There’s a shift occurring in what defines a workplace and it’s clashing with traditional ways of working.  Most workplaces are still several years out from widespread adoption of flexibility in the workplace.  The speed of the shift will be driven by how fast we can change the mindset of the traditionalists.

Telecommuting, or telework, is not all-or-nothing.  Telecommuting can be as infrequent as needing to work from home on occasion while waiting for the refrigerator repair person, or mostly full-time like me, or anywhere in between.  While many companies accept the occasional work from home, far fewer embrace the full time teleworker.  Why?  Too many myths about telework, and not realizing that it doesn’t work for everyone.

The truth about telecommuters

Most of the articles about the pitfalls and perils of telework are not written by people who telecommute.  How can you tell?  Easy.  They provoke fear and doubt about whether telework can actually work.  They talk about how teleworkers could get distracted by bright, shiny objects at home.  They don’t show a clear understanding of how global and virtual the world of work is becoming.  And they don’t recognize the mutual benefits to employees and companies.

The truth is, telework works.  Here’s what highly effective teleworkers do:

• We don’t lose time commuting.  More often than not, we give that saved time back to the company by working instead of commuting.
• We don’t have any more distractions than the office – the distractions are just different. 
• We’re skilled at eliminating distractions.  The best teleworkers have separate, dedicated workspace where we can shutout interruptions and anything that could be distracting.  We have child care so we’re not trying to work and take care of kids.
• We have the technology and we know how to use it.  Conference call lines, headsets, phones, laptops, VPN, and webcams for those companies that rely on face-to-face rather than voice-to-voice.
• We get to know our colleagues, just differently.  We share pictures and small talk just like everyone else.
• Our problem isn’t motivating ourselves to work, it’s allowing ourselves to step away from work.  With your work always close-by, it takes effort to call it a day.
• We don’t spend our days watching TV, talking to friends on the phone and doing household chores (just one look at my piles of laundry will prove it!)  We often eat at our desk.  We’re not sitting around in our PJs, but we wear whatever puts us in the right frame of mind (for me, it’s jeans every day I’m in my home office, or business attire when I’m at the office or anywhere representing my company).  By not stressing about how to dress for success, we can focus on getting good results.

Telecommuting is a skill and a competitive advantage.  With the world of work become more global all the time, it’s a critical skill to know how to work effectively with people who aren’t in the same physical place as you.

The folks over at Inc. magazine have just announced they’ll be experimenting with telecommuting for a month.  That may be too short to become skilled at it, but it’s a good effort and it’ll be interesting to follow and see how it goes for them.

What’s your experience with telecommuting?  Has it worked for you?

Follow me on Twitter: @StephKinHR

If you’ve seen the TV show Man vs Wild on the Discovery Channel, you’ve seen Bear Grylls, a former British special-forces-Everest summitter-turned-survival guide extraordinaire.  He shows how to survive in the wild in all kinds of amazing places using only minimum tools and resources.  Even better, as this season’s ad say, he shows you “not only how to survive, but how to be alive”.

This got me thinking – what if Bear’s next assignment was to survive and thrive as a working parent in a corporate world?   What are the few tools and tips he’d need to make it through the workweek in one piece?

First priority: Food – feeding the family is often the main challenge for the working parent.  You get home from a long day at work, kids are hungry, have to feed them.   The tools Bear Grylls should take with him into the wild of the family meal?

1.  The 4-6 quart slow cooker / Crockpot – nothing better than getting home from work and dinner is done and ready to serve.  Make enough to have leftovers for lunch the next day and you’ve got two meals all taken care of.
2. Quick-scratch cooking instructions.  Quick-scratch cooking is taking modern convenience food and turning it into something that’s closer to homemade.  The best cookbook for this is “The Dinner Doctor” by Anne Byrn.  Easy, fast, yummy recipes, many of them kid-friendly and worthy of serving to guests.  Also very good, fast and healthy is “The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook”.
3. Meal prep help – two great options here are Schwan’s and your local meal prep kitchen. 

• Schwan’s is a home delivery service in the U.S. of restaurant-quality frozen food.  It’s the same company that makes many of the brands of frozen foods in the supermarket.  The great thing about them is that the Schwan’s truck shows up at your house on a regular basis and you can pre-order if you’re organized (www.schwans.com), or you can order right from the truck.  Better still, a lot of the food can be cooked from frozen so you don’t have to be clairvoyant two days ahead of time about whether you’re able to make dinner or need to order out.
• Local meal prep kitchen.  This is where you go and make or buy several prepared meals to have ready to go at home – favorites have been Main Dish Kitchen and Super Suppers.  Bonus points for turning this into a parent’s/girl’s night out opportunity with other busy parents.  Find your local version at Easy Meal Prep, select Locations.  Mostly U.S., but there are a few other countries listed too.

