Last updated on September 22, 2021
Teleworking Meaning, Plus its Benefits and Challenges
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, teleworking is defined as “the activity of working at home, while communicating with your office by phone or email, or using the internet”. When teleworking, employees do not have to commute or travel to a central place of work, such as an office building, warehouse, or store. However, teleworking doesn’t necessarily need to be done from home—people may also work from coffee shops, shared co-working spaces and even holiday resorts.
Telecommuting vs Teleworking
What’s the difference between telecommuting and teleworking?
Telecommuting: An arrangement whereby employees substitute telecommunication for work-related travel. Employees do not commute to a central place of work.
Teleworking: A broader term for telecommuting, which means working from a location outside an employer’s brick-and-mortar office and instead of using telecommunications to access work resources.
Both the terms essentially mean the same thing and are often used interchangeably.
The terms were concocted by Jack Niles back in 1973. Teleworking started becoming mainstream back in the ’70s when employees used dumb terminals with telephone lines and satellite links. With more and more computers being used from home, the 80s saw workers connect to company mainframe computers from the comfort of their homes.
By the 90s, with the introduction of Internet Service Providers (ISPs), the trend gained momentum since the internet became available to wider portions of the population. As of this day and time, working from home or from anywhere around the world has become extremely common with the advent of cloud computing and the ease of Wi-Fi availability.
Teleworking Benefits
There are numerous benefits when it comes to teleworking. Here are a few:
Autonomy
Employee autonomy is one of the most obvious benefits of teleworking. Teleworking gives employees the ability to balance their professional and personal lives, set up their office wherever they want, and use any device.
Save travel costs and time
Teleworking means little or no commute, saving costs associated with travel. In addition, any time spent traveling is invested in work, meaning an 8-hour shift is limited to 8 hours and does not extend to 9-10 hours due to long-distance travel or traffic.
Increased productivity
Since teleworking gives employees more time and flexibility to work from a space that they prefer, employee productivity improves. Being able to attend to personal and family matters on the spot is likely to resolve issues that might affect the work quality/productivity of an employee.
Reduced infrastructure costs
When employees work from home with their own setup and devices, the need to procure equipment such as laptops and computers is reduced for the company.
More opportunities for people with disabilities
Teleworking reduces commute time, making it easier for people with disabilities. In addition, personalized custom home equipment can be used for work, saving time and cost for both the employer and the employee.
Attracts better talent
The flexibility that teleworking offers often attracts better talent. Younger generations also prefer a flexible work setup, and some companies prefer to hire younger people and nurture them on the go.
Challenges with Adopting Teleworking
While the benefits of teleworking are many, they are difficult to adopt all at once and that often poses a challenge.
Implementing employee devices with existing company infrastructure
Companies have a certain set of existing applications that they require their employees to use. However, not all employees use the required operating system.
For instance, most companies rely on Microsoft applications but not all employees own Windows computers. Companies need to invest in a solution that can deliver essential applications to end-users despite the kind of device and operating system they use.
Scaling up employees effectively
Another challenge that companies face when employing remote staff is setting everything up. Often it becomes exceedingly difficult to set everything up for remote employees and this problem increases uptime, reducing efficacy.
Security of company assets
Teleworking can happen from anywhere at any time. That means that company assets are spread across different territories, often across countries. Because of this, security can be a big concern if employees use Wi-Fi in public places or store sensitive information on personal desktops that are not well guarded.
How Parallel RAS Can Help Enable Teleworking in Your Organization
Parallels® Remote Application Server (RAS) is a remote working solution that seamlessly delivers Windows applications and desktops to any device and operating system. This flexibility and the ability to manage virtual machine (VM) templates allow for easy, instant provisioning of applications and desktops to end-users. Parallels RAS also enables administrators to monitor each layer and provides connection details, application usage, and time of usage for teleworkers.
Parallels RAS helps save time and costs by scaling up employees with ease. Since application delivery and desktop delivery are automated, new teleworking employees can become a part of the company infrastructure quickly.
Since Parallels RAS uses virtualization technology to deliver applications and desktops, all data remains in a central server. Parallels RAS also authenticates employees using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection, multifactor authentication (MFA), and privilege-based user access.
Being secure, simple, and centrally managed, Parallels RAS offers high-quality service, assisting your IT staff, and reducing expenses. In addition, the Parallels Client provides a native-like experience on any device, providing a satisfying user experience to all your users, customers and staff.
