Canadian HR Reporter

N E W S 8 www.hrreporter.com Is working remotely bad for a person's career? It depends Remote work or telecommuting has been bad-mouthed in the past for leading to fewer promotions and lower salary increases for those who take part. But a recent academic study shows context and stigma are important considerations, finds John Dujay WHILE there's been much debate as to how remote work can impact an employee's career, a recent study suggests any negative effects are contextual and not fully appreciated. The researchers first compared the career success of telecommuters and non-telecommuters using a sample of 405 U.S. employees matched with corporate data on promotion and salary growth. They found the two groups did not differ when it came to the number telecommutes — it washes away the impact or any negative impact of telecommuting," says Golden. "Promotions are compe titively awarded: A manager may compare a telecommuter to other people in the organization or in the work unit and, so, if you're one out of 10 people that telecommute, you're going to stick out more," he says. "But if there's a larger percentage of your work unit that telecommute, then telecommuting may not have any detrimental effect." W h e n i t c o m e s t o m a n a ge r s considering promotions, face time can be invaluable, according to a recruiting specialist. "You have to be very thoughtful in that you still are able to put yourself forward and have some of that face-to-face contact with management within your organization so that you are still top of mind," says Evangeline Berube, branch manager and vice president for Edmonton at Robert Half. "And that you're still able to build that rapport and build those relationships internally because when people get promoted, it's not all about whether you can do the technical part of the job. A lot of promotions given out; however, remote workers did experience lower salary growth. "What was really unique was that we matched employee responses about how they're doing in a telecommuting environment with corporate data in terms of actual promotions and salary growth over time," says co-author Timothy Golden, professor at the Lally School of Management at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y. "In effect, telecommuting did not hurt promotions." Face time important The researchers behind the study "Is there a price telecommuters pay? Examining the relationship between telecommuting and objective career success" in ScienceDirect also found the extent of telecommuting was negatively related to promotions and salary growth, indicating it is not necessarily the remote work that affects career success but rather the extent of the telecommuting. However, extensive telecommuters with higher supplemental work and higher face-to-face contact with their supervisor receive greater salary growth. And work context plays a highly influential role. "In fact, when people work in organizations where it's more normative — in other words, where a larger percentage of their work unit of it's also about your ability to work with people and work with teams." To establish the connection, managers should be creating virtual office hours, says Claire Sookman, author and trainer at Virtual Team Builders (VTB) in Toronto. "It can be twice a week at 12 p.m. eastern standard time: 'My virtual door is open, come in, you could talk to me about personal issues or professional issues,'" she says. "It's so important now that we stay connected." Stigmas persist Despite its popularity in some workplaces, there "does seem to be some stigma associated with telecommuting and that has to do with these thoughts or associations — maybe we' ll call it a stigma — that people who work from home might not be as dedicated to their job," says Golden. "Oftentimes, managers think if somebody wants to telecommute, they're doing it for perhaps family- based reasons. There's this stigma that says, 'Hey, if somebody wants to telecommute, maybe they're not one of my star employees' and therefore that might come into play when somebody "When people work in organizations where it's more normative, it washes away any negative impact." Timothy Golden, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute TELECOMMUTING BENEFITS CANADIAN EMPLOYERS, EMPLOYEES Source: University of Guelph, Telus, Conference Board of Canada $12,000 Amount employees can save per year by telecommuting three days per week 53% to 85% Increase in employee engagement when introducing flexible arrangements 86% Percentage of employers that have at least one form of flexible work

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