Virtual Office Resource

The New Jersey Institute of Technology’s online MBA program recently released an infographic with some interesting stats on telecommuting trends.

Somewhat surprisingly, even for a telecommuting advocate like myself, apparently 45 percent of all employees now telecommute at least some of the time. This makes sense given mobile technology and how must business systems are now in the cloud, but it still is a surprisingly high number.

This is partially because there now are 53 million Americans working as freelancers, and the number of remote work job listing rose by 27 percent in the past year.

With so many workers now doing their jobs outside of the office, it is important to address one of the biggest challenges of telecommuting: social isolation.

I can say from firsthand experience that while telecommute work is nice, it also is naturally isolating if proper steps are not taken to keep thing social. In the office there’s incidental interactions with other employees all day long, to say nothing of face-to-face meetings and collaborative conversations. When working outside of the office, however, there is a lot less social and lot more staring at the computer screen.

Businesses need to address this, because a lack of social contact among employees can lead to burnout, job dissatisfaction—and teams that are working together less well.

It starts with having office communications that connect employees even if they are not there together in person. Phone.com, for instance, offers follow-me functionality that makes sure that remote workers never miss a call in the office. Routing can also be scheduled, so employees who work from home on Tuesdays automatically can have their calls forwarded to their home every Tuesday. Communications that reliably connect remote employees help create a virtual office environment that reduces social isolation.

The role of the check-in is more important when it comes to remote workers, too. Status updates and casual work check-ins are good to keep a finger of employee productivity, but when it comes to remote workers this also serves as a bridge between the remote workers and others at the company. Even a single check-in can greatly reduce social isolation from telecommuting.

Third, it is important to create a space for face-time with all remote workers. This should be more than an annual company picnic, too. While remote workers may interact by email and phone all day long even if they are not in the physical office, it is important to back this up with periodic time in person. This can be regular face-to-face meetings once or twice a month, or periodic company retreats. But make sure remote workers make it into the office at least on a quarterly basis, because working from home is good business—but only if workers stay happy and motivated when working remotely. And that means taking care of the social isolation issue.