| MAIN FEATURE >
Home, sweet office
Written by: Milan Duda, Petr Vykoukal
Photo by: Vojtěch Vlk
With the rapid development of mobile
technologies and the internet, offices may one day be unnecessary.
Although more and more people are taking advantage of working remotely
- from home and elsewhere - it will still be some time before that
daily commute becomes a thing of the past.
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Photo: steelcase |
IN SOME FIELDS, working from home has been possible practically forever
- translators never had to sit in offices, architects could make
their drawings in the comfort of their homes, and freelance journalists
were never seen in editorial offices. Elsewhere, the development
of information technologies made homeworking possible, and today
it's a reality in such fields as IT, advertising, telecommunications,
design, and consulting - to name a few.
"
Working from home, if it's balanced with regular social contact with
colleagues, motivates employees and saves the firm's time and resources," says
Monika Végh, personnel director at Ernst & Young. "Thanks
to the modern technologies that our firm uses for homeworking, these
employees can securely connect with the firm's network and work with
documents on-line," she adds, clarifying the motivation for
E&Y's homeworking policy. Many other large firms like Aliatel,
Hewlett-Packard, and Unilever are similarly instituting work from
home. But even though the interest of companies is rising, the chance
of working from home is still an option for only a small number of
people. In more progressive countries, however, it is a stronger
trend. According to a recent census conducted by the US Bureau of
Labor Statistics, 19% of the entire American workforce works from
home at least part-time.
However, Czech firms usually employ a minority (about 10%) of their
workers this way, and most of them work from home only part-time. "In
our company employees work from home only three days a week at most
- there must remain a certain physical contact with the firm," says
Markéta Schwarzová of Sun Microsystems, which allows 15% of its employees
in the Czech Republic to work from home. "It mostly involves
programmers and developers. We inform them of the option of working
at home, and they're often happy to take advantage of it. Their departments
take this into account and can make better use of their work space," Schwarzová
adds.
But many firms aren't yet aware of the space-saving possibilities
entailed by allowing employees to work at home, not to mention that
the market isn't encouraging them to use the option. "The construction
of new office developments in Prague is still strong," notes
Daniel Krška, the Czech Republic's dealer manager for Steelcase,
a supplier of custom-made office furniture. "This excessive
supply suppresses rent prices, so employers aren't motivated to save
on work space."
Photo: steelcase |
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According to Ladislav Trpák of the on-line advertising agency Advertures,
other factors favor the development of homeworking, such as higher
employee performance. The same reason is mentioned by Contactel workers
who work from home (see sidebar, page 23). But this varies depending
on the work habits of the specific person. Some people need the workplace
environment to be "forced" to work. Such is the experience
of Jan Tichý, who is employed as a programmer. "My employer
allowed me to work at home, but I finally rejected it. True, when
I was working two days a week at home I saved four hours of commuting
to Prague, but I wound up losing my entire weekend," Tichý explains. "In
short, at home I wasn't as effective, so on the weekends I had to
catch up with what I didn't accomplish during the week. I can concentrate
much better in the office than at home; there's no television or
anything like that to distract me," he adds.
A web designer whose work for the Czech web site Peníze.cz was overseen
by program coordinator Tomáš Hampl provides a contrary example: "When
he worked at home he definitely accomplished more. But the problem
was communication - what I could show him in a minute at work had
to be complexly described via e-mail, and I lost a lot of time myself
with it." Whether it's possible to perform one's work from home
also depends largely on the job description. "We allow homeworking
for employees with whom uninterrupted contact with clients or other
team colleagues isn't required," says Végh of Ernst & Young.
For example, software firms that create custom-made solutions generally
don't offer homeworking. "Our projects require intensive communication
within the team, which is impossible from home," says Kateřina
Horová, Unicorn's HR director. Dobromil Podpěra, executive director
of the software firm Cleverlance, also sees the necessity of teamwork
as an obstacle: "I don't think working with people who work
at home is as effective as working with people who are in personal
contact with us - harmonizing a team is much more complicated."
