The Virtual Office

The emerging trend for working at home has led to the rise of the virtual office space, or in other words, telecommuting. Telecommuting refers to a job style in which employees of corporations have the freedom and limited flexibility to work at home and not have to commute to a traditional place of work. This method of managerial structuring is beneficial to companies who need to address rapidly expanding business growth without a complementary increase in office space. The virtual office also vastly reduces overheard costs (projectors, printers, fax machines, etc.). While a virtual office can be something as simple as a laptop, which receives and sends vital information from nearly anywhere in the world, more elaborate models can practically replicate an actual office building. This technology is also complemented by several other emerging technologies making it a much more proficient way of conducting business. Video chatting, for example, complements the virtual office perfectly by offering an alternative to face to face meetings necessary in the day to day operations of an organization. Who needs to meet in person when you can conference chat with your boss from the comfort of your own home? Or even on vacation in Barbados? To set up these virtual offices, an organization must first acquire a large, privately networked e-mail system to connect all of its widely dispersed employees. Once this is accomplished, several steps should be followed to manage an effective virtual office. The first step is to, “establish a formal telecommuting policy. Set boundaries, policies and procedures. Require telecommuters and managers to sign an agreement on expectations.” The second step is to have potential telecommuters working in the virtual office create written proposals outlining how and when they will complete their work if not supervised by a managing official. The third and final step is to educate employees and managers on how to effectively manage, maintain, and run the virtual office. Catalyst, a research firm in New York, states that, “One of the key strategies in sustaining a flexible work arrangement such as telecommuting, is to create and support relationships and networks. Use existing mechanisms or develop new ones to help managers and users share information, address concerns and provide feedback to the organization." If these steps are followed, it lays the foundation for a strong and flexible virtual office.
The pros are simple. Employees have more potential to complete more work. Since it is easier to both access and get work done at home, employees are more inclined to increase the average for work done in a single day. Moreover, the freedom of self-management allows employees to work without being intruded upon by management. This also reduces non-productive work such as repetitive meetings, memos, presentations, etc. Moreover, since most people already have a computer at home, this greatly cuts down costs for an organization to adequately provide for its employees. Besides land and building costs, workstation costs, “constitute the greatest up-front cost for a centralized office.” Recruiting talented workers is also much easier in this form of management. A gifted worker can be a great asset to an organization, and if physical relocation is not a major issue, there will be a greater probability of him/her accepting the job offer. Finally, working at a home-based office qualifies some for a home office income tax exemption.
Cons are also numerous. By creating an office where employees rarely, or even never, come in physical contact, it is much more difficult to build social communication skills and organizational camaraderie, which can have a significant impact. Furthermore, physical meetings can be troublesome. While the necessity to meet in person is almost completely eradicated by the virtual office, there are a few occasions where physical contact is necessary, and thus will be very expensive with globalized employees. There is also an “unprofessional” feel about home offices that could be a detriment to the organization. People are hesitant to conduct business meetings in a home office because it feels like they are invading private space, or the atmosphere is not professional. Employees also have the ability to abuse the system and not work as much as they should be and fill out their time sheets correctly. Moreover, training becomes a problem since there is no official establishment to be trained at, although this could be solved via videoconferencing. Technology updates are also difficult with employees using different brands and types or computers, or even running on different operating systems.

Sources:

http://www.objs.com/survey/vo.htm#AdvantagesDisadvantages

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4153/is_n1_v54/ai_19224868

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4182/is_19970127/ai_n10103930