With the right technology in place (most of which businesses already have), some types of employees could easily do their jobs from home if they were granted the option. Working from home is normally referred to as “telecommuting” and there are a few different scenarios in which a business may consider this option.

One of these scenarios is that they find an employee with the right skills, but that person lives too far away from the office or business to commute back and forth every day. In another scenario, an employer may opt to offer part or full time telecommuting as a benefit or perk for working there.

Some companies have seen good results from telecommuting, while others feel as though employees take advantage of being at home and they don’t put in the same amount of effort as they would if they were physically in the work environment. If you’re currently considering offering telecommuting to one or more employees or you’re struggling with whether or not you should continue to offer it, the hang up you’re having more than likely relates to productivity.

Does telecommuting help or hurt business productivity? The honest answer is that it really depends on the business, the employee and other specific factors. However, here are a few tips that may make your decision process a little bit easier.

Can the Work be done from Home?

While telecommuting is currently becoming more popular with both businesses and employees, there are always going to be jobs which not only shouldn’t, but could not reasonably be done from home. A few obvious careers that don’t fit into telecommuting are:

• Manufacturing
• Cashiers or people providing in store customer service
• Mechanics

In contrast, here are a few different types of careers that can be done from home:

• Word processing
• Web design and development
• Data entry
• Photography
• Graphic design

It’s fairly easy to determine whether or not a job can be done from home or not. Any career in which a person spends most, if not all of their workday on a computer can probably be done from home.

What is the Reason for Letting One or More Employees Telecommute?

Whether you’re considering letting a current or new employee telecommute, is there a good reason for letting them work from home? As we mentioned earlier, sometimes businesses choose to hire staff with exceptional skill levels that they can’t find in their local area and in that case, telecommuting would make sense. It’s important to look for the motives of why the employee wants to work from home if they are the one asking to be allowed to telecommute.

Has the Employee Ever Worked from Home Before?

If you’re dealing with a potential employee, ask them if they’ve ever worked from home before. Employees who have worked from home previously are used to it and they are better prepared for the challenges that it presents over a person who has never worked from home before. If the situation involves a current employee and or a person who has never worked from home before, it’s important to go over the challenges that they will face. Some of these challenges include:

• Isolation
• Having to possess excellent communication skills
• Being able to stay on top of their tasks
• Asking questions and reporting any problems as they arise
• Sticking to a routine schedule (if required)

Telecommuting takes a lot of self-discipline and it comes down to a person having it or not having it.

Research and Reports

If you’re still not sure what the right thing to do is, a simple solution is to try it and look at numbers after a certain period of time. Once the employee has been telecommuting for a certain period of time look at your business numbers and ask yourself:

• Is the level of work I need to have done getting done?
• Is business income going up or down?
• Are projects on time?
• Is anyone else who is working in the office complaining about not being able to do their job effectively because the telecommuting employee isn’t communicating enough?

A lot of times, it’s a method of trial and error to see if letting people telecommute will hurt or help the productivity of your business. The most important thing to remember is that every business is different and every employee is different. Therefore, it’s hard to rely on what you’ve heard from other businesses about letting employees telecommute.

The other essential piece of information to adhere to is that you need to do what is right for your business. Yes, the technology is available so that a lot of employees would be able to telecommute, but that doesn’t mean it’s always the right thing to do for the employee or for the business that they are working for.