said. “It’s very versatile and can work well, but the work is also there all the time, which can make it harder for the employee to keep a balance.”

Byrd agrees that it’s easy to work beyond regular office hours when you can access all your work materials at home.

“Some weeks I work 70 or 80 hours, but I am willing to pay that price to have the flexibility that I do,” Byrd said. “I’ve been told that I make myself too accessible sometimes by taking calls at any time of the day, but I’d rather handle issues as they come up.”

Becoming a telecommuter can involve a period of adjustment, Byrd said. She found that even though she has daily contact with the three people she manages, she missed the social interaction with her colleagues. But becoming more actively involved at Simpson has helped offset any isolation she initially felt.

She sees constant communication with her colleagues as critical to doing her job well. “You need that professional stimulation, not only to keep on top of what’s happening in the banks, but in the courts with legislation that might affect us,” she said.

Byrd has found success with telecommuting by keeping her days as structured as possible. She devotes two full days during the week to work, and then schedules a couple of other partial days. She gives her colleagues advance notice on when she will be working. She doesn’t go as far as to put on a business suit when she’s working from home, but she doesn’t wear grubby clothes, either. She tends to stay indoors as opposed to working outside on the patio with her laptop computer. She often takes her laptop with her when she travels with her husband to out-of-town events.

Security issues

Stadlman said most of the 400 office workers at Sauer-Danfoss’ Ames headquarters have laptop computers they take with them on business trips so they stay caught up on their work while they’re on the road. The employees access the company’s system through a virtual private network encrypted with multiple passwords to eliminate the chance of sensitive information being compromised.

Security is a growing concern for companies whose employees take work out of the office. Recent incidents such as the one involving the theft of laptop computer that contained confidential information on 26.5 million veterans, military personnel and their spouses generated a wave of concern in the business community. The Wall Street Journal reported that several companies have revisited their policies on who can take confidential records out of the office and now requiring special training on how to keep data secure. The article said ING Americas is installing new encryption software on the company’s 5,000 laptops.

“We do periodic reminders and talk to folks about keeping things secure,” Stadlman said. “We always tell employees never to save work to their desktop, but always to the virtual private network.”