HR consulting company, Vertitude has a great article on telecommuting and the impact on management and work styles. Part of the article has a focus on IBM and the way the organisation’s telecommuting policy works.

Elaine Gottlieb writes “Of IBM’s 300,000 worldwide employees, 40 percent have no office at the company. IBM equips the home offices of all employees, whether they telecommute part- or full-time, a small price to pay for $100 million savings in on-site office costs.”

Indeed, I am among the employees who work primarily from home. Like Ed Brill (interviewed in the article), when I am not on the road with customers (business partners and ISVs in my case), I work from home. Since most of my colleagues are in different cities (and indeed overseas), or are themselves out with customers - there’s little point in me being in the office anyway - there would be nobody to talk to there.

We really are a global organisation - my previous role had me reporting to a manager in Melbourne (I live in Sydney), with a “dotted line” (matrix management!) to my “brand” manager in Canberra. My main team-mate was in Melbourne, and our extended team was spread across all of Australia and New Zealand. I have just started a new role where my manager in now in Raleigh, North Carolina, my team-leader is in Burlington, Massachusetts, my HR manager is in Canberra, and the rest of my team are in China and Japan!

I am just as likely to be communicating with people in the US, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Korea, China, India - all as a normal part of my job, so location has become far less important to communication.

Elaine also mentions the technology that makes working in this environment so easy, while still allowing the collaboration that is a critical part of business success … “telecommuting has become an integral part of IBM’s culture. Coworkers rely on IBM technology, including IBM Lotus Sametime Instant Messaging and Web conferencing, to stay connected.”

Between Lotus Notes, Sametime Instant Messaging, and the good-old telephone, I am in constant contact with my worldwide network of colleagues no matter where I am. I can just as easily work in my pyjamas at home (which is one of the reasons we’ve implemented a no video conferencing policy !!), or from a hotel room, or even from a WiFi hotspot at a cafe or at the airport, which is something I do regularly.

I find it frustrating hearing comments from people in other organsations who joke about sitting in front of the TV all day, or other such time-wasting activities. I point out to them that the IBM culture is very much one of performance (love it or hate it!), and as such - the measure on deliverables as opposed to time-at-the-office is quite effective for productivity. IBM can be a difficult place to work - if you can’t cope with the way things are done, people will generally leave fairly quickly. The people who remain generally care deeply about their work - are very committed, passionate and love to achieve. It is these reasons that make telecommuting work so well for us at IBM - with the right attitude, and the available enabling technologies - it works really well.

It all comes down to attitude - the people who will succeed in the future of the workplace will be those who have the attitude and skills that suit a highly flexible, highly mobile workforce - who are self-motivated and able to build and participate in virtual teams as naturally as they do in face-to-face situations.

Read the full article: Telecommuting: Why Managing People You Can’t See Is Visionary

(via Ed Brill)