Second priority: Time – the other resource working parents can’t seem to get enough of is time.  How can Bear create more time as he navigates all the responsibilities working parents juggle?  He’d need:

1. A really good calendar –  More Time Moms has a big calendar called the Family Organizer – it has a lot of writing space and activity stickers.  Put this in a central place (i.e. kitchen) so the whole family can keep track of what’s going on each day, appointments, practices, special events, days off school, etc.
2. Meeting invites – in addition to the family calendar, use your work calendar to track your home commitments.  I block-off the kids’ appointments by setting a meeting and inviting my husband to the meeting – that way we can coordinate who is taking the kid the appointment, kid event, etc, and both of us have it on our integrated work/life calendars in case we need to set aside the evening or shift things around due to work priorities.
3. Microsoft OneNote.  Not enough people seem to know about OneNote – if they did, it’d be as common as email.  Basically works like a computer version of your notepad and a file cabinet, and helps you keep random thoughts organized and in one place, so you don’t waste time looking for things. 
4. Tivo – not just any DVR will do, I’m talking brand-name Tivo for best user interface and best time savings.  If you watch any TV and don’t have a Tivo, you’re wasting time.  Perfect for all stages of parenthood, from midnight feedings, to the kids taking over the tv or just needing attention or having activities during the time your favorite show is on.  Get a Tivo and never worry again about what time something is on.  Busy parents don’t have much time for TV, but we all need a little down time now and then.

What tools and resources do you rely on to survive the workweek as a working parent?  Use the comments to share.

Note: I have no affiliation with these companies or authors, I’m not representing or speaking for any of the mentioned brands.  I’ve left out my favorite resources from my own company in the interest of staying objective.  Please do the same if you suggest any of your favorites, or disclose your bias.  Thanks!

Is Twitter a useful business tool or a big waste of time?

If you’re following the social media blogs, you’ve seen an intense debate about the ROI and the use of Twitter and other social media in business.   Maybe it doesn’t matter, since many Fortune 100 companies are perceived as weak on Twitter.  Like many people, I was hesitant when launching my own twitter experiment in July on my corporate blog, but it didn’t take long to see why it’s worth my time, both profesionally and personally.

Think of Twitter this way — imagine you’re at a conference of thought-leaders in your industry.  You’re walking around the room and hearing great conversation and topics you care about.  You see one of the leading experts talking to a small circle of people and the conversation turns to a really interesting study they read, or an article that’s related to the topic.  Since you’re so interested in the topic, the expert grabs a drink napkin and writes down a short summary, along with the URL for you, so you can read the article yourself.  As you move about the room from conversation to conversation, the experts jot down the articles on more drink napkins, and you leave the party with a stack of references to things to read.  When you get home, you see that some of the notes are random, like “wow, the shrimp looks great”, you flip past those and spend time reading the articles and getting great ideas.

Now imagine that you’ve entered a football stadium on game day.  Same thing happens.  As you walk around, people hand you messages about what they’re talking about.  The sports team you’re rooting for, the opposing team, the hot dogs at the concession stand, how people are dressed, the traffic on the way to the game, the weather, etc.  You walk out of the stadium with 50,000 notes, some interesting, some not, some annoying, some funny, some relevant, but mostly things you don’t really care much about.

If you’re not seeing the value of Twitter, consider whether your approach has you wandering around the stadium, or mingling at the thought-leader conference. 

If you’re not using Twitter yet, just try it.  Mashable has a great Twitter guide to get you started.  When you’re reading a blog you like, follow the author on Twitter.  Use the new Lists feature to follow multiple people at once.  @Scobleizer has developed great lists to follow, following him is a great place to start.

Who are your favorite people to follow?

Follow me on Twitter @StephKinHR

With the rapid growth of social media, companies and employees everywhere are trying to figure out how to respond.   Let’s tackle some of the basics of how employees can avoid getting themselves into trouble in the gray areas.

1)  Representing your company, and representing yourself.   Is it ok to blog about your company?  Can you be “yourself” on the web without worry?

Blogging4jobs posted an article not long ago called “HR is the New PR”.  While it’s a catchy title and I agree that HR has an important link to PR especially through Employment Brand work, it’s really important for everyone to know that the old rules of PR still apply.  No one is PR except PR.  If you have permission to speak on behalf of your company, great!  But for the vast majority who are not authorized representatives, you shouldn’t speak for your company.  Always speak from your own point of view, and be aware that what you say will reflect on how people view your company, even if you separate yourself it.

So, if you are representing yourself, can you say whatever you want without judgement?  This is where personal branding comes in.  Just like companies choose carefully how to represent themselves, so should you.  You can’t separate yourself from things you have said online.  Even things said anonymously have come back to haunt people later. 

