Critical Management Functions For Managing People In Geographically Separated Locations

Rise in Telecommuting

Provide a review of critical management functions and the necessary development of management skills required to deal with managing people in geographically separated locations.

Telecommuting is originating and is contrary to pondering in the organizations. Nowadays, due to the advancement in the technologies, the concept of devoting full time to the job is dying and telecommuting invariably rising in this technological era. The word remote work, telecommuting, work from home,tele-work is relatively synonymous, but there is a marginal distinct between the telecommuting and remote work. Telecommuting means that the employee may need to complete some task or work while sitting at the coffee shop, airport lounge, etc. with a laptop or mobile devices, but the remote work entails that the employee is currently residing outside the geographical area. That is, the phrases telecommuting and remote work maybe a misnomer in practice(Parris, 2017).

The tele-working or telecommuting is rapidly growing in the organizations which allow the workers to work for a number of hours per week. After the year 2012, there has been a tremendous increase of 19% in tele-commuting in the US and is more than 29% in the UK. This is possible through the latest advancement in the technologies which provide the remote workers with the equipments such a laptop, tablets, and other handheld devices and ICT. The employers and employees share in less expense. The employee gets the advantages of the telecommuting by reducing the expenses for clothes, child care and transportation, while the employees get the advantages of not maintaining the office spaces, furnishing, cost of parking services, etc. That is, telecommuting has more benefits and put less stress to the environment by reducing the traffic on the road(Bibby & Rozier , 2017). It is contemplated as a huge benefit to the employee. The survey conducted by the Cisco study reveals that approximately 44% of the employees in the year 2011 were willing to take less salary provided they are allowed to work from home as well as with their flexibility. Also, it has been studied that 32% of the employees have taken fewer holidays. It has also been studied by the incorporation magazine that 52% of the telecommuters spend more time while working from home. 91% of the managers have studied that the workers are more productive when they are offered to choose to work as per their flexibility. 73% of the workers are satisfied and happy with their jobs and believe that the management has valued their opinions, and their well being and morale is improving(Hess, 2014).

Telecommuting application

It has been found by the new research that between the 2005 and 2012, the remote intelligence has risen 78%, which comprises about 2% of Americans employees, as per the report of American community survey(Tugend, 2014).

There are large numbers of organizations which are getting benefit from the telecommuting policies. It has been revealed in the study that the Commonwealth Bank of Australia has implemented the policy of remote workers and after their performance, it has been found that there has been an increase of 26% in their performance due to the flexibility provided to them to work as per their time zone and availability of the employees. Also, the remote workers suggest that the plans and opportunities provided to them helps in reaping the benefits with the more flexible workplace. Approximately 69% of the employees suggest that the remote intelligence has a certain and definite impact on their job attitude as they take the advantage of virtual collaboration tools and high speed broadband facilities, which enable them to connect with their managers to HD and high quality video conferencing, and the tools which allow them to send or receive the documents and files with larger sizes(Riham, 2016). The Deloitte has also performed the research and has found that the industries and organizations, approximately save 40% of their staff expenses. The Deloitte also found that 65% of the individual workers with disability are nowadays taking the advantages of telecommuting. The rural and regional areas of Australia take up the benefit of 59% and the senior citizens are delaying their retirement by approximately 6 years. This has also reduced the workplace challenges in Australia. The survey conducted by the ranstand revealed that 24% of the Australian business viewing the performance and productivity of the remote workers as the human challenge in terms of capital, which can be mitigated through remote intelligence(Agwa, 2014).

Due to the advancement in the technologies, the doctor named Anvari has performed the surgery in the year 2016, with the help of Robot on the person living in the ocean through robot name Zeus. The department of defense in the USA is interested to deploy the trauma pod that would help the surgeons or doctors of the USA to perform the operation on the warriors from distant places(Australian Government, 2013)

Working from home provides the remote workers with a great officesupport and helps in maintaining the long term relationship with their colleagues, peers and with the other remote workers. This also makes them distant from the negative work associations. That is, the remote intelligence or work from home provides an overall disconnection of the tele-workers and office based workers related to the social life development. The discussion and findings on the expertise of sales managers and line managers for creating the positive relationship with the employees suggests that it is prominent to create the situations or circumstances that must be closely viewed before actually deploying the remote or home based working. To build a new paradigm of relations with home based workers, it is also very important to comprehend the difficult relationship between distinct regions of work life and home life and this study has been revealed by the drink manufacturing company in the United Kingdom after their experience of working with remote workers(Collins, et al., 2016).

Advantages of remote intelligence

There are the wide contrast between the wages and salaries in today's world and it is quite challenging to arbitrate the differences in the wages due to the globalization. Also, because of  the resistance in widespread politics to mass migration, the workers who are getting low wages mostly prefer to work from their home and this is now possible due to the advancement in the technologies and the emergence of the remote intelligence. The remote intelligence allows the developing country’s workers to provide the services in developed countries or countries who have a stable economy without actually leaving their home. The technological advancements and the implementation of latest tools and ICT have made it possible for all the remote workers to work in different countries without moving actually moving to that location(Harris, 2003). The remote intelligence has flexibility, and discernment for the remote intelligence is more distant than the artificial intelligence for both the developed and developing countries, especially in the short period of time. The new technology known as the tele-Robotics, assist in overcoming the challenge of the requirement for the remote workers or the employees to get the physical presence in different jobs. Remote Intelligence can also be classified as the technology that helps in taking out the services of the workers to make them deliver their services in the international market. The remote intelligence are nowadays is being used in many fields such as telemedicine. It has also been noted that the robotics may nottotally replace the work of the in-person like cleaners from road and factory, baby-sitting, and workers from Gardner’s, but it is expensive and is not cost effective nowadaysdue to the need of the most advanced robots in some of the organizations and industries. It has also been noted that the price of the robot has been reduced to a large extent after 1990 and is set to continue(Baldwin, 2017).

