Small-scale
Experiments
The
simplest approach to evaluating eWork is to try
it and see what happens. Experimentation
on a small scale is a good way to get a feel for
whether it will suit your company without making
major investments of time or money. It also
allows different styles of eWork to evolve for
different situations.
Here
are some tips to help you with a small-scale experiment:
-
Those
taking part should be experienced, trusted,
self-disciplined members of staff with good
skills in IT, time management and communication;
- Their
managers should support the trial and should have
adequate IT skills themselves;
- Provide
suitable equipment and training;
- Brief
other staff (and their representatives) about
the trial, to ensure transparency and co-operation;
- Recognise
that, as an employer, you are still responsible
for employee health and safety when the employee
is working outside the office
- Monitor
the process regularly and resolve issues quickly;
- Monitor
costs;
- Ensure
a clear exit mechanism for both employer and employee,
to avoid difficulties if the process breaks down;
- Evaluate
the experiment and decide whether to stop or to
continue with a wider roll-out.
Formal
Pilot Schemes
If
your existing informal arrangements or your small-scale
experiments are successful, you may wish to go
further. But if eWork seems likely to become
an important part of your company's operations,
you should consider introducing a formal pilot
scheme, including:
-
A
feasibility study, examining any existing
eWork in the company (such as informal experiments)
and estimating the costs and benefits that
might arise from wider implementation;
- Seeking
good examples from other businesses. This
guide contains some examples; more information
is available at http://www.ework.ie/studies/casestudies.cfm
;
- Consultation
with managers and employees, employee representatives
and unions, as appropriate, to agree policy;
- Piloting
the process with a small representative group. There
will be more on pilot schemes in Section 3;
- Monitoring
and evaluating the pilot to decide whether a larger
roll-out would be beneficial.
In
Section 3, we'll look in more detail at the process
of introducing eWork. First, in Section 2,
we examine some of the benefits you might expect
to gain.
The
benefits of eWork include:
-
Improved
productivity;
- Reduced
costs;
- Enhanced
customer service;
- Better
use of facilities;
- More
successful staff recruitment and improved staff
retention;
- More
effectively managed change process.
Improving
Productivity
Research
suggests that eWork results in efficiency improvements
of between 10 and 30% (there are no reports of reduced
productivity), arising for the most part from:
Some
eWork jobs have easily measurable productivity -
for example, producing lines of code, or handling
telephone calls. In other jobs the improvements
may be in contact time with customers, schedule
performance or task management.
But
even where there are simple productivity measurements
available, quality may be as important to your business
as quantity.
