Handling Concerns

There are a lot of concerns about telework.  All concerns are important and should be addressed before beginning this new working arrangement.  The State of Arizona Telework Program helps to address concerns in three ways: through telework policies and participant selection criteria, through teleworker/supervisor training with formal telework agreements, and through the practice of management by results .

1. The State of Arizona Telework Program Policies answer the basic administrative concerns which apply to all telework employees.

Personnel concerns:

Selection of program participants
Compliance with FLSA regulations
Monitoring work hours
Changes in employee benefits or evaluation
Employee rights
Child or elder care
Termination of agreements
Training

Risk Management concerns:

Insurance coverage in the home office
Safety in the home office
Information security

Legal concerns:

Use of employer-owned equipment
Maintenance of employee-owned equipment

2. Participant selection criteria (in the form of a self assessment survey), teleworker/supervisor training and telework agreements (provided in the training material) are used to answer the individual concerns and needs of each teleworker, supervisor and their non-teleworking coworkers. During the training, supervisors and teleworkers will go through several exercises to help them take a closer look at what it will be like to work apart from the office one or more days a week. Worksheets help them identify and resolve potential complications before they become problems. Each of the agreements they make along the way, will become part of a formal telework agreement which will be signed before they begin teleworking. 

3. The practice of management by results helps answer the concern that supervisors won't be able to monitor the work of teleworkers. When approached correctly, supervisors discover they are better able to monitor the work by shifting the focus from how much work the employee looks like he or she is accomplishing to how much he actually is accomplishing. By focusing on the work product instead of the work activity, many supervisors find they are better able to communicate clear expectations to their employees. The resulting agreement on job expectations often leads to increases in employee productivity and job satisfaction. Many supervisors already use this method of management by results.