There should be a great working relationship within both the remote employees and the managers as the work is needed to pay off both for employees and the employees(Bond, 2017). Working remotely is trending nowadays and is continuing progressive across all the organizations and Industries, but according to the proponents of gallop, they have suggested that the employees who devote 25 to 30 hours a week while working remotely tend to show more engagement and sincerity in their jobs. However to manage the remote workers, the manager need to lead with trust and ignore creating the classes of employees. The manager also needs to avoid the control and need to learn how to ask more questions politely and listen better to the remote employees by talking about the stuff which more interest then(Fallon, 2016).

Remote team management

There are few challenges involved in managing the high performing remote employees.  It is difficult to manage the remote employees as it is quite complex to set up proper channels. The managers also require to implement the communication tools to track the performance and productivity on the daily bases. There are also the obstacles related to providing the workflow or direction to the employees who are working from home. It is also difficult to build the trust factor with the employees for proper management (Kaplan, 2014) .

Managing the remote employees is a challenging task. The management of remote employees requires tracking of the work without missing the communiqué because of the time zone slip off.  The remote managers need to make sure that the remote workers are providing them with a detailed report of the work completed and the organization are sending them the detailed requirements to remain on the same page. For the success of the remote management, the communication is vital and makes the remote employees feel that their suggestions are valued and are prominent (Kowalski, 2017). The managers also need to open the communication with the remote employees through the video chat which is considered as an essential tool in which the remote workers or employees feel integrated into the organization. Also, in the message, there are the some messages which can be misinterpreted. Thus, to avoid those misunderstanding, the managers need to communicate with them, preferably with voice or video chat which helps them in conveying the exact message or information to the employees. There are also other advantages of the Video conversations because it helps in clarifying the attached emotional responses and the meanings behind the text. With the technological advancements, there are also different tools or software which is readily available for free or with less investment like Google Hangouts, Skype, slack, goto meeting, zoom, etc. The remote workers should also be allowed to communicate and work as per their preferences and the managers need to make sure that the flexibility is provided to the remote workers for the communication, and is made on preferred time zone(Team, 2015). The manager also needs to make the remote employees feel that their time is valued and they must ask them for their preferences depending upon the time zones. They also need to organize and plan the expectations for the remote workers. Although the leadership in terms of remote managers is not distinctbut sometimes comes up with in a group together to bring a challenge. However, these challenges can be mitigated through the above mentioned solutions which may help the managers to manage the remote employees(Biro, 2014).

The other appraiser, which the manager may pay close attention to managing the remote employees is using the video communication tool like Skype with the remote employees and by managing some time for small discussions and having longer one to one conversation and never cancelling the one on one conversation from their end. Managers need to make the communication polite by sending the animated gif’s and remote icons to show the emotions and add more connections and friends using the professional networks like Business Skype and LinkedIn and must send the invite for getting together at least once in a year to make them feel that they are also the part of the some organization(Smith-Looper, 2017).

The managers need to follow the number of traits to manage the employees who are working remotely. The managers need to continuously track their work and need to develop some of the features like indefatigable, that is, the manager need to work for long hours to manage the work of employees who are working remotely in different time zones. Thus, the manager also needs to acclimatize the schedule which is flexible for them, to track the performance and keep the records of the remote employees. The other features which the manager need to follow is the evangelist of the company in which the manager would be required to share the awards or success stories of the organization that may exemplify a connection of heartfelt of the remote employees to the company which may help in building extra positive values and professional features (Useem, 2017). The manager needs to motivate the remote workers by making them encourage to welcome the challenges or obstacles that change or offer to complete the task and achieve something innovative by contemplating them as new exciting offers or opportunities. The manager also needs to motivate the coworkers through optimism and positive energy and need to be approachable to the remote employees to stay in touch with them and to close the gap of communication. The manager also needs to be constructed by providing a comprehensive picture to the remote employees by sharing the complete requirement and providing a meaningful learning and by reducing the clouding of positive communiqué with criticism. The manager also needs to reduce the psychological distance between the remote managers by combating the communications. This is only possible by sending them invites through two way dialogue with the remote employees to offer them input, insights, and opinions(Murphy, 2016).

Some of the organizations also use the areas to provide the employees or telecommuters with equipments, space, and services that they may not otherwise have enough money to pay for(Feld, 2018). The quintessential characteristics of the facilities for co working spaces include shared work areas, 24/7 access to the Wi-Fi, conference table, conference rooms, branch exchange systems, communal fax, etc. Some of the companies also provide access to multiple locations to the remote employees. The idea of remote working or co working space was first designated in the year 2005, in Francisco and currently there are approximately 410 co working areas or spaces which are registered in different countries(Loubier, 2017).

Conclusion

This report scrutinizes that there are various different reasons for espousing the telecommuting and remote work. It provides benefits to both the employers and employees by stipulating a culture which creates a better future for job to the employees. In the perspective of employees, the remote employment brings a less stressful environment and provides a diminution in computing. In the perspective of employers, the overhead expenses can be attenuated greatly due to the paradigm of work force which provides the mutual benefit to both employees and employers. The telecommuting will come into rise in the foreseeable future (Shekarchi, 2015). However, there are some obstacles which need to be contemplated by the organization which includes the factors like fear, mistrust, etc. although these factors can be mitigated. There are the features for bringing a rise to the telecommuting in the time immediately ahead, which comprises of the requirements and wants of the workforce and the desire for flexibility in the world for tech savvy people. There is also a pressure on the organizations due to the escalation in the fuel prices, and the pressure on the companies to work on environmental measures to reduce the carbon footprint and ancillary cost of office premises.

References

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