Besides the need for communication within a team, technology also
often prevents homeworking. Many software applications must be developed
in the same environment in which they will be used, and creating
the right environment in an employee's home can be a problem, according
to Horová. Another drawback can be the need to ensure proper handling
of confidential information, as is the case, for example, with debt
collection companies.
Human nature
There's no doubt as to the further expansion of homeworking. "I
think that in the future it will be used more for positions whose
job descriptions don't require daily physical presence in the workplace," says
Pavla Váňová, Contactel's HR director. Nevertheless, she adds that "the
model of partial homeworking is optimal, as regular personal contact
with colleagues brings greater loyalty and supports a 'team atmosphere'
within the firm."
Still, several obstacles will have to be overcome within firms
for this to happen. According to Krška, "[The firms] want
to see their people sitting in offices and they don't know how
they can be monitored at home," he explains. This primarily
relates to software firms that develop custom-made solutions, but
also consulting companies and auditors, whose employees work on
projects directly at clients' offices. The clients want to see
the people they pay for.
While modern technologies can quickly overcome distances and break
down barriers, the greatest obstacle to homeworking will long remain
human nature. "Personal communication cannot be completely
replaced by these smartest technologies," Podpěra opines. "In
our own way we're the same as we were 2,000 years ago, when face-to-face
communication was a necessity."
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A desk for your den
The slowly advancing "homeworking" trend
is bringing business to furniture makers, too, as they've
begun to design adaptable home offices.
FURNITURE FOR this purpose must meet specific criteria that
differ from those for furniture made solely for office use. "It
has to be a mobile station that can be easily adjusted for
a quick meeting at home, for instance. And it should take
up the least amount of space, and after disassembly it should
be easy to use in another household," explains Daniel
Krška of the Czech branch of Steelcase, an international
office furniture manufacturer that also deals with the "home
office" concept.
According to Krška, the global homeworking trend has yet
to hit the Czech Republic as in more advanced countries,
and its greatest boom isn't expected for a few years. "But
abroad we're already closing large contracts in this field,
mainly with modern technology corporations like Sun Microsystems
and NCR. Within the limitations set by their firms, their
employees can go to our web site and choose the furniture
that will fit well in their homes," Krška says.
Equipping one such home office typically costs an employer
between CZK 20,000 and 50,000. "True, we don't fill
custom orders, but choosing from over 500 product lines allows
us to adapt to the given space," Krška explains. "It's
important to preserve standardization and the possibility
of arranging the furniture anywhere," he adds, pointing
out that local firms still only rarely request home office
furniture, and then generally only for individual managers
who want the same equipment for working at home as in their
offices.
Milan Duda
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Advertures: Designing remotely
Ladislav
Trpák |
For coder Jiří Kaiser (27), the desk in the corner
of the living room of his 2+1 apartment in Plzeň has been a "remote
office" of the Advertures advertising agency for two years.
His main task is creating HTML code for prepared web sites based
on graphic designs.
Having his two-year-old daughter crawling around underfoot and
occasionally helping his wife with housework disturbs him less
than the noise of an office. "I get up in the morning and
I'm at work. I have more peace and quiet here. I receive designs
via e-mail and I either e-mail them to a programmer or store them
on the company's server," says Kaiser, adding that he sees
his Prague colleagues in person only about thrice annually. "Mostly
it's at company events or when I'm in Prague by chance." Besides
peace and quiet, Kaiser also likes working at home because it saves
him over CZK 3,000 and three hours a day in commuting to Prague.
On the other hand, he sees limited personal contact and self-discipline
as problematic. "Sometimes it's hard to force myself to act.
But once you learn how, working home can be more comfortable than
a classic job."
