"Who else in my industry is using telecommuting?" Who Cares! Copyright (c) 1999, Gil Gordon Associates. May be reproduced or distributed for informational purposes but may not be republished without prior permission. There isn't a month that goes by without my getting a few calls or email messages from someone looking for information on the use of telecommuting by other employers in their industry. Here's a typical inquiry: "We're starting to consider telecommuting, and we're looking for the names of other (fill in the blank: hospitals, retail stores, engineering firms, government agencies, small companies, large companies, purchasing departments, and so on) that have implemented telecommuting so we can learn from them. Can you help us?" For some reason, the volume of these inquiries has increased noticeably this year. I guess that's a good sign because it means more employers are getting serious about telecommuting. But these inquiries represent the same problem that prompted me to write an article in the October 1995 issue of the (former print) edition of TELECOMMUTING REVIEW. Here's an excerpt from it: ***** THE FUTILE SEARCH FOR QUESTIONABLE ANSWERS SUMMARY: More interest in telecommuting today is resulting in a steady stream of employers trying to benchmark other employers' programs - often with a degree of specificity that has little or no value. The role and value of benchmarking in this context is examined here, and observations are made about the apparent (and frustrating) lack of cumulative learning. Several recent events have caused me to seriously question why we are making so little progress in telecommuting at a time when there is so much progress that can and should be made. As you will see, I'll argue that the problem may not be specific to telecommuting - it's just that it's most apparent to me in this context. Here's what I've noticed recently: 1. LOOKING FOR THE PERFECT EXAMPLE: A recent call from someone in the transportation-management office of a medium-sized city government was typical of what I've been hearing lately. "We're moving ahead with a telecommuting pilot in our city," she said, "and one of the groups that's interested in participating is the utilities department. They asked me to find out what other municipal utilities departments around the country have used telecommuting, and what the results were - can you help me?" A municipal utilities department is typically responsible for the city's water and sewer services, and is comprised of engineers, budget analysts, construction and repair crews, and other related functions. With the exception of the employees who are out digging up the streets or repairing water pipes, the rest of the employees are office workers who are typical of other government employees, and of office workers in general. They are knowledge workers - they use the phone and PCs, they have meetings, they write reports, they analyze budgets, and so on. As far as I can tell, there's nothing that makes these jobs particularly unique; I don't mean the work is mundane or unimportant, but the fact is they are office workers doing typical office work. Why, then, is it so important for the head of this department to find out about other utilities departments' use of telecommuting? Let's answer this by looking at other examples of decision-making and the role of recommendations. Consider what we do when looking for a book to read, movie to see, or restaurant to visit; some people rely on reviewers (the supposed experts) to help make their choice, others listen to friends, and others just act on their own instincts. The more risk-averse we are, the more external sources of validation we seek before making our own decision - and the more similar we want those sources to be to ourselves. The manager who looks for a situation that's exactly similar may be feeling that telecommuting represents a very big risk - but doesn't want to say so. Instead, what comes out is, "My situation is so unique that I won't believe telecommuting works unless it works in exactly this kind of department." After seeing and reading about hundreds of telecommuting implementations, I can tell you that there's much less uniqueness than managers would like to (or have been convinced to) believe. In fact, I'd argue there are only three major differences that are worthy of specific benchmarking: - Are the employees unionized, and will you have to implement telecommuting as a negotiated work practice? - Does the organization's culture reward and encourage close, direct supervision? - Is there unique technology in use that is not likely to be used in general office settings? If I'm a department manager looking for reassurance that telecommuting works, I should be more concerned about these three issues than about finding another department that does the same work I do. The fact that five other municipal utilities departments do - or don't - use telecommuting is almost irrelevant. If they use it, it's probably because it makes sense to do so; if they don't use it, it's probably because they haven't thought about it or have ruled it out for the wrong reasons. This proves, once again, the truth in what I've been saying about telecommuting since 1982: almost nobody wants to be first to use it, but almost everybody wants to be first to be second to use it. ***** I don't want to go on record as saying that all benchmarking is bad - but I do think a lot of it is, for several reasons: 1. THE BLIND LEADING THE BLINDER - Just because one organization has done something before another, that doesn't necessarily mean that the first one did it correctly. Being early doesn't mean being right. To the extent that the early adopters have their practices copied by others, we end up perpetuating mediocrity if we're not careful. 2. A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY - The purpose of benchmarking is to reduce the risk, speed up the time to implement, and avoid the need to reinvent - all good objectives. But if the followers are not discriminating in what they choose to copy, they may do an excellent job implementing the wrong program or project. 3. AN INCOMPLETE PICTURE - I don't want to accuse anyone of anything, but it has always seemed naive to me to believe that a leading company will willingly and openly share all the details of a successful program - especially if the program offers financial or competitive advantage. My grandmother was an excellent baker and her daughters-in-law always wanted her recipes so they could bake for their husbands - who grew up eating their mother's baking. For some reason, the finished product that came out of the daughters-in-law's ovens wasn't quite the same as what Grandma produced.... Before you spend hours or days trying to collect benchmarking information from a precisely matched organization or department, ask yourself what you expect to learn and whether it's worth the time and trouble. There simply are not that many differences in how well-planned and well-managed telecommuting programs are used from company to company or functional area to functional area. If you choose to benchmark, do so with realistic expectations about what you think you can learn and how you think you can use that information.