B2B Markeplace

Some smart ass said that “Work is something you do, and not something you have to travel to”. Probably correct in the general feeling that many people drive to work, and the moment they get in the door, they grab a coffee and read the paper for fifteen minutes. This renowned word “work” has become correlated with a place we go to, rather than an deed we have to perform. “Honey I’m off to work.” or “That’s the work calling” are phrases which have seeped into our subconscious over the years. Anyway the things are changing as more and more office personnel in Online Jobs are being asked to Work From Home.

With this relocation from the office, managers are now confronted with no physical personnel in the site and therefore no instant way of seeing what their staff are working on(or not working on) as is the case. Internet Business has always been like this, so maybe other market sectors need to analyse how these web based companies handle their staff. Chances are that they have taken on board “Management by Objectives” to set goals and review their staff by. It makes sense, as managers cannot monitor what their staff are doing if they now Work From Home some thirty odd miles away.

This move to remote working is a enormous adjustment for managers as well as staff. The perception that lots of managers will have, is that their staff will be less productive if they have no face to face supervision. Well that may be the case, but in a traditional office it is calculated that over an hour a day is frittered away by staff chatting at the photocopier or with smoking breaks etc. It is really up to the manager and the worker to sit down before they exit the office and set out some procedures, some goals and some regular times to review progress. Whether you see eye to eye with Management by Objectives or not, it does appear a way of ensuring both parties know what needs to be done and by when. How it is accomplished is another matter, and I think some flexibility needs to be given to workers who Work From Home. It is a big change for them, particularly if their previous Online Jobs were in a big office with lots going on and lots of social interaction.

Unquestionably without some form of suitable appraisal scheme, personnel that work in some form of the Internet Business, may be passed over for promotion, because they are no longer seen back at HQ. That is where good MBO’s can be employed to compare personnel doing similar work, regardless whether their Online Jobs are in the main city office or far away in a suburban semi-detached house. It is a new mode of working so there will be mistakes, but optimistically lessons will be learnt. After the initial bedding in period, managers could find that remote employees are in reality more productive. One such study from CompTIA found that two thirds of firms indicated that productivity had risen.

So although not conclusive, it does seem that productivity might not be as big an issue as managers assumed. One thing is for sure managers in any type of Internet Business will have to trust their staff to do what is called for and it’s up to them to manage them appropriately through “Management by Objectives”.