Kaiser isn't the only Advertures employee to work like this. "Three
full-timers and many external colleagues work from home," explains
Advertures' director, Ladislav Trpák (29). His firm cooperates
with an advance designer from Poland and a draftsman from Sweden,
for example. He says using homeworking is connected with the development
of technologies and cost savings. "You don't pay rent for
an office, you just have to ensure your internet connection. And
with the arrival of ADSL these costs have dropped markedly," says
Trpák, adding that, thanks to the internet, the firm also saves
money on telephone bills, because its employees can communicate
easily via IP telephony.
Because of such advancements, the company was later able to close
its Brno office, and all employees from there switched to homeworking.
Their communication with the firm is facilitated mainly by the
company intranet, on which everything they need for homeworking
is posted - planning and reserving sources, managerial statements
dealing with progress on projects, and knowledge databases, among
other information. "So we know how long individual tasks take,
and work results can be checked easily. Deadlines and self-discipline
are important," notes Trpák, "but above all, there needs
to be trust between employer and employee."
Milan Duda |
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Unilever: A reason for flexibility
Pavlína Jílková, Magdalena Líbalová |
When asked what advice they would give a company implementing
a homeworking policy, Unilever employees smile: be flooded,
they joke. With its Czech headquarters
in Karlín, Unilever's homeworking policy got its start during
the high waters there in August 2002. A year later, the concept
- along with flexitime working hours - became official policy
for the consumer goods company. "It worked and we saw
it was possible to give people more flexibility," says
Pavlína Jílková, HR manager at Unilever.
Using nothing more than a computer and good internet access,
dozens (out of a total 400) office employees - who either
are on maternity leave or have a small child at home, have
special family reasons, or are sales managers located out
of Prague - spend the majority of their time working from
home. Magdalena Líbalová, a lawyer who's worked 10 years
for the company, is one example. She went on maternity leave
in September 2002 and was back to work by the next March.
For her, homeworking was a big draw. "I wouldn't have
come back so early [without it]," she admits. While
there aren't any statistics, the company says employee retention
benefits most from this policy. "From the Unilever side
it's an easy step to take," says Jílková.
It's also an easy step for the employee. "My husband
supported me because he understood I needed to practice [to
stay up to date in my work]," Líbalová says of her decision
to try homeworking. She concedes that early on the baby could
be a distraction, but now that the child is two and a half
years old and attends nursery school, it's easier to concentrate.
Líbalová mixes her work day with trips to and from school
and grocery shopping, and also has more time to visit the
office to manage her work team. "If I worked only from
home, I would lose that office spirit and the relationships
[involved with that]," she reasons.
Jílková thinks homeworking is easy to implement, but only
if it's needed and the right people are targeted. She says
the small number of Unilever employees homeworking makes
it easier to control, with work quality the final measurement.
Her colleague advises aspiring homeworkers to learn to organize
their time, and to remember it is still a job. "You
shouldn't think you'll work just a few hours a week," she
says.
Jason Hovet |
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Terra: Translating via technology
Alena
Záklasníková |
After the foreign influx of the early '90s, this
high school English teacher decided to become an interpreter and
translator. As a self-employed entrepreneur, she was free to establish
the Terra translation agency in her home.
"With this type of work, in the age of completely new data
transmission technologies, the possibility of working from home
is an indisputable advantage. I have a better, peaceful background,
comfort, low expenses, greater flexibility, and the opportunity
to combine work with my personal life," explains Záklasníková,
who gradually expanded her activities and currently has three close
colleagues and more than 20 steady external translators and interpreters.
"
I take orders, pass them to individual translators, and send in
the prepared translations. I can do all that from home, over the
telephone or via e-mail," she notes with satisfaction. "Sometimes
I do interpreting myself in order to maintain personal contact
with clients," says the agency owner, whose firm provides
translation services in many global languages, including Japanese
and Finnish.
She sees her slightly diminished visibility by potential clients
as a certain disadvantage, but for her the advantages outweigh
it, and she doesn't intend to change her work style in the future. "I
do essentially the same thing from home that I'd do in an office," she
claims. Unlike many women who have a hard time finding a balance
between domestic chores and work they get paid for in their "home
offices", Záklasníková has few sources for conflict. "My
children are grown. My son already lives elsewhere, and my daughter,
a college student, understands my work and even helps me. The only
disruptive element is our dog, who sometimes so distracts me -
so then I take him for a walk and recharge my batteries," she
laughs.
