If you’ve ever wondered how to make the first step towards self-employment, perhaps you should consider telecommuting. Telecommuting with a current employer is a good choice for those who eventually want to venture off on their own. It gets a person acclimated to the work-at-home landscape and frees up more time to focus on self-employment endeavors.
The dilemma, however, is whether or not your employer will let you work from home. There seems to be hope though. These days, more and more companies are allowing employees to telecommute at least part-time, with the number doubling to 66% since 2005.
But if you still doubt whether or not your employer will let you follow suit with the rest of the population, you need to create a plan of action to persuade him or her that it’s the best option for the company, and for you. Here’s what steps you need to take to do just that.
Make Note of Case Studies and Statistics
If there’s any chance your employer will let you telecommute, it will be because you’ll either convince them that other successful companies are doing the same thing, or you’ll sell them on how the situation will benefit the company.
Luckily, other successful companies do offer great telecommuting options for employers. Check out this list for 10 of the major companies that do. Make sure to share the list with your employer. Other great tools to share with promising statistics are the 2012 National Study of Employers and the Telework Research Network’s Workshifting Benefits study.
Emphasize the Employer Benefits
Your employer is going to want to know how your suggestion will benefit his or her bottom line. Fortunately, the employer benefits to telecommuting are plentiful. Here are some major benefits to share.
- Cost savings. The cost savings are enormous for employers who let employees work from home at least part-time. They’ll need less office space, experience decreased energy consumption and have less operating expenses. According to the Telework Research Network, Sun Microsystems saves $96 million on real estate, electricity and IT by letting 19,000 workers telecommute and the U.S. Patent Office saves $11 million a year by letting some of its workers telecommute.
- Efficiency. Employers experience greater efficiency by letting employees telecommute. Not only does telecommuting give employers more talent to choose from, in 2011, Stanford University found that employees who work at home are more productive and happier and more likely to work longer. There are fewer turnovers and more work gets done. In addition, employees are less likely to take as many sick or personal days.
Explain Why You Want to Work From Home
After proving to your employer through case studies and statistics that many successful companies offer telecommuting, you’ll need to identify and communicate why you personally want to work at home (and no, this doesn’t include sharing with your employer your dreams of eventual self-employment – don’t do that!).
Common reasons for wanting to work at home are strenuous commutes, cost savings, family constraints, work efficiency and work/life balance. It’s important to let your employer know what’s driving you to want to work from home and make a case for it being the best solution to the issues you’re facing (and how it will ultimately benefit the employer).
Create a Plan of Action
To make your employer even consider telecommuting as an option; make it easy on them by providing them with a plan of action. Think of your job and all that it entails, and do some research to determine what you would need to be successful at working from home. Here are some great tools.
- VPN (Virtual Private Network) technologies make accessing company networks possible from remote locations and many can be downloaded free from the internet.
- Google Docs lets you create, share and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and forms from anywhere you have access to the web.
- Microsoft Office 365 is a cloud-based productivity platform that allows you to access and edit your files, share documents, communicate via audio, video and instant messenger and much more from almost any location.
- Box.net is an online file sharing platform that lets you access, manage and share files from anywhere.
- GoToMeeting is a conferencing platform. With it, you can partake in online meetings, host webinars and even participate in training remotely.
- Wrike is a virtual project management software.
- Skype, known for its video conference capabilities, also allows users to instant message, screen share, call anywhere for free and much more.
Be Prepared To Negotiate
Are you willing to forfeit personal time, take a pay cut, work longer hours or agree to be available at any time if your employer doesn’t immediately jump on the telecommute bandwagon? You might have to.
According to one recent study, many people are willing to sacrifice other perks in order to take part in telecommuting. So if your boss seems tentative to make the adjustment, consider putting some of your other perks up for negotiation.
Suggest a Trial Period
Your employer might be more eager to toss the ball in your court if you suggest partaking in a trial period. Make sure he or she knows how serious you are and that you’re willing to prove it that the benefits will outweigh the drawbacks. Then, if you do have the opportunity to test the waters, do your best to make the experience a seamless one for your employer. Testing the waters could be just working from home one or two days a week and see how that goes. That is better than driving into work five days a week.
What to Do If the Boss Still Refuses
If you’ve made the case for telecommuting and your employer still doesn’t see eye-to-eye with you, it might be worth it to consider seeking out alternative telecommuting options with other employers.
Especially if your ultimate goal is to work for yourself, you need to devote extra time to planning for the venture which will be difficult to do if you’re suffering from strenuous commutes, workload inundation and lack of spare time. Telecommuting full-time or part-time will give you the necessary stability and flexibility that will make it easier to take control of your future and work towards being your own boss.
