Page 138 - Retaining Top Employees

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126 Retaining Top Employees

telecommuting as a hiring
Ask Your
model, it’s imperative to
Professional Advisor
Much of the concept of establish clear reporting
telecommuting was developed in pro- and administrative proce-
fessional firms,such as attorneys and dures so that your
accountants.They pioneered the con- employees don’t feel “cast
cept of hot-desking,then found that adrift” from the organiza-
telecommuting was a natural next step
tion. Telecommuters must
and an ideal hiring model for many of
be involved as much as
their employees. If you’re thinking of possible in the day-to-day
using the telecommuting hiring model,
ebb and flow of corporate
speak to your professional advisors:
they may be using that model already interaction.
and be able to advise you. Job Sharing. Developed
particularly in response to
the dramatic rise in the number of single parents in the work-
place, job sharing allows two or more people to share a single
job by working at different times and/or on separate days. Job-
sharing employees may also be telecommuting. Job sharing
works well for jobs where:
• There’s no strong need for continuity of individual inter-
action with customers or other third parties. For exam-
ple, job sharing will work well in a call center, where
customers calling do not expect to deal with the same
employee each time. It will work less well in key
account selling, where each customer needs to deal with
the same employee.
• The degree of internal team interaction is low. Where other
employees are involved, keeping each of the job-sharing
employees “up to speed” on developments can become
frustrating. For example, buying advertising for an organi-
zation is ideal for job sharing, as it’s a discrete task that
can be completed alone. On the other hand, brainstorm-
ing over three or four sessions with the advertising team
on a new campaign is less suitable for job sharing,
because shifting from one employee to another between
sessions disrupts the continuity.