OC CIO Roundtable Minutes 4-09-09

Southern California/Orange County CIO Breakfast Round Table
April 9, 2009 meeting

Present: Paul Gray, Jeff Hecht, Carmella Cassetta, Jennifer Curlee, Jesus Unzueta, Sean Brown, Chris Andreozzi, Mitch Morris, David Mann, Dave Phillips

The revised schedule of topics and speakers (through September, 2009) is listed in Attachment A. Check to see if and when you are presenting the introduction.

Due to an injury, Paul Gray made his presentation over the speakerphone from home, with Sean Brown operating his slide projector.

The minutes of this and prior breakfasts are available online at the Peer Consulting Group’s website, www.peergroup.net, with links to the presentation material, when available.

Topic: Telecommuting – techniques, practices, and policies

In introducing the voice of Paul Gray to the group, I mentioned that Paul had presented this topic to the OC CIO Round Table in December 1995, and it has been a topic that has been revisited a few times since then, both here and in the Bay Area CIO Round Table. Paul mentioned that he co-authored his first book on the subject in late 1974, with Jack Nilles, and he still uses Nilles’ definitions:
Telecommuting - moving the work to the workers, not the workers to the work, more than 1 day per week. Early attempts included relocating the work place to satellite offices close to home. (Teleworking - any form of substitution of IT for work related travel)
Over the last 35 years it has been a mixed bag. It can improve worker productivity (American Express, British Telecom, IBM, concierge at Hyatt-Regency, Santa Clara). Workers are more amenable to overtime. It saves companies money ($5,000 per employee), reduces absenteeism, and reduces traffic congestion. Helps the environment, and is an incentive to attract and retain workers. It does require careful planning from management and cooperation from all employees, because teleworkers need a desk/office when they do come in to the office (hoteling) at least 1 to 2 days a week. Telecommuting is not for everybody – some people need the discipline of coming in to the office every day. You still have to manage the remote workers and establish productivity metrics, and there are set-up costs involved (equipment, supplies), and safety concerns (Dell sends out a 2 man team to set-up properly to begin with). There are teleworker challenges – how to not become invisible, to maintain a high enough profile, to not work 24 hours a day, to still learn about promotions and interesting project opportunities. A Steelcase survey of 700 workers found that of the 46% allowed to commute, only 32% do. The technology has improved and it is getting much easier. Paul ended by listing the 10 rules for a company considering telecommuting option:
- make sure that the $ savings calculation is sound (Paul included a Savings calculator in his handout – see attached)
- get HR involved
- insist on a separate home office and provide help line support
- provide a dedicated land line
- cover the teleworker home office costs
- pilot telecommuting with strong workers, not marginal employees
- involve workers in meetings, even if they have to come in to the office
- remote employees are NOT available at all hours
- conduct casual conversations with all employees, remote or local
- consider them for plum assignments, make them 1st class citizens

We asked each of the members present if they supported telecommuting.
Paul's slides are at: http://www.slideshare.net/occio

Jeff Hecht, Word & Brown, said that they do not formally support telecommuting, but still have a few that do in IT. They do not have many of the more formalized support procedures. There is a lot of resistance from management because of the productivity issue, data security, and personal liability issues. He worries about how employees get to learn management skills if you don’t see them in action. They do use offshore resources for development projects.

Chris Andreozzi, Knowledge Centrix, said that he is worried about the safety liability issues. They recently implemented the Cisco Home Office product for a company, and it’s expensive ($25,000 per home office, plus backend infrastructure). He used to telecommute to Houston, spending 2 weeks per month on the road. Now he owns a company, and sets the rules. Sales people can telecommute; engineers work in the office. Key is the character of the individual, and the availability of good metrics. He is worried about the loss of synergy, but there are big savings from hoteling.

Carmella Cassetta, Corinthian Colleges, said that they do it informally. Some of the executives are very passionate about not working at home. They are starting to do it more formally, especially as they need the space. They treat it as a perk, and only pay part of the costs (not the Internet). They do support distance learning.

Jennifer Curlee, Surefire, said that there is a bias against telecommuting in a manufacturing environment. They do need to build the infrastructure to support it, as they have 6 facilities within 2 miles. She has her office in the same building as the other executives, and they do support some aspects of hoteling. Within IT, they do allow trusted employees to telecommute.

Jesus Unzueta, Convera, said that their executives can work wherever they want, and in IT, setting up the infrastructure to support it is expensive. Everyone gets a laptop but they pay for their own Internet connection. It’s important to get HR involved because not every job can be done from home. Business analysts need to be close to their customers and available when needed, depending on which part of the company they are supporting. It’s often up to the individual executive to set the rules.

Sean Brown, RJTCompuquest, said that if you work from home, and have young children, its important to get a baby sitter. Business consulting involves 5-10% face time, and 90-95% solution generation. Strategic discussions need to be face to face, but many of the day-today decisions can be done over the phone. However, in these days of economic uncertainty, it’s important to maintain a good relationship with your boss, and that quite often means face-to-face time.

Mitch Morris, IAPMO, said that he has seen full companies managed remotely – it is totally dependent on the organization’s culture. It also depends on what the individual worker is trying to do. In IT, you do need hands on for some aspects of break fix support. When he is providing consulting support, he tends to work at the client’s office.

David Mann, Word & Brown, agreed with Jeff in saying that management does not support telecommuting, but they do work with offshore resources for development projects, which is starting to change minds. It is because development projects have specific deadlines and deliverables, which can be measured. So most of the work can be done remotely, but the P.M./business consultant has to interact with the client.

Thanks again to Paul Gray for presenting the introduction from home and for the handouts.

See you on May 14, 2009 – 7:00 a.m. in the RJTCompuquest conference room at:
940 South Coast Dr., Suite 260, Costa Mesa, CA 92626.