Remotees

 The companies even more often provide employees with a possibility to carry out part of work at home. For remotes such situation is pleasant, but people remained at office - get discouraged, experts confirm.

The senior analyst of company Mmd Cor-porate and Public Affairs Alexey Chernyj is simultaneously involved in five projects and in two of them he has to deal with colleagues who seldom appear at office. «In one project number of this people is three, in particular head of the project, and my problems are the analytics preparation, reports, working out of details of client offers. In other project only one of two of my colleagues works remotely, and I attend to coordination and I communicate with the client», - tells Chernyj. Neither in that, nor in other case absence of colleagues at office does not become a problem, he confirms: for planning of projects its participants all the same have to gather at office, and operative questions can be decided by phone, e-mail or an Internet pager.

The western companies even more often grant employees a possibility to work partly at home not at office: still four years ago in the USA their quantity has become more than 20 million, as a Bureau of Transportation Statistics informed as at that time. It pleases remote employees, but  their colleagues of whom work demands to remain at office like such situation much less, Timoti Golden, professor of Lally School of Management confirms .

To such conclusion he has come in research of "Co-workers who telework and the impact on those in the office", promulgated in the beginning of January. The professor has studied the work of the hi-tech company, in which this practice is widespread, having interrogated 240 of its employees. In the company almost each employee can work a part of working week in-home: thus, considers a management, employees can increase quality of life, give more attention to their families and personal growth.

However 42 % of employees of the company never use this possibility. It also had been paid special attention during research. Questions did concern respondents' satisfaction of cooperation with colleagues who were absent at office, and also their loyalty of the company.

Remained are dissatisfied

Having processed results of questionnaires, the researcher has found out: than more colleagues of the respondent work out of office and the more their cooperation is in solving working problems, the less their satisfaction is of their colleagues, and work in the company as a whole.

The general area of office allows employees to interact in informal conditions and they trust one another more. If remote employees number becomes big, such dialogue is replaced with more formal, and those who remain at office appear to have more work to do, and working becomes not too pleasant, the professor Golden warns.

Possibility for a part of employees to work at home inevitably generates complexities, the director for staff in Oracle company in the CIS Olga Knysh agrees with the American researcher. «Work in-home goes well for introverts who comfortably feel themselves in a situation of the limited dialogue. But extroverts who will prefer to remain at office, can face shortage of dialogue and it can affect their motivation», - she says. On shoulders of those who remains at office, necessity to plan and co-ordinate joint work with remote employees will lay down also - and extroverts like problems on planning much less, considers Knysh. «If not to consider this factor, for example not having provided regular meetings, fluctuation in the company can be very high», - she comments.

In the Russian branch of company Oracle remote work practise seldom. «The infrastructure of a private life in our country is not so adapted for carrying out working problems at home. But in foreign branches this practice is fixed and the all-European policy is now developed - it will describe, what categories of employees and what part of working week can work at home, what expenses - for example on phone and the Internet - will be compensated», - tells Knysh. The policy will be introduced Into Russia, if chiefs of divisions will ask about it.

Not to promote

To avoid this problem in the Russian companies, possibility to work out of office exists only for emergencies. «In our company there are technical possibilities, they can use, if the employee was ill, is on secondment or at the client's», - Marina Kozyritskaja speaks vice-president on management of staff in the "Krok" company. In all other cases presence of the employee at office is considered necessary. «We need team work, and people should know one another well so their cooperation to be effective. With remote work there will be a psychological dissociation, - she says. - furthermore the company has difficulty to evaluate potential of the remote employee». For this reason it is more difficult to them to achieve promotion.

Ready for everything

In Mmd Corporate and Public Affairs dissociation is not to be afraid of, the director of practice of corporate and financial communications Evgenie Skobeleva in which submission is Chernyj and his colleagues under projects underlines. «Specifics of our activity demands interchangeability of employees - they should be always ready to consult the client even if the colleague with whom he works, is not in office at this moment », - she speaks. For this purpose all subordinates of Skobeleva once in a month gather and discuss current projects - so in case if anything happens any colleague can communicate to the client or check fulfilment of any urgent problem.  «This, of course, means, that during the certain moment work becomes more, but everyone is ready for it», - smiles Skobeleva.

Remote - is not worse

From 1320 managers interrogated worldwide,
78 %
are sure, that remote employees work inot worse than their colleagues at office;
48 %
Are ready to consider the offers implying work at home.
61 %
Consider, that remote employees have less chances of promotion;
Source: Korn/Ferry International