On a hot Auckland day in February, a forced experiment in teleworking arrived for Beca Consultants. As power supplies dwindled, teleworking for many Auckland central business district employees became not just a possible alternative for tomorrow's world, but an immediate solution for today's power starved office. Workers packed their office equipment and headed for remote sites. Others simply brought work home, found a quiet space, and set to work.

Teleworking (also known as telecommuting if you live in California) is a general term for work carried out at a location other than the normal workplace, but while connected in some way. It could include working at home and faxing back and forth, a reporter calling in a story over the phone, or a traveller accessing a network by a computer and modem for email or files.

The term was coined at the time of the early 80s oil shocks and was accompanied by hyperbolic predictions of growth. Predictions have been modified downwards with every new study, of which there have been many.

We address here a subset of teleworkers, being consulting engineering staff who use computers to work from a remote location, by communicating with the office network. Parallels could be made to other professional organisations. A factor which facilitates teleworking for engineers is a relatively high level of computer literacy. Staff feel comfortable teleworking, if the need or opportunity arises.

Notebook computers offer the greatest flexibility to allow telework, as even their use, unconnected to the network, constitutes teleworking of a kind.

Work shared by associate companies over Wide Area Network (WAN) connections are not considered true teleworking. Beca is implementing a virtual server using Novell 4.11 for their offices around New Zealand, whereby the physical location of their project files becomes irrelevant to the engineer. This type of work, where teams of engineers work at different physical locations on the same project, is a form of telework, but is more correctly addressed under groupware and collaborative software discussions. Requirements The home requirements for teleworking are not great. For those already with a Pentium level PC and enough hard drive space left after the kids have loaded their games, the main addition is a modem, and office compatible software. Also highly desirable for engineering is a fax machine for transmission of sketches, diagrams, and other documents not in a software format. For these, a PC fax even with a scanner, is at best, cumbersome.

The hardware and software infrastructure of the company must also be considered. A computer network capable of accepting concurrent connections is required. Connections can usually be increased and are relatively inexpensive with the only practical limit being the number of modems required. The Beca experience At present, there are few full-time, off-site teleworkers. There are, however, a more significant number of staff spending a portion of their time teleworking. This includes work out of hours, travelling in New Zealand and overseas. The writer estimates there are between 40 and 50 people, nation-wide, out of around 750 New Zealand based staff.

A straw poll was taken of current users within Beca. The survey found their needs were relatively simple and were being met by the system. They mostly need to connect to pick up and send email, and occasionally transfer files.

Presently under trial is the capability for staff at remote overseas sites to communicate with their families over the internet using PC based video conferencing. This low cost technology will also increase the ability to communicate effectively with the office from remote locations. The present limitations on internet bandwidth which result in updates of less than six frames per second are expected to be economically overcome in the near future. A private satellite dish linking to the internet can already be purchased for $500 providing transfer rates up to 500 kbps (compared to 56 kbps on a standard phone line). Internet connections via power lines are also just around the corner. Software development Beca provides software services for simulation, modelling and control systems integration. For these systems development staff, the writing of software at home has become more common, and this activity lends itself to teleworking. Dramatic increases in productivity of over 30 percent have been achieved.

There is also an increase in the number of CAD staff producing drawings from their home systems. Transfer of files is preferably by direct connection to the network. The alternative of email file attachments offers less flexibility in that it still requires an office resident person to package up the drawing files to be sent, and also to place files in the correct project directories when returned. Experience has shown the ability to connect directly to the network is almost essential to maintain tight formal tracking of drawing revisions.

Accounting staff have also worked from home, with full links back to the network and the central MIS system. The results of this group have been favourable.

It is clear the most successful examples of teleworking at Beca have been of those involved in relatively fixed processes. These have included the accounts staff and CAD operators. Also successful are the software engineers working on independent projects.

Less success has been experienced with some senior staff. The design process demands daily contact between the project manager and each member of the design team for technical support, observation of their progress, and encouragement. For the long distance teleworking manager, there are difficulties maintaining this level of contact, with a loss of "bonding", visibility, and being a member of the team. Maintaining relationships with colleagues also suffers. Our conclusion is that for more senior staff working with a team, longer distance teleworking is not practical.

Another point to note is that by its very nature, "consulting" implies client contact and communication. It is essential that this be maintained.

There are many claims to support teleworking, but are they valid? Flexibility has been discussed. Let's examine the other two main claims in the New Zealand engineering office context. Increased productivity Most published articles report improvement in productivity of between 15 to 30 percent and this also appears true in the engineering environment. This improvement, however, is achieved largely because of fewer disruptions occurring. While some of these disruptions in the office are social, many also occur to clarify points on work being done by others. By not being easily available, there is an increased danger that false assumptions may be made. While these are likely to be picked up later, it can result in rework or lower productivity of the co-worker. Our conclusion is that team based work does not lend itself to teleworking, but activities such as writing reports or software production can result in substantial productivity improvements.

The often touted benefits of lower office costs and overheads for teleworkers are only realised when the teleworker is full time off-site and does not require permanent facilities at the office. If the teleworker is only reducing hours at the office, such as leaving home late to avoid traffic delays or working at home two days a week, then all the office facilities are still required It may in fact increase overheads and communications costs. Where duplicate facilities are required, the total cost is more, whether these costs are met by the company or the individual.

Some professional companies such as Anderson Consulting in the UK have run trials whereby employees are not provided with their own personal office space. A desk is provided if they need to attend the office with a booking system used to allocate desks. For most engineers, this is not considered a practical option due to the volume of personal reference material. A permanent home in the office will remain an essential feature.

There is clear evidence in all studies of teleworking that, while it is growing steadily, it represents only a small percentage of the workforce. By far the majority of employees prefer to work at the office. Worldwide, around five percent of the workforce work remotely.

A management by objectives style which relies on trust that the employee is doing their best and working effectively is required. This results or outcomes oriented approach is normal in the engineering office. A manager relying on over the shoulder or eyeball management techniques will have difficulty accepting teleworking.

Experiences of companies such as HP have also concluded that teleworking is not suitable where work requires a team approach, and was suited better to sole operators. Thus an engineering consultancy should be wary of fully off-site, lone teleworkers, even when that person contributes a stand-alone component or service.

For other situations, it is advantageous to allow staff to make more productive use of their time, by enabling work to be done at non-conventional times and places.

The Auckland power crisis appears to be over, but at least one engineer has been converted. This article is being completed across the bridge in suburbia, before being sent by email to others for their review.