Employees Who Work from Home

6. Staying in Touch

6.1 The telephone and email (see Email) are the best ways to maintain contact.

• Regular phone calls can replace most face-to-face meetings.
• Frequent short calls can be as effective as long conversations.
• Email does not interrupt work as much as the telephone.You can choose when to read messages and when to respond to them.

6.2 Various telecoms options provide efficient ways of making contact with teleworkers.

• Email is essential.
• Voicemail enables your employees to receive and send messages.
• Telecommunications suppliers can provide a Centrex facility which can route incoming calls to wherever the employee is, without the caller noticing.Individuals can purchase a personalised number to achieve the same effect.
• Mobile phones are particularly effective for people who travel a lot.
• Intranets and PC-based video-conferencing offer additional means of keeping in touch, although Videophones remain unpopular with most teleworkers and their colleagues in central office.

6.3 You may need to convert paper-based processes into electronic ones.

• It is easy and quick to share electronic files with teleworkers (see 7.2), but not to pass around sheets of paper. This works best if everybody is using the same version of the software.
• Consider investing in contact management software if you have a mobile sales team or you need to update customer data regularly.