On the 12th November 2012, Our Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced she would begin trialling some government departments to participate in teleworking. What is teleworking? You probably know teleworking as “Working from home”.

The government has conducted research which shows that some of its departments would benefit from employee’s being able to work from home.  I would like to share some of the common questions that come up when the topic of working from home arises.

Accessibility

You need to be able to access all of your internal systems from home to work effectively.  There are several ways to accomplish this. Most companies will have IP restrictions on what internal systems can be accessed from what IP addresses and if the system is high sensitive they may even restrict all IPs that are not part of the company network. A solution to this is to setup a Proxy server in order to prompt the user for a password and authorise them before allowing them access to the systems. This can work well however it does involved setting up a proxy server and also configuring the browser you are on to connect using the proxy.

Another alternative is setting up remote access using either Windows Remote desktop connection software or some Citrix software to allow a virtual desktop to be created for your worker accessing the company systems remotely. This method is the chosen methods for many corporations. Technology has always been the thing that most people say was the barrier to working from home effectively.

Internet Speeds

The reason most of these techniques can now be deployed is that most homes have very fast internet connected and the speed of the connection allows for most systems to be accessed smoothly and without connection problems.  As the NBN rolls out this will give houses even more speed and we will probably find that more and more people will begin to work from home.

Productivity

A program begun by iiNet to have its customer service staff working from home has seen a large increase in staff appreciation of the program and they have advised that more than 15% of their staff now telework instead of travelling to the iinet office. They say these employees have greater job satisfaction and perform better in their roles. I guess it makes alot of sense, some employees would be travelling up to 4 hrs per day to and from work. These employees would now have alot less stress being a few second commute to the Home office and starting work refreshed and not stressed from overworked public transport systems and roads.

A new way of working

Last week was national Telework week Citrix has created a website http://mobilework.com.au/ this website shows all the best telework practices and what people are doing to encourage their employers to allow them to work from home.  if you would like to read the prime ministers official announcement of telework week you can do so via this link http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/launch-national-telework-week . I hope this has giving a brief insight into the future of teleworking. I think it will open alot of opportunities for regional Australia and give employers access to pools of talent previously not available due to geographical barriers. Let me know your thoughts on teleworking below!