When Brenda Jones commutes to work, she simply walks from one floor of her home to the other.
Ms. Jones, a member of the Colonial Community team, is a part of the pilot for a new GW program to promote telecommuting. She and numerous teammates in Human Resources have been learning how to work effectively as virtual teams.
Telecommuting is one of the six proposals from the Innovation Task Force that was submitted during Phase One by the GW community and selected for implementation.
While a flexible work arrangement policy, which includes telecommuting, has existed at GW since 2005, it has been used primarily to accommodate special situations. The new ITF telecommuting initiative is designed to significantly increase the number of employees working in virtual teams. Telecommuting was selected as a means of reducing leased space, reallocating space to support our academic mission and enhancing work-life balance and productivity.
“Members of the GW community struggling with space issues should seriously consider this option,” said Jeff Lenn, associate vice president for academic operations and co-chair of the ITF Steering Committee.
A telecommuting innovation team, which includes representation from across the university, has been working on the implementation plan. The first pilot started early this year when two Human Resources departments, Colonial Community and Staff Learning and Development, transitioned to a virtual team model. This change, along with a migration of other HR departments to the Virginia Science and Technology Campus and the Faculty and Staff Service Center in Rice Hall enabled HR to vacate the leased space they had been using at 2033 K Street.
Louis Lemieux, chief human resources officer, is leading the telecommuting initiative. He said he’s committed to enhancing flexible work arrangement options as part of GW’s goal of being an employer of choice.
“The decision for HR to vacate high-cost, leased space facilitated our process to set up a virtual team management model,” he said. “The successful migration delivered value to GW while it tested my staff to learn how to make telecommuting work effectively. We are finalizing an online telecommuting guide to help managers determine when a telecommuting arrangement is appropriate and how to work successfully in a virtual team model.”
The initiative is also supported by the Division of Information Technology, which is tasked with identifying tools that will facilitate collaboration among virtual team members. “For telecommuting to work, we need to help people learn how to use additional tools such as web conferencing, file sharing solutions, instant messaging and electronic document routing and storage capabilities,” said David Steinour, chief information officer.
To facilitate the implementation of telecommuting, GW’s procurement department in the Office of Finance is purchasing an iBuy “telecommuting package.” The package will enable employees who have been approved for telecommuting arrangements to quickly order the equipment they need from a standard catalog rather than searching iBuy for each piece of equipment.
The package will also save the GW community time when it comes to determining the needs of the virtual team. Incremental costs associated with telecommuting will be funded centrally as part of the ITF strategy for telecommuting.
“We don’t want the one-time investment to deter managers interested in this strategic option for the institution. The net savings associated with the telecommuting initiative make it cost effective for the university,” said David Lawlor, senior associate vice president for finance and co-chair of the ITF Steering Committee.
From her home office, Ms. Jones said that setting up the technology and overall infrastructure to support telecommuting is just the first step in creating an effective virtual team. “There are critical processes for communication, collaboration and management that need to be implemented,” she said. “The other ‘must do’ for virtual teamwork is to think differently about how to foster teamwork, build trust and maintain relationships.”
To that end, Staff Learning and Development is developing training on processes and people practices that are critical for success. Having learned from their own experience, they are working with the second pilot group from GW’s finance organization who will migrate in early May.
“There is great potential for our employees and for GW with this initiative. I look forward to working with interested community members to explore this solution for teams across GW,” said Erica Hayton, who is leading this effort on behalf of Mr. Lemieux.
“I hope managers will reach out in light of the fact that this is a great option in the face of space constraints, renovations, or as a means to build in more flexibility,” she said.
Individuals interested in learning more about telecommuting should contact Erica Hayton in Human Resources at 202-994-5149 or ebush
gwu [dot] edu.