Amy Johnson works at his home in Dixon, Ill., talking with customers and the filing of reports for her job as a fingerprint technician. One way, however, it could also well be sitting at a desk next to his boss in Chicago.
The rise in home work is coming from people who work in the Office some time and at home from time to time. This flexibility is prompting more companies to use the tracking software and other controls in Big Brother to see if people are really work. Emily Nelson has details on the lunch break. (Photo: Scott Dalton for the Wall Street Journal)With the help of a computer monitoring program, Timothy Daniels, Vice President of operations for precise biometrics, may follow if Ms. Johnson and other employees - or release off the coast. Once a week, he looks summary of "what websites they use, and for how long," he said. "It allows us to keep an eye attentive without being too invasive."
Ms. Johnson knows that his computer is being monitored, but "it doesn't bother me", she said. I don't do anything that I shouldn't do it."
Scott Dalton for The Wall Street Journal Chad Dunkin, managing partner tax-services company Ryan, works from an Office in Houston, left, with colleagues who often work at home, including Heather Harrison. To keep the projects on track, Mr. Dunkin sets weekly goals and assigns tasks with deadlines.Work at home used to be a welcome break against stress and office interruptions. (And to be honest: it also offered the flexibility of compression in some races or a NAP between phone conferences.)
Nowadays, working at home is more as being in the Office, with patrons to find new ways to ensure that employees are on the job. Some monitoring of projects and schedule meetings on shared calendars. Others require "virtual face time" by e-mail, instant messaging or calls. And some, such as defined in biometrics, monitor computer usage of employees both at home and in the Office.
Gartner Inc., a technology-research society of Stamford, Connecticut, provides for the use of security-monitoring software will increase to 60% of employers by 2015, less than 10% now. Systems are mainly used to protect confidential and data conforming to the rules of the Government, but they also generate a lot of personal information about the online behaviour of employees. To avoid violating the privacy of employees, employers should tell employees that they are being monitored and follow only activities related to companies, lawyers say.
The safety program that Mr. Daniels uses, InterGuard awareness Technologies in Los Angeles, is used by financial services, health and other employers to follow productivity, prevent leaks and comply with safety regulations. As monitoring programmes more, it also allows Mr. Daniels see if all its employees, including office workers 16 to 24 years, who works from home, using their computer productively time. Employees know that the program is in place.
These programs can help people spot of bosses who are in need of assistance, as well as those who lose time, said Elena Proskumina, a specialist in sales for NesterSoft, a manufacturer of Woodbridge, Ontario, a program of surveillance called working time. A popular report among the clients of WorkTime is 'top of page Facebook users', says.
Employers say that the idea is not to keep people chained to their jobs for eight straight hours. They realize that people working at home can take breaks for running errands or other professional duties.
Good number of 13 employees of Celeste O'Keefe often work at home, allowing them to handle the long hours that their jobs may require, said Ms. O'Keefe. Ms. O'Keefe, Chief Executive Officer of Danilo, a service provider of litigation for lawyers support, uses SpectorSoft to help you track time spent on client projects by all employees, either at the Office or at home.
Ms. O'Keefe said that it does not use the program for"snoop" on individuals. However, after she noticed that the output of a domicile of the employee trolling for several months, the program allowed him to see that the employee spent a lot of time to write Word documents, that something not required for his work. After learning that she was actually spending most of his day's work studying for a master's degree, "I had to let it go. I could not say, Oh, 'I'll trust you again,' ", said Ms. O'Keefe, whose company is based in D'Iberville, Miss.
The distinctions between work and home and Office are also blurred because more people are splitting their weeks and even their days between home and the Office. The number of employees who work at home at least one day per month increased 23% per year since 2007, on average, to 22.8 million last year, said Raymond Boggs, vice president at IDC, a Framingham, Mass.. market research company Those who work from home one or two days per month lead the trend, passing by an average of 69.5% annually since 2007 to 3.3 million people last year, said Mr. Boggs.
"The challenge of basis for managers becomes more delicate," said Mr. Boggs. "Some may work at home every Friday."Others suggest 15 to be with children coming from school, then working after dinner at home, he said.
Focusing on achievements rather that time is another way of employers of homeworkers. And tools daily such as video conferencing, shared calendars, e-mail and instant messaging help patrons follow the progression.
With most of its 940 employees work at home, at least occasionally, Ryan LLC, a firm of tax services in Dallas, managers has set targets for each job and empower employees. The firm has since seen gains of productivity and customer satisfaction and voluntary staff turnover decreased, said Delta Emerson, Executive Vice President for Ryan.
Every Monday, Chad Dunkin, team leader for Ryan in Houston, met with four members of the team to define the order of the day of the week, framing the objectives, characteristics of the object: "we project A, B, C and D, and we we need done by X Date of publication," he said, and assigns tasks and schedules for each employee. After that, it does not matter where or even when they work, because "we are all judged by the results", says that Mr. Dunkin.
Employees after their schedule on the shared Outlook calendars and often speak on Conference calls, said Heather Harrison, consultant senior. When working from home, emails or instant messages she attend Mr. Dunkin updates. Working at home not very different from work in the Office, said.
Write toSue Shellenbarger at sue.shellenbarger@wsj.com
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