Remote Intelligence And Telecommuting: Differences, Advantages, And Ethical Considerations

What is Remote Intelligence?

Discuss about the Application of SEAM in Remote Organizations.

According to Waldron and Schwartzberg (2017, p.18) Remote Intelligence is a group of highly trained and skilled workers who work for their company but from entirely different location from the firm’s premises and most especially the remote areas. For example, a person from United States can go and work in Singapore for a company that is based in the United Kingdom provided that the firm offers the position to anybody leaving outside the United Kingdom (Buergelt et al. 2017, pp.262-269).  Remote Intelligence can also be defined as the group of skilled and highly trained workers who are not in the payroll of a company. However, they work on contact basis in the remote areas where the company has no workforce. 

Ermakov and Savyolova (2015, pp.46) reported that, the people know as “remote intelligence” are not physically seen in the business but they can report to the company’s headquarters through various communication channels. Remote Intelligence has been improved largely by the technological advancements. The term remote intelligence is different from telecommuting. Telecommuting also known e-commuting or working from home is an arrangement between the employee and the employer which allows the employees to work from home or someplace close to home. Remote intelligence has changed how business conducts their operations hence catching the attention of scholars (Buergelt et al. 2017, pp.262-269). The essay herein discusses the remote intelligence by looking at the difference between remote intelligence and telecommuting, how the businesses have enabled remote intelligence, the effects of the issue, its ethics, how it can be managed, and its advantages and disadvantages.

According to Chein and Weisberg (2014, p. 78) remote intelligence is where the highly skilled workers work for an organisation from totally different location for example, the office is in New York, United States while the employee is London, United Kingdom  working for a project of the firm in the United States. The employers, who allow remote intelligence in their firms, may not even get to meet their remote workers in person but they can meet through technology (Ashley 2017, p. 39. For example through video conferencing, making phone class and communicating through the emails and other forms of technological communications (Buergelt et al. 2017, pp.262-269). The use of remote intelligence in a firm does not mean that the company uses telecommuting. The two terms may look the same but, they are different (Shelton & Polus 2017).

Difference between Remote Intelligence and Telecommuting

Telecommuting is a work schedule that an employee and the employer has which allow the worker to conduct his or her work roles away from the office, the employee work more specifically from home or a place close to his or her home (Pinard et al. 2017). For example, libraries, coffee shops, his or her house and any other place the worker deem it fit to work on. Instead of going to the office every day, a worker who telecommutes goes to his or her work place though telecommunication. In other words, the employee connect with his or her boss and other co-workers through technological communication channels for example phones, video conferencing, emails, Facebook and Skype (Buergelt et al. 2017, pp.262-269). A report by Sutton et al (2016, p. 35) has shown that more than 2.9 per cent of workers in the world telecommute and the population is big in the developed countries.

According to Dorman et al (2015, p. 16) when companies use remote intelligence, it does not mean they are using telecommuting. Suomi and Oksanen (2015, p. 33) also commented that telecommuting and remote intelligence is different.  The difference between remote intelligence and telecommuting are one, in remote intelligence, the employee does not work from home but from another different location from home and the work place (Buergelt et al. 2017, pp.262-269). However, in telecommuting, the employee works at his or her home away from the company but within the country where the company is located. Second, in most cases the remote intelligence are foreigners working in the foreign land and can also be a person working in the state which is not his or her state. Telecommuting in most case, the employees are from the state or the company they are working is located (Pinard et al. 2017).

Remote intelligence is a good structure most especially to companies that have other branches outside their location. According to Sutton et al (2016, p. 35), companies have been coming up with policies to ensure that remote intelligence is successful. First, remote intelligence have been successfully enabled in companies through the advancement of sophisticated technologies. Suomi and Oksanen (2015, p. 33) commented that communication is the key to every business in any firm. Remote cannot be enabled when there are not clear communication channels to support it because the employees do not see each other face to face and they must meet for debriefing of the business.  Therefore, technological channels like the video conferencing, emails, and other forms of technological communication have been used to enable remote intelligence Shelton & Polus 2017). Secondly, organisations have enabled remote intelligence by setting clear objectives for the remote intelligence workers like in-house workers. In other words, the organisations have given the remote intelligence workers objectives and time plan on when they can be met (Buergelt et al. 2017, pp.262-269). The firms give the remote intelligence employees the picture of what the company wants them to do.

How Organizations Enable Remote Intelligence

Third, organisations make the remote intelligence employees feel like part of the firm. Becker (2016, p. 23) when an organisation has showed a remote intelligence employee love and treat him or her as part of the organisation, the employees will work very hard to give good productions. Fourth, the companies have been enabling remote intelligence by appreciating the employees in public after a good work done they the worker. A company management that is using remote should nurture a philosophy of recognition (Ashley 2017, p. 39). Every employee working for a certain company like to be recognised and appreciated after a hard work they have done for the firm. The remote intelligence are not exception, though the boss cannot shake their hand ad appreciate them directly, the management can come up with online program that can be used in recognising them.  Lastly, organisations enable remote intelligence by organising in-person meetings with the employees. Remote intelligence at many times misses to relate and socialise with their colleagues and employers (Campbell 2015, p. 1).  Therefore, to bring them closer to the firm even though they are far, managements create in-person meetings with them for example, through vacations and team building programs.

