Workshifters come in many varieties, and the 2 flavors with which I am most familiar are the freelance contractor and the full-time employee who works from home.

In either case, your time is your money. The hours you attach to any given task or project have a value - the time you could be spending on another task. In other words, the opportunity cost of doing Project A is equal to the financial compensation lost for not doing Project B or to the intrinsic benefits sacrificed by not just taking time for yourself. From this perspective, it's easy for workshifters to understand what our time and efforts are worth.

It's not so easy for employers and clients, however. In fact, they are on the opposite side of this 2-way mirror. This is particularly true in the case of employers, who may view workshifters as commodities. What's in it for them to allow this employee to workshift - how much will it cost them? What flexibility does the workshifter have (that these employers do not), and how much does that devalue what the workshifter is really worth? Call it workshifter discrimination, if you will.

To allow an employee the flexibility to workshift, possibly at the exclusion of other employees (assuming telework is not regularly allowed at this company), there has got to be:

• Strong justification
• Inherent trust
• Positive tangible or intangible returns/results

Businesses are not charities, after all.

So what's a workshifter to do about not only proving worth but also maintaining flexibility? For me, the key is building a case for the value of my work - full-time, part-time or anything in-between. But how do I build such a case?

Be prepared

Know not only the absolute value of your contributions but also their relative strength when compared against anyone in a full-time, 9-to-5 position. Could they do what you do regardless of their schedule?

Be your own judge, jury and legal counsel

Look at the facts. What have you been able to accomplish that others have been given the same opportunity to do, yet failed in their attempts?

Know your limits and own them

Recognize the value you place on both your output and your flexibility. Perhaps you do not need to be paid more, but you are not willing to accept less either. If you reach an impasse with your employer, be very sure that you're willing to walk and take the value of your skills with you.

What is your workshifting work worth?

Photo Credit: treehouse1977

According to the Telework Research Network, productivity increases by 27 percent among those who workshift. This statistic should be of great interest to employers everywhere, as productivity, or the lack thereof, is one of the biggest challenges they face today.

Whenever you are responsible for a workforce, you encounter many varied obstacles to motivating your team sufficiently towards your established goals. New employees may be enthusiastic and dedicated, but it invariably doesn't take long before a certain amount of lethargy sets in, and productivity starts to drop. If the employees share a common workspace, then what's the problem? Is this some kind of condition that permeates from one workstation to another?

Many books have been written over the years about how to motivate employees and manage effectively, but perhaps these books are missing the most significant chapters. It's possible that the solution to low productivity in traditional office workspaces is to actually remove the workspace altogether. This is where workshifting can slowly but surely come to the rescue of floundering organizations.

The same research network that suggests that employees are considerably more productive when workshifting also suggests that employers can save up to $20,000 per employee yearly by eliminating the workspace. The savings are obvious: no more direct and overhead costs associated with each and every workstation. Furthermore, if the employees themselves are happier and more productive in their new environments, turnover will be reduced, meaning less hiring and training expenditures.

Companies that embrace workshifting have shown that employee attrition can be lowered by as much as 25 percent. To top it off, the new, more educated and informed employee tends to look for organizations that offer this kind of flexibility in the first place.

The writing is on the wall when you look at all these figures collectively. It's time to change the culture of oversight by trusting employees to be as productive as, or even more productive than, they were before. Whether we like it or not, productivity is always going to suffer if the employee is not as inspired or motivated as they could be.

When an employer actually gives an employee the freedom to workshift, trust that may have been missing before is established. This can, in turn, exponentially improve the relationship between both parties - each side stands to gain.

Photo Credit: thorinside

The growth of mobile technology is simply staggering. According to mobiThinking, there are 5.3 billion mobile subscribers (that translates to 77% of the world's population.) By 2014, it's expected that mobile will overtake the PC as the most popular way to access the web. People are using mobile technologies for commerce, entertainment, and productivity.

No surprise, this trend has a definite impact on business and the workplace. The International Data Corporation (IDC) has estimated that the mobile workforce will exceed 1 billion people in 2011. The reasons that businesses are moving in this direction vary - everything from cost savings and reducing the carbon footprint to attracting and retaining the top talent necessary to remain competitive.

As business talks more about mobile strategy, the conversation will not be exclusively about the hardware. In order to effectively leverage mobile technology, it's equally important to use it effectively. I recently finished reading the book "Managing the Mobile Workforce: Leading, Building, and Sustaining Virtual Teams" co-authored by Michael Kroth, associate professor of organizational learning and leadership at the University of Idaho with David Clemons, founder of Achieve Labs Inc., an educational solution connecting learning and mobile technology. The book outlines the case for developing a mobile workplace strategy and the key components for successful implementation using best practices from companies such as LEGO, Citrix and Hewlett-Packard.

As part of our ongoing focus on mobile and collaboration, Michael graciously shared with me his thoughts on the new mobile workplace.

First things first, tell me what prompted you and David to write the book?