Think of it this way – what if Clark Kent wrote a blog criticizing superheros as a bunch of ego-centric thrill seekers?  Sure, he can hide behind the fact that’s he’s just Clark Kent speaking, but when people start to figure out he’s Superman, those comments will be attributed to him.  There goes his network in the superhero community.   A real-life example:  you send a message via Twitter to a recruiter – they click on your profile to see if you’ve got a resume available, and there are all of your recent tweets.  Hopefully you have tweeted professionally, because you’ve now formed an impression.

2)  Having boundaries between your work life and your personal life.    Should you and your manager be friends on Facebook?  Will your blog posts and tweets be used to judge you?

 As well-explained in Business Insider’s article “Facebook Friending Your Employees Is A Great Way To Get Sued” there are risks to blending your work and personal life online.  Consider how you want to use the various social media avenues, and know your audience.  One approach to consider is to use different sites for different parts of your life — i.e. Facebook for friends only, LinkedIn for work connections.  Twitter is your call, but if you are tweeting as a professional, keep that in mind when you post.   One Twitter post that stunned me was someone who said she was upset with herself for all of the poor choices she had made.  The internet is not your BFF and you don’t need to announce everything.  It’s healthy to have boundaries, and it can keep you out of trouble.

3)  Knowing your company’s stance.  If you can run a quick errand at lunch, can you do the same thing virtually and do some online shopping?   Can you read articles during the work day?  Can you tweet?  Consider this – were the Delta pilots ok in using their laptops, since they were talking about work and a work-related scheduling topic?

 It depends.  Know your company’s policies and your manager’s viewpoint.  Many companies have “incidental use” policies, which means that some limited, appropriate internet use is ok.  Work-related research, a quick check of the weather and the stock, and checking the hours of the dry cleaners — things that are either clearly work related or that take only a few minutes from your workday.  Other employers may be more open to letting you spend time online, including running over to the virtual mall.  Many of the really prolific twitter users are in jobs that allow them to tweet at work.  When in doubt, have the conversation.  A common area that people misunderstand is assuming something is ok because it’s work-related.  The pilots using their laptops were not allowed to do that, whether work-related or not.

Consider how you want to use the various social media avenues, and know your audience.  And watch what you say — always keep in mind that people may figure out you are really Superman.

One of the smartest things you can do in your career is to learn from the mistakes of others. The latest lesson comes in the form of the Delta pilots who used their laptops during a recent flight, which was against FAA regulations.  Their licenses have been revoked and they are dealing with serious consequences, just like countless other people who have made the mistake of doing things at work other than working.While many of us don’t have to worry about the FAA, if you are employed you need to be aware of what’s acceptable, and what is not, to your own employer and/or regulatory agencies. 

I’ve met too many people who have ended up without a job based on misjudging this.  With social media fast emerging, companies everywhere are evaluating their policies around things like what social media to block and what to allow in their environments, and employees are making decisions on what they can/can’t/should/shouldn’t do while at work.  In the early 1990’s, companies faced this same issue as they evolved from mainframes to PCs and the fast advance of the internet.  Companies had to decide whether to allow access to the internet in the workplace, and employees with access either used good judgement or abused the privilege by doing things like visiting x-rated websites.

Before we go blaming technology, consider that even in the pre-tech world, probably since the dawn of employment, employers have had to rely on employees’ good judgment and work ethic.  When I started my career, I worked in labor relations in a manufacturing facility, dealing with all sorts of employee issues and researching arbitration and legal decisions.  One of the issues I found the most fascinating was “sleeping at work”.   Why was this so interesting?  First, because it’s just wrong – you’re being paid to work, not sleep!  But more importantly, it’s interesting because it turns out there are gray areas in sleeping at work.  Was the person nodding off at a desk, or were they “making a bed” in the plant which consisted of finding/making a nice comfy spot to take a nap.  And is there a difference between that and someone resting in a break room at lunchtime, or a person who is paid for what they deliver (i.e. a writer being paid by the article) taking a nice long nap mid-day?

While not sleeping at work may be an obvious one, I worry that today’s employees may make those crucial misjudgements in different ways if they’re not careful.  Is it ok to blog about your company?  Should you and your manager be friends on Facebook?  If you can run a quick errand at lunch, can you do the same thing virtually and do some online shopping?   Can you read articles during the work day?  Can you tweet?

In my next post I”ll talk about the gray areas, and how you can stay out of trouble.

Navigating your career?  We’re in the midst of dramatic change in the world of work.  Having a good strategy for your career is critical, and more important than ever.  The economy, social media, globalization, and different generations in the workforce require new approaches and new ways of thinking. 

There’s a lot of advice out there. Why a trail guide?  Simply put, I like the outdoors and have a lot of respect for people who guide others.  As a working parent and HR professional with years of experience in global companies, I’ll share the kind of insight that you’d expect from a trail guide — with a genuine interest in helping others meet their goals and navigate the paths.

Join me on the journey…