Sustainability of workforce is an activity where an organisation wants to attract and retain the right employees in the firm who have the required capabilities and skills which meet the present and the future objectives of the organisation (Ashley 2017, p. 39). Workforce sustainability can be ensured by a firm through motivation and engaging the employees so that they can deliver quality services.  Remote intelligence is one way companies in the developed countries ensure workforce sustainability. To ensure that remote intelligence work, companies engage in a lot of activities that led to workforce sustainability (Campbell 2015, p. 1). Most of the companies in the developed countries have their branches at different parts of the world. Therefore, they try to impress their employee abroad by providing motivation and acknowledgements.

According to Suomi and Oksanen (2015, p. 33), one way of improving workplace sustainability is by motivating the employees through acknowledgments and appreciations.  Another way is by planning team building programs. So that a firm retains and attract the right people, it should plan frequent team building programs where employees and the employer will interact, socialise and share ideas that will help improve work output.  Remote intelligence contributes in that the activities companies do to ensure that remote intelligence work.  Therefore, remote intelligence is not a threat to workforce sustainability in the developed countries, in fact it increases the sustainability workforce in the developed countries (Campbell 2015, p. 1).

Ethical Considerations in Remote Intelligence

Ethics must be followed to the later even if an employee is a remote intelligence employee. The following ethical principles should be followed when working with remote intelligence, first, an employee must adhere to work timing (Pinard et al. 2017). Remote intelligence employees should follow the policies of their company regardless of where they are regarding time. If the company rule says that you should be at the work place at exactly 8: 00 AM in the morning and leave at 4:00 PM (Schopf et al. 2018). You as an employee of the firm, you should obey the policy and keep time for work, do not be late for work or come from work early. Another, ethics is avoiding personal calls and errands that do not benefit the company during the working hours (Rechel et al. 2016, p. 758). Even if you are away from the company building, you should respect the working hours and avoid making phone calls and doing activities that are useless to the firm. During working hours you should conduct your duties as an employee. Another ethics is that a remote intelligence worker makes efforts to reach the company headquarters at least once a month. Remote intelligence should always ensure that they are reachable and available all the time in case they are needed and lastly they should always be honest with their work no matter where they are (Pinard et al. 2017).

Remote intelligence can be beneficial to a company through the following ways, one, financial savings. A company can save finance which comes from managing a moderate building which will charge less house fee. The money can also be save d from not utilising too many office utility and supplies. Becker (2016, p. 23) reported that a firm can save up to $5000 from using remote employees. Second, increase productivity, when a firm stars a branch in another country and employees remote intelligence, the productivity of the company will increase. Third, a firm can find better recruitment from abroad, which means that it can secure very competent employee to work in other branches of the firm abroad. Fourth, the rate of retention of employees can be high through remote intelligence.

If is very difficult for remote intelligence employees to leave the firm if they are treated well.  Though, remote intelligence is beneficial to a company, it has its challenges that come with it (Bentley et al. 2016, p. 207). Workers from abroad can turn be lazy because they do not have proper supervision. Isolation is another problem that comes with remote intelligence, where the worker is very isolated from the rest of the company staff, thus he/she may fell neglected.  Adil and Bunn 2018 reported that, finding modern technological communication equipment to communicate with remote intelligence can be very expensive for the firm.

Benefits of Remote Intelligence

Remote intelligence workers are far from the company and therefore require leaders to have good strategies and styles to manage them. The following styles can be used by leaders in managing remote intelligence (Rivkin et al. 2017). First, leaders should create good communication channels which can allow the leaders interact and relate with the remote intelligence workers effectively. Good communication can lead to high productivity. Examples of communication channels leaders can use include video chats, Facebook and emails. Second, maintaining communication with the remote intelligence employees (Munns & Walker 2015, p. 325). Leaders should communicate frequently with the remote workers to improve their relationships.

Third, should introduce activities that make the remote intelligence feel like they are part of the team (Gallego et al. 2017, p. 227). The activities include motivations, including them in the meeting of the organisation through video conference and acknowledging their good work publicly. Fourth, the leader should set goals for the remote intelligence worker so that the employee should know how to schedule his/her daily activities (Kaneko 2016, p. 19). Fifth, a leader can plan an impromptu meeting between him/her with the remote intelligence worker. The impromptu helps in monitoring the worker and see if he or she is on the right track. Lastly, a leader should make frequent visits to the place of work where remote intelligence is situated especially when the relations are still new.

Conclusion

Remote intelligence is where an employee works for a company in another country (Munns & Walker 2015, p. 325). Remote intelligence helps a company generate good revenue and make profits (Ashley 2017, p. 39. With the current technology remote intelligence cannot be hard from companies to maintain. However, managers should understand the disadvantages of remote intelligence and they should be able to develop solutions to the problems. Remote intelligence is used mostly by the companies at the developed countries and it is one of the factors that promote workforce sustainability. Managers should understand the difference between telecommuting and remote intelligence.  For remote intelligence to be a success, leaders should develop good leadership styles and ethics that can help them manage remote intelligence.

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