Telework

The Helpful Impact of Telework

Over the past 30 years, at the same time the percentage of commuters driving has flatlined, the share of people working from home has exploded, almost doubling since 1980. Telecommuting is controversial — some suggest it increases productivity while others maintain the value of offices — but it is gaining popularity no matter its merits.

Source: www.citylab.com

Telecommuting is not just a cost save for companies, it can also be a cost save for taxpayers and the community in the long run.

With fewer people on the road during peak hours, we could see a decrease in expensive transportation levies and infrastructure requirements.

How could the benefits of telecommuting further Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives in your organization?

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Workplace Flexibility, Workplace Strategy

New Survey Reveals Top Workplace Trends for 2014

Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology surveyed some 8,000 industrial-organisational psychologists to unearth what they believed to be the top 10 workplace trends of 2014. Many of these will be familiar to readers of this blog, but some might be new. Check them out and see what you think.

Source: www.socialmediatoday.com

This list links Remote Working (#9) to Work-Life Balance (#7). We also see a link between Remote Working (#9) and Locating Talent (#3).


By providing an option to work remotely, your organization can avoid geographical barriers to hiring and retaining top talent.    

 

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Telework

Managing a Millennial Workforce in an Era of Connected Things | WIRED

The future is upon us: the millennial generation. Millennials come armed with mobile devices of every size, and the corresponding mindset that immediate access is a necessity. In a workforce increasingly comprised of millennials, how can an enterprise harness the power of its mobile workers to be more efficient while still fostering creativity and innovation?…

Source: www.wired.com

Leveraging mobile technology: BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)


Technology allows us to make almost any place into a workplace. What winning combination(s) of technology and place lead to productive work for you?

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Telework

18 ways to ensure your remote workforce doesn’t end up like Yahoo’s

Marissa Mayer found herself at the center of a controversy when she issued a mandate that all Yahoo employees must work in one of the company’s offices.

Many people saw this as an indictment against the telework movement, which has become a mainstream option in recent years thanks to the explosive growth of mobile and cloud technologies that allows many professionals to work anyplace they have Internet access. As Yahoo played damage control about the decision, describing the decision as necessary for Yahoo’s situation and not a value statement about remote workers, a picture began to emerge of wide scale corporate dysfunction.

Source: www.citeworld.com

Yahoo is a great example of why you shouldn’t leave a telework program on auto-pilot. Here are some tips for setting up a program.

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Corporate Real Estate and Facilities Management, Workplace Strategy

Why Brooklyn Is The New Mecca For Fledgling Tech Startups

Although every city is mired by challenges and no neighborhood truly represents an urban planner’s paradise, Brooklyn’s live-work lifestyle comes quite close. While recent pieces have chronicled the detrimental effects of large tech firms on cities, a new perspective is warranted.

Perhaps the grass is greener on the East Coast, but here in Brooklyn and throughout New York City, tech companies have been helping neighborhoods flourish because they are choosing to work in collaborative, creative environments.

Source: www.businessinsider.com

The trend of startups using shared space and coworking locations can teach established corporations something about attracting and retaining Gen Y, which populates the tech sector.

The youngest generation in the workplace wants to work in a collaborative setting or close to where they live (generally gentrified, urban settings).  Either provide a modern workplace or operate downtown. 

Another possibility, which we’ve seen organizations whose HQ is not in a ‘hot market’ embrace, is the adoption of telework.  By allowing employees to work remotely (and live where they want, not just where you are), they’ve found they can finally start recruiting the workforce of the future.

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Workplace Flexibility

Work Life Integration: The New Norm

“Gone are the days when you could come home from the office and unplug. We are now living in a 24/7, always connected business environment. Your company doesn’t stop running when you leave the office or when you go on vacation. For the past few decades, journalists, authors, speakers and executives have talked about the importance of work life flexibility but that discussion has shifted in this new environment.”

Source: www.forbes.com

The lines have been blended, blurred, and all but erased between work and personal life.  As we’re asking employees to do more, especially during ‘off business’ hours, how has our corporate culture evolved to afford employees the flexibility to tackle personal tasks on ‘company time’?

If you’re organization is all ‘take’, sooner or later your employees will stop ‘giving’.  What have you done to ensure workplace flexibility is part of your corporate culture?

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Telework

First Month of Remote Work – Blog of Tomas Varaneckas

It has been over a month since I started working remotely. After having to physically go to work for the past 10 years or so, it was something unthinkable.

