Today, telework is typically a part-time pursuit, a benefit you can give workers who don't want to make the commute to the office every day. But if the latest projections from Cahners In-Stat Group are right, by 2004, full-time teleworkers will be the majority, accounting for 52% of the tele-workforce. More specifically, 9% of the enterprise workforce is expected to telework full time; that's 4.7 million workers who rarely come into the office.

Numbers like these obviously raise some important employee management issues.

Today, most telework arrangements are voluntary. But as the pressure mounts to launch and grow telework programs with higher numbers of full-time teleworkers, the likelihood also increases that some managers and employees who are unmotivated or unfit may find themselves caught up in the trend. What will you do about the workers who don't want to work at home or who need the more structured environment of an office to do well?

And with large numbers of employees working at home, how do you handle career advancement? Typically, as the best and brightest rise through the ranks, they're given employees to manage, and encouraged to take a leadership role. But to manage a staff, you still really need to be in the office. Many superstar employees may find themselves hitting a glass ceiling of sorts: If they're at home, how do they get groomed (or groom themselves) to advance up the corporate ladder? Similarly, if you work from home now, and are offered a promotion that includes managing a staff, do you rejoin the office ranks or pass it up? Or do you risk your reputation by trying to manage the team remotely?

It's important to distinguish between managing a remote team and managing a virtual team. In a virtual team, everyone is remote, scattered about, working from home or another remote location. This model has proven successful, in part because everyone's coming at the work from the same angle. There are a slew of books and resources on how to do it, too. One of the best is Virtual Teams by Jessica Lipnack and Jeffrey Stamps ($29.95, John Wiley & Sons).

Managing a remote team is another matter entirely. This means you're in charge of an in-house team of workers from a remote location, and it's still considered difficult, if downright impossible to do well -- especially if you haven't worked with the team previously.

Still, some are trying, if only out of necessity.

Earlier this month, I met a few of these brave souls at a seminar for managing virtual and remote teams conducted by the American Management Association. They looked glum and frustrated -- and were eager to talk. "How do I deal with a below-par employee who's a thousand miles away who I've never met," one snapped. "How can I make them respect my authority?"

Everyone nodded. But an IT professional from Long Island, N.Y. who'd recently been charged with a full complement of software developers in India elicited the most sympathy. He still looked shell-shocked, and shrugged his shoulders a lot.

Though I sat in for only part of the three-day course, I'd recommend it. There are plenty of haands on exercises, and participants are encouraged to develop a customized management plan as part of the process. But frankly, the folks there just looked so relieved to spend some time away from the office -- and in like company.

» posted by ITworld staff

Network World

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