Monika Mudranincová |
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Contactel: "Homework allowed" since
the beginning
Petr Šmelhaus, Pavla Váňová |
It's mainly peace and quiet that motivates Contactel employees
to exercise the option of working from home.
The firm's offered this opportunity to some of its employees
ever since its founding in 1999. Currently, Pavla Váňová,
Contactel's HR director, says a tenth of the 274 employees
take advantage of the option, mainly people in positions
where it is allowed by character of their work, such as product
managers, attorneys, and programmers. But for all of them
this involves so-called partial homeworking, usually for
a few hours, at most a day per week. They use notebooks,
mobile phones (both supplied for requisite positions), and
internet connections, mostly paid for by the firm. A specific
position for which Contactel recently allowed working from
home is specialist in the transit services department, which
handles voice services. These workers need to communicate
with partners in the US, and because of the time zone differences
they work between 7:00 and 10:00 pm.
The employees see several advantages in homeworking. "At home I'm not encumbered
by banalities and can concentrate better on my work," explains Roman Stiller,
IT solutions manager. "Air conditioning and open space affect my performance
negatively," he adds. Product manager Vladimír Urban agrees: "I do
more work in the same amount of time at home, mainly because it's quieter." Lawyer
Petr Šmelhaus mentions another reason: "with no commuting time, I can get
right to work in the morning."
The option of working from home also gives employees greater time flexibility. "Employees
can attend their personal matters during the working hours and finish their work
at home," Váňová explains. From this viewpoint working from home is a benefit
that increases loyalty to the firm. Furthermore, Váňová says that homeworking
has additional benefits - if someone calls in sick during the day, they can catch
up after hours.
Petr Vykoukal |
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CK Adventura: Trust as the main prerequisite
Radovan Vlček |
Radovan Vlček lives in Krkonoše. From his home he
spends from six to nine hours a day working as project
manager for the Adventura travel agency, which is headquartered
in Prague.
He's responsible for preparing and coordinating excursions,
he conducts economic analyses and creates budgets, and he
communicates with suppliers, clients and the home office.
He also manages "Adventura - Sports and Living in the
Wild School", an accredited training center. "Working
from home requires a great degree of discipline, but it allows
for regulating hours according to one's needs," explains
Vlček. "I'm used to working a lot in the evenings." This
work arrangement is the only way he can do what he enjoys
while being able to spend time with his family, which he
does regularly at breakfast and lunch and during some afternoons.
"If a firm doesn't want to lose a good employee it pays to let him or her
work from home," says Vlček's direct superior, Anna Bauerová, head of Adventura's
coordination department. Such a form of cooperation works well where the employer
trusts the employee and tries to meet him or her half-way. Vlček agrees: "Adventura's
management's and my colleagues' willingness, along with the technical level of
information technologies allows me to work in my 'detached office'," he
says, ticking off the main prerequisites for working 150 kilometers away from
company headquarters. However, Vlček had to acquire the equipment for his workplace
at his own expense. These necessary expenses allow him to use the internet and
his mobile phone to be not only in contact with his colleagues, but also directly
connected to company servers.
He also regularly makes 2-3 day trips to the Prague office every 14 days (every
week during the busy season). Adventura pays for his business calls and SMS messages,
and in exchange requires that he conscientiously performs his assignments. "It's
all about trust. Our employees are paid by the assignment, not by the hour. So
no one can afford not to handle their tasks," says Bauerová, explaining
the important motivational and control element of the firm's policy.
But working from home is definitely not for everyone. For example, while Vlček
claims that he likes working from home and says he's more effective in the peace
of his house, Bauerová, in contrast, can't imagine working this way over the
long term and losing daily contact with her colleagues
Monika Mudranincová |
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