Mahlon Apgar, IV

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 <h4 class="ideainbrief-title">The Idea in Brief</h4>
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 Could your organization benefit from the alternative workplace—where employees work off-site, primarily from home?
 AT&amp;T, IBM, and even the U.S. Army are saving a bundle in real-estate and infrastructure costs by having workers work from home—even with the added cost of providing these employees computers, software, tech support, etc. Productivity gains are another compelling benefit: in a study of one well-managed office, conversation and other office norms distracted people from work an average 70 minutes in an eight-hour day. Less tangible results, such as increased employee satisfaction that translates to improved attitudes toward customer service, are just as important. Yet, the alternative workplace is not suitable for every company or every job. Like many other business management trends, this one requires careful application.
 The Idea in Practice
 Notable cost savings from alternative-workplace arrangements lead some business decision makers to think that these arrangements are the wave of the future. Others cling to the notion that a company office is still the most productive place to work—water cooler and all. Some managers argue that alternative workplaces hurt employee cohesion, while others say “just give ‘em a laptop and a cell phone, and they’ll be fine.”
 How can you sort through the myths and misconceptions to determine if the alternative workplace is right for your organization? Ask yourself these seven questions:
 1. Are you committed to new ways of operating? For example, rewarding for results brought in from the alternative workplace rather than effort made in the office?
 2. Is your organization industrial or informational? If your structure and systems are designed for face-to-face interaction, the potential for alternative workplaces may be limited.
 3. Do you have an open culture and proactive managers? The effort won’t succeed unless managers are enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and ready to leave tradition behind.
 4. Can you establish clear links between staff, functions, and time? What function does the job serve? How is the work performed? Thinking through these issues will help identify jobs that can be filled via alternative workplaces.
 5. Are you prepared for “push-back”? Some managers get uneasy when their direct reports are no longer in close physical proximity.
 6. Can you overcome external barriers? Have you determined, for example, whether most employees have the room at home to set up a workspace?
 7. Are you willing to invest in the tools and training needed to make the alternative workplace succeed?
 If your answers favor the alternative workplace, launch a simple pilot project and then phase in more people over time, tailoring the program with employee feedback as you go. Start with sales, project engineering, and other areas where employees are largely self-directed. Divide the pilot group into the office-bound, travel-driven, and independent—then think through the logistics of how they’ll work with each other after some of them have started working at home. Give careful thought to what you’ll do to ensure that remote employees still feel “in the loop.”
 Finally, see to it that managers are given guidance in monitoring remote employees, that employees know what results they’re expected to achieve, and that other stakeholders such as customers are fully informed.
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</article-ideainbrief>On September 20, 1994, some 32,000 AT&amp;T employees stayed home. They weren’t sick or on strike. They were telecommuting. Employees ranging from the CEO to phone operators were part of an experiment that involved 100,000 people. It’s purpose? To explore how far a vast organization could go in transforming the workplace by moving the work to the worker instead of the worker to work.

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The Alternative Workplace:&nbsp;Changing Where and How People Work

From sharing desks to telecommuting, more employees than ever before are working in nontraditional ways, and organizations are beginning to reap the benefits.

The Alternative Workplace: Changing Where and How People Work

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