Telework
Teleworking or telecommuting as it is sometimes called, is when employees use telecommunications and computer technology to work anytime from any location. This could mean checking e-mail from a client's office, filling out paperwork at a hotel room in Albuquerque, or writing a report at midnight in the local coffee shop.

For Commute Trip Reduction purposes, the goal is to eliminate a commute trip to the worksite. The CTR law defines teleworking as the "use of telephones, computers, or other technology to permit an employee to work from home (eliminating a commute trip) or from a workplace closer to home (reducing the distance traveled in a commute trip by at least half)."

Benefits of teleworking include:

• Increased productivity as a result of fewer distractions and continuous, uninterrupted work time.
• Improved morale due to employees having more flexibility to manage work and family life. (Consequently, it serves well as a tool for recruiting and retaining employees.)
• Expanded opportunity to hire people with disabilities and others who might not otherwise be able to work in a traditional office.
• Reduced absenteeism based on the ability of the employee to work in spite of emergencies such as heavy snow or car trouble.
• Increased compliance with government regulations designed to improve air quality and reduce traffic congestion (such as Washington's CTR law).
  Employees ready to work in an emergency (such as an earthquake).
• Expanded parking space for customers and/or reduced traffic congestion around the worksite.
• Reduced need for office space as teleworkers work from home full-time or share space.

Fact: Teleworking save businesses money. Washington Mutual reduced its space costs by $166,000 per month by allowing employees to work from home. Commuter Challenge, 2001.

Setting up a Telework Program
Once you, the Employee Transportation Coordinator, have decided you want to incorporate a teleworking program into your organization's CTR program, where do you start? First, you must secure initial approval to spend the time and resources developing a teleworking proposal for management to review. Here are things to consider:

• Form a teleworking committee. Especially if your worksite is large, you may want to form a committee to develop your teleworking program. Be sure to include employees from a cross-section of departments, as well as union representatives (if applicable) and managers.
• Set teleworking program goals. Identify what your organization wants to gain from teleworking. For ideas, refer to the list of benefits on the previous page.
• Define the scope of the program. Will your teleworking program be a full-scale program at the start or will it begin as a small-scale pilot program? If you anticipate a high degree of management resistance, it may be best to start small with a pilot program in one or two departments.
• Establish eligibility criteria. Established guidelines will help alleviate potential tensions between teleworkers and employees who would like to telework, but cannot. These guidelines may include information on which positions may telework, and how the employee can become a teleworker.
• Evaluate your program. The purpose of evaluation is to allow you and your managers to make informed decisions about the program. For example, you can learn about the effectiveness of the program by reviewing participants' productivity and performance records. You can also review cost information, as well as feedback from focus groups and surveys.

Key Elements of a Telework Program
Most telework policies should include many of the following elements:

• Liability Insurance. It's important to review your organizations insurance coverage regarding such liability issues as worker's compensation and coverage of equipment, as well as coverage of a teleworker's home office under homeowner's or renter's insurance.
• Work hours. Putting the expected work hours terms in writing will allow employees at the office to stay in contact, as needed.
  Dependent care. The policy should define expectations regarding caring for dependents on teleworking days.
• Communication. The teleworker and supervisor should develop an effective communication strategy.
• Equipment. What equipment, if any, will be provided by the organization? What about phone lines and long distance service? The policy should define liability, technical support availability, and the procedure for servicing equipment.
• Security. Teleworking may create a need to address additional security and information confidentiality policies.
• Office supplies. How will teleworkers acquire supplies?
• Taxes. A home office is not an automatic tax deduction.
• Safety and Ergonomics. Teleworking creates new work environments, and your organization may want to specify safety standards for them.
• Training. It is important that the teleworker, their supervisor, and other close employees be trained about the program, expectations, and objectives.
• Salary and benefits. The basic terms and conditions of employment usually remain the same, but should be stated clearly.

Fact: Current trends toward teleworking will save approximately 1.5 billion gallons of motor fuel per year through the year 2002. U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Most Commonly Asked Telework Questions
How do I convince managers that they don't have to see their employee sitting behind a desk in order to manage them?

Teleworking works best when managers trust employees and manage by results rather than the time spent at a desk. To manage by results, managers should:

• Review current job tasks and responsibilities.
• Establish measurable outcomes and deliverables.
• Specify who receives or monitors the outcomes and deliverables, and when interim checkpoints and due dates will occur.
• Use language that avoids subjectivity, vagueness and interruption.
• Link outcomes and deliverables to organizational goals.
• Track performance results.
• Schedule ongoing evaluations (in addition to immediate feedback and revise as necessary).

If we let one person telework, won't we have to let everyone do it?
No. Employees must understand that teleworking is a one possible alternative work arrangement, not a benefit.

Also, it's not for everyone. Successful telecommuters must be self-motivated, responsible and results-oriented. They must be able to work independently, be familiar with the requirements of their job, knowledgeable about the organization's procedures, and successful in their current position. Finally, they must be effective communicators, who are adaptable and committed to teleworking.

