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TIENTIP SUBHANIJ
If you have been dreaming about working in your own home, now might be the time for it to happen. With rising oil prices and global warming problems, many companies are seriously thinking about implementing telework programmes.
Telework in Thailand should soon be quite popular. A few IT companies and government agencies have started the programme. The Fiscal Policy Office, a unit of the Finance Ministry, just announced that more than 40% of its staff would be able to work at home one day a week starting from this month until September next year.
What is telework? Telework or telecommuting is a type of arrangement where employees can work flexibly outside their central offices. Work is done at home or other places using telecommunications as a substitute for travelling. Technology such as e-mail, mobile phone, VPN and video conferencing are commonly used and so eliminate the distance problems.
Telework has been known to offer several benefits to employers, employees and society in general. For employers, it reduces electricity bills and productivity is enhanced at lower cost. It also increases the possibility of hiring staff offshore, staff that is not otherwise available due to long distance, disability or family burden as well as outsourcing.
Companies would also be more resilient and able to continue operations in time of disruption such as strikes, natural disaster and extreme weather. For employees, it reduces travel time, energy bills and enhances work-family balance. For society, it reduces traffic congestion, the carbon footprint and pollution through less daily commuting.
Last year, research in the US conducted on almost 13,000 employees found that telecommuting schemes benefit both employees and employers.
Telecommuting also had no negative impact on the quality of workplace relationships, something many people feared. Instead, it was reported to have several benefits. Workers are reported to be less inclined to quit their jobs, they become less stressed, and have better work-family balance. Employers also showed higher satisfaction of workers' performance.
The clearest benefit of telework in today's society is that unproductive commuting time is replaced by productive work time. If working at home one day a week means at least two hours per week is spent working instead of driving, a worker would gain two weeks of work time per year.
At the end of last year Thailand had about 36.8 million people in the workforce. Of this, about 16.2 million people are employed either by the government or the private sector. Given the current oil price, it would cost on average 1,000 baht per week driving to and from the office.
So if half of these 16.2 million workers worked at home once a week, the country could save 84 billion baht per year in commuting costs, two billion litres per year in oil and spare the environment of a lot of pollution.
In other countries, telework schemes are very popular. The Japanese government, for example, has started offering tax breaks to companies who want to launch the programme. Teleworking has become widespread in the electronics industry. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co introduced the scheme in April 2007 with around 3,000 working from home. NEC Corp, among others, has started having its 20,000 employees telework one day a week. It is hoping that telework will end Japan's long-suffering work culture and increase its low birthrate.
In Singapore, the government has also started a S$10 million fund to help companies to implement work-life or family-friendly work practices such as telework, part time work and flexible hour options. The US Congress passed a law in 2000 requiring federal agencies to offer telework options to employees. In the UK, 39% of firms now offer flexi-time. Other European countries have long used telework arrangements.
Despite its advantages, telework needs to be implemented properly in order to be effective. The programme can only work when performance is measured on the basis of results and if it does not require close observation by staff. Face time at the office is sometimes considered to be important for some managers. Also if not implemented on a large enough scale, it can create resentment from non-teleworking staff. This is not to say that teleworking is not a good idea, but its adoption needs to be designed properly.
Types of work that are appropriate include research and analysis, programming, and data entry.
With high oil prices, telework is a practical alternative to the current mode of commuting. It is a win-win solution for the employers, employees and society. Telework in Thailand is still very much underutilised. If implemented more actively, it could save a lot of time, and energy at the expense of nothing at all.
Dr Tientip Subhanij holds a PhD in economics from the University of Cambridge, and currently has a career in banking as well as academia. She can be reached at tien201@yahoo.com
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