I’ve set up a home office in a tiny room with no windows, and so far it beats any open plan office I could think of. It’s cozy, dead silent, full of my personal belongings, and it’s perfect for achieving high levels of concentration.

Source: varaneckas.com

 Remote workers often find out, like Tomas, that with a proper setup it’s easier to focus on the tasks at hand.  Being able to perform a higher quality of work is one of the greatest benefits of teleworking.

The storyline here, though, echoes the sentiment we hear from many of our clients’ end users–it’s hard to make a clean break from work time to personal time.  One of the things we make a point of focusing on during training sessions with a client organization is that it’s important to get in a routine and to take breaks. 

While telework is usually exciting for employees at first, many easily grow to resent what feels like an increased, endless workload.  It’s important that your corporate culture allows for work & life, especially for employees in a remote environment.

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Telework

Free Range Office in Wicker Park Open to Anyone in Need of Work Space

If quitting your job and becoming an entrepreneur is one of your New Year’s resolutions — or if you’ve got cabin fever from working out of your home — a new “co-working space” in Wicker Park can help.

“Entrepreneurs are putting their noses to the ground, the weather does not faze them. People want to get busy, get productive,” said Liane Jackson, owner of Free Range Office at 2141 W. North Ave, 2nd Floor.

Located two blocks west of the Milwaukee, Damen and North avenues intersection, Free Range Office opened in late November and offers daily and monthly office rentals in a second-floor loft. 

Source: www.dnainfo.com

We are seeing more & more organizations not only embrace telework, but also third place locations, such as co-working venues, as a way to alleviate a congested office or to enable their workforce to work more efficiently.

Working out of the office, especially in a public location, creates privacy risks, which companies often overlook.  What policies do you have in place for employees working in a public location? Who will train your workforce on best practices in avoiding costly privacy violations? What’s your gameplan in the event of a breach?

What other concerns can you think of?

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Telework

5 Successful Examples of Distributed Workforce Companies | Staff.com Blog

Here are five examples of companies that have built the business with a remote workforce:

Automattic Inc. (160 employees) provides blogging services mainly through WordPress. All Automattic employees work from wherever they want — home or office locations any where in the world. Once a year, the entire Automattic team gets together to brainstorm company strategy and enjoy each other’s company for a while…..

Source: www.staff.com

One of the biggest challenges we see many of our clients face in decentralizing the workforce/embracing telecommuting, is the need for managers to lead in new ways. Shifting from a line of sight management style to managing by results is a huge adjustment for most people.

All 5 of these are smaller organizations, which gives underperformers fewers places to hide, unlike at a big company where the success of some can more easily mask organizational issues.  If you’re responsible for the workplace of a more established company that is looking to change how work gets done, have you thought about what you’ll need to do to prepare your managers for this shift?

What other concerns do you have?

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change

Telework, Workplace Flexibility, Workplace Strategy

Telework, once a ‘mom perk,’ keeps government humming during snow storms

On Tuesday morning, snow and ice covered the streets around Mika Cross’ home in southern Maryland. Commuter accidents clogged roadways. Her kids’ school closed because of the stormy weather. Many businesses, medical offices and shops were shuttered. And Cross’ employer, the federal government decided to shut down.

But for Cross and thousands of federal and private sector workers who can work remotely, or telework, Tuesday was just a typical work day. Except that her kids, at her ex-husband’s house, played in the snow all day and she, instead of getting in a workout at lunch, shoveled snow…

Source: www.washingtonpost.com

Telework isn’t a mere perk–it’s a risk mitigation tactic. If the thought of business interruption doesn’t cross your mind when developing or reassessing your company’s workplace strategy, you’re missing the boat.

Technology has finally advanced to the point where many people can work quite efficiently at home, or a third place. Why risk huge work stoppages by having an archaic workforce strategy that only enables or allows your team to work at one site?

We saw it after Superstorm Sandy–some of the organizations best equipped for staying afoot and avoiding an utter shut down were those that had a strong workforce mobility program already in place.  If you’re still viewing telework as a perk for employees–it may be time to reconsider your stance!

Stegmeier Consulting Group can assist with a wide range of challenges involved in implementing a workplace change initiative.  Contact us to find out how our services can help your organization.


https://stegmeierconsulting.com/contact/

Phone: 440-846-1410

Changing the way organizations manage workplace change