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Selling the CEO on Telecommuting

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Small, non-profit firm finally has the technology to facilitate wide-spread telecommuting. Now I have to sell the CEO on the idea, and deal with the cultural issues inherent in such a move. Can anyone point me towards help?

Thanks/LMS

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Corporate Culture Reader

In reply to Selling the CEO on Telecommuting

I recently read a book called “Clicks and Mortar, Passion Driven Growth in an Internet Driven World.” It has an excellent section about corporate culture. It was written by Dave Pottruck, co-CEO of Charles Schwab Corp., and Terry Pearce, professor at UC Berkley. You should be able to get it through any local library, or buy it from the net.

6 years and going strong

In reply to Corporate Culture Reader

I’ve been telecommuting full time for a fortune 100 company for 6 years and am spoiled rotten. Don’t know if I ever want to go back into an office environment. Keys to success: 1. Can’t be a social butterfly, (i.e. no office parties, lunches, etc.) 2. Require excellent telephone skills. 3. Must be a self starter and goal oriented. 4. Have a “real” office. 5. Have a full time office phone line (separate from your pc line and home line). 6. And if you still have small kids at home, must have daycare. Selling points to management: 1. If you have a job which requires after hours work, such as being a system admin, you will have all of your reference materials at hand 24 hours per day. So you can handle emergencies and late night issues easily. 2. They will definitely get more than 40 hours of work from you. That is typical and documented in various books on the subject. 3. They no longer need to pay for an office for you. 4. It’s quiet and there is none of the co-workers stopping by for those 15 minute chit-chats. 5. Meetings can be handled by conference calls, so even those traveling away from the office on business may participate (that’s a real culture change in small companies, so might be hard to get).
When I first posed the question to my manager, she said she didn’t care where I worked as long as the work got done. The reason I am still able to continue is because the work gets done and gets done well. If I had been a poor worker, I probably would have been back in the office a long time ago. If you still get resistance, start out small. My very first experience was staying at home in the morning til I put my daughter on the school bus. I worked from 7am to 8:30am, checking the health of my systems, then went to the office for the rest of the day.

Good luck! I hope you get it.

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