What jobs are best suited for teleworking?
Job in which:

• Face-to-face interactions can be scheduled on specific days.
• Internal and external clients' needs can be met while teleworking.
• Clear work objectives can be set.
• Productivity would be increased by quiet or uninterrupted time (such as, data entry, planning, editing, reading, research, word processing).

Can the employee baby-sit while working at home?
No. Teleworking is not an opportunity to save money on child care. Employees must continue to arrange for childcare even when working form home.

Flextime

Giving Employees More Flexibility
Allowing employees to adjust their work schedules allows businesses to recruit and retain valuable employees. They also make it possible for employees to completely eliminate commute trips on certain days by compressing their work weeks.

With a compressed work week, the total number of hours an employee works does not change - only they way his or her hours are scheduled is modified. Compressed work weeks reduce the number of days an employee works in a given period. The most typical compressed work schedules are:

• 4/10 work week- Forty hours are worked in four 10-hour days, thus reducing the employee's commute trips by 20 percent.
  9/80 work week- Eighty hours are worked in nine days with the tenth day off, thus reducing the employee's commute trips by 10 percent.
  3/12 work week- Thirty-six hours are worked in three days, which means the employee commutes two fewer days than the typical 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. worker.

By adopting compressed work week schedules that extend the length of the work day, companies are often able to extend customer service and sales force hours. Some manufacturing companies have been able to cut costs by adopting longer days and having less time spent each day on start up and shut down. Companies also report that increasing the number of hours in a work day expands access to expensive equipment and reduces competition for equipment at peak hours. This is especially useful in functions like data entry or production where access to, or use of, equipment in an issue.

Finally, employers generally report a reduction in tardiness and absenteeism for employees on compressed work weeks and flextime. This is attributed to the employees' ability to commute outside of the rush hour and their increased flexibility in scheduling appointments and errands.

State agencies should refer to the Governor's Executive order on Flextime, see http://www.CTR.wa.gov

Fact: During a six-month pilot program, 205 employees worked a compressed work week schedule, which eliminated 238 commute roundtrips each two-week period. Eighty-three percent of participants reported an increase in morale, and 94 percent of their supervisors said they would like to continue the program after the pilot. Commuter Transportation Services, Inc., Transportation Research Record.

How Can the ETC Support Compressed Work Schedules?
Implementing a compressed work schedule program requires careful planning. The following steps represent the process involved in conceptualizing, designing and implementing a program:

• Evaluate your organization. Select schedules that can work best within your organization.
• Identify your objectives. What do you want to get out of a compressed work schedule program? Is it to reduce congestion around your worksite, reduce pollution, provide an employee benefit, extend customer service hours, reduce SOV/VMT to meet CTR requirements or to achieve other goals?
• Get management support. Solicit management support for the schedules of choice.
• Introduce the program. Introduce the proposed schedules to the key decision makers. Some managers may be concerned about the ability to supervise their employees. Be prepared to overcome this and other concerns.
• Organize a steering committee. Develop a steering committee with representatives from each department to enhance development and encourage ownership of the program.
• Promotion. Promote the program through flyers, electronic mail, or your company newsletters. Initiate orientation sessions.
• Form a committee to address concerns and hardships. An appointed panel (which may include a union representative) can hear hardship cases and appeals when an agreement between a supervisor and an employee cannot be reached. Examples of hardships include child or family member care, medical problems, school committees and other circumstances that may require special scheduling arrangements.
• Ridesharing privileges. Employees with established or potential ridesharing arrangements should be given preference in selecting a starting and ending time and selecting a day off.
• Post schedules. Post a schedule of available days off for employees working compressed work weeks. Depending upon the size of your organization and need for coverage, employees may be able to choose their days off. For larger companies and situations of unresolved conflict, a lottery system may be used to determine when each employee will take which day off. Experience has shown that the order of preference for days off is Fridays, Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Tuesdays.
• Monitor the program. Monitor the program(s) and make the necessary adjustments. Measure the results.
• Conduct surveys. This is especially important for large organizations conducting pilot studies. Surveys generally gauge employee attitudes about the program and identify areas of potential conflict so that adjustments can be made. Another form of program monitoring is the use of memos written by the supervisor (or an appointed person), which contain statistics on productivity, absenteeism, overtime and include supervisor perceptions on employee satisfaction with the program.

Rideshare Online
RideshareOnline.com is an instant, self-serve ridematching service. Commuters enter information about their commute origination, destination and schedule, and RideshareOnline searches for a possible carpool, vanpool, cycling or walking partner.

Commuters can also:

• Fill out our Ridematch Application
  Note: We keep your home address confidential. Only with your permission will we give other ridematch clients your phone number or work address. You choose matches that look most suitable and contact those people. We recommend that potential carpoolers meet in a public place to discuss details before actually riding together.
• Call the Rideshare Hotline at 1-888-814-1300,
• Call us at 360-786-8800, or
• E-mail us at vans@intercitytransit.com.