A global survey published in 2019 indicated that 99 percent of the respondents would like to work remotely at least some of the time and 95 percent of the respondents indicated that they encourage others to work remotely.86 In another survey published the same year, 47 percent of respondents indicated that a remote work policy is important to them when looking for a new job. Also, 40 percent indicated they would consider a pay cut for a job that allows them to work from anywhere. Appen, Dell, Appiro, Cisco, Salesforce, ConsenSys, GitHub, Lenovo, Ultimate Software, and Rackspace are among the top tech companies hiring remote workers. The job titles for telecommuters include search engine evaluator, voice data collector, digital project lead, software engineer, and AR/VR solutions architect. Working from home offers some clear advantages for both employees and employers. It also offers some disadvantages, such as lack of control and monitoring; however, this is changing. Using computer-monitoring software, employers are now able to check if employees are working or slacking off. One such software application is InterGuard (Awareness Technologies).

To make telecommuting more productive, some employers set targets for each employee to accomplish in a given period. Other employers review summaries of different Web sites that employees have visited and the amount of time that employees have spent on various Web sites. Some other employers track projects and schedule meetings on shared calendars in order to monitor their employees. Still other employers require “virtual face time” via e-mail, instant messaging, video chat, or calls.

Answer the following questions in a Microsoft® Word document and save the file on your computer with your last name in the file. (Example: module_04_case1_Jones.doc)

1. Is a telecommuting policy a benefit that is essential to attracting top employees to a company? Why or why not?
2. What types of job functions are suitable for telecommuters?
3. What are some methods that employers use to monitor their employees?
4. What is an example of a software tool that is used for employee monitoring? What are the benefits and drawbacks of using employee monitoring software?