ITBusiness.ca’s May 6th issue has a good couple of articles on teleworking or working virtual. The WorldatWork Survey shows that 42% of US firms and 40% of Cdn firms are now offering telework as a way to attract & retain employees. That’s up from 25% in Canada a year ago and 32% in the US.  Good stuff.  Now…..are organizations actually supporting employees in telework? Meaning….do they have the right equipment, objectives, protocals, management processes? Well….not really.  An IDC Study shows that while organizations are equipping employees with lots of mobile devices, they have no mobile strategy — and that means they aren’t mobilizing key business applications. Securit, a Canadian records management firm, is doing some cutting edge work with RIM in bringing SAP CRM to the Blackberry — a key application for sales people.  The real difference that organizations have to understand is that just because there’s wireless access doesn’t mean there’s mobile, ubiqitous (did I spell that correctly?), intuitive access to the application on mobile devices.

There’s another article on successful teleworking in which employees are excelling and engaged.  The Canadian Telework Association has identified the 6 stages people experience:

One: I’m really excited about being able to work from home. Two: Freedom! I have fewer distractions, more flexibility, a greater sense of accomplishment. Three: Unfortunately a lot people – myself included – became telework junkies or teleworkaholics, and lost some of our work-life balance. Four: Possible burn out and frustration. Five: Lonely and isolated from co-workers and company. Six:

Continue reading Finally! Growing number of organizations supporting telework