"My friend David Clemons and I were mountain biking one day and as we enjoyed a post-ride cup of coffee and a bagel our conversation turned to the mobile workforce. His business, LearnCast, provides great easy-to-use online tools that support and enable organizations that want to go mobile. (At the time he was just getting started, today he has global clients who are rocking the world of mobile work.) My writings and interest had always been about what it takes to create healthy highly motivating work environments. We decided that day that we could learn a lot from each other and from the process of writing a book that combined the two interests. We both felt that the timing was right for this amazing movement to mobile work so decided to go for it. It's been a fabulous experience for us as friends and it's been very rewarding to contribute this incredible move to mobility that is happening worldwide."

If I'm a company considering telework, what's my big takeaway from reading the book?

"The principles of managing mobile workers are the same as for managing co-located workers - but the practices, emphases, and effort can differ. Part of the challenge of working with people who aren't right there is to realize that distance is more than geographic - it is also cultural, emotional, and social. We talk a lot about "presence" - the sense that you are there even when you aren't - as well as trust, autonomy, and motivation."

What do you feel mobile technology can bring to collaboration efforts?

"The better the technology the fewer barriers to communication; the more opportunities for sharing than there ever would be if limited to who you could get into a room or information you could find in a physical library; and the more colorful and complex the kaleidoscope of perspectives from which the group can draw."

What would readers learn about mobile collaboration from your book?

"We have a chapter about developing virtual teams where we share a different configuration of the forming, storming, norming, and performing model most folks are familiar with, and which might make more sense for virtual team development. We start the chapter by comparing virtual teambuilding to what occurs with millions of people playing online games like World of Warcraft every night. Then we share the experiences of mobile managers and thought leaders we interviewed from such places as LEGO and Hewlett-Packard. And lots more!"

Many thanks to Michael for sharing this thoughts and expertise. I really can't say enough good stuff about his book. Go check it out at Managing the Mobile Workforce.com. And you can follow Michael on Twitter.

I was looking over the study "The State of Telework in the U.S." and noticed a very interesting statistic:

The study found no correlation between cities with the most congestion or longest commute times and number of workshifters.

One of the common arguments for telework is saving gas and the carbon footprint. That's not to say those benefits don't occur but the benefits of telework extend far beyond gas money. So for organizations looking at their telework options, there are more opportunities to consider.

And, what exactly are those different benefits, you ask? Well, the Families and Work Institute (FWI) in partnership with the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) have created a national initiative called When Work Works, to bring research about flexible work to the business world.

The site includes a guide of best practices from the recipients of the Alfred P. Sloan Awards for Business Excellence in Workplace Flexibility. It also includes tips and tools for companies and human resources professionals such as:

• Toolkit for Hourly Employees with Flexible Work Arrangements
• The Supervisors' Guide to Flexibility 
• Employer Guide to Getting Started with Flexible Work

...and many more. In searching around the site, I found tremendous resources to use in developing a telework program and a few best practices I hadn't thought of before. It's a great way to think beyond the obvious when it comes to talking about telework and weighing the costs versus benefits.

Telework is one of those subjects where most people can immediately see there are benefits. That's not usually the hard sell. It's trying to get our arms around how much of a benefit and when the benefit will be realized that's more of a challenge.

The research coming out of When Work Works can help us figure out how to put quantitative metrics around the benefits of telework. In order for telework to have long-term success in the workplace, calculating a tangible return on investment is essential.

Photo Credit: Citrix Online

It was only about 10 years ago that the concept of working from home was foreign to me. At the time I was working for a large, international high-tech firm, I still wasn't able to go mobile. We had to jump through a lot of hoops to access our email from anywhere but our office, and we certainly didn't have the simple ability to log in to our work network from afar. That kind of "special" access was reserved only for the higher-ups in the company. 

So, unless it was something you could do without needing access to the company network, working from home was rarely an option. Not only that but you felt kind of funny even broaching the subject for fear that your boss would think it an excuse to slack off for a day or two.

Times sure have changed. These days it seems that workshifting has almost become ubiquitous. Or has it?

The Boss Who Doesn't Get It

I once worked for a consulting firm where the boss was dead set against remote working - it simply wasn't part of the company culture. I was working part-time as a contractor, and at first they expected that I'd be in the office at set times every week. I assured them that was not only impossible, given my other client commitments, but also totally unnecessary. I told them I would be able to accomplish everything they'd tasked me to do in the timeframe they needed completely from my home office. I explained that if I wasn't physically in the office, then it would actually save them effort and money - they wouldn't have to find me a work space in their already overcrowded office, and I wouldn't be using any of their resources: no computer, no additional software licenses, no supplies. Even their coffee would be safe!

It took some time and a bit of work on the technical side to open up their network to me, but the boss finally agreed to let me do it. And ultimately, it worked out great. So much so that now several of their employees work remotely from time to time. Sometimes it takes setting the example for workplace culture and attitudes to change, so if you're in an environment where working from home is still frowned upon, then maybe it's time to help your boss see the light!

The Client Who Doesn't Get It

When my partner and I first started our business 7 years ago, we immediately ran out and got an office space. We figured that in order to seem "legit," we needed a place in a good location with a sign and parking spots. While that may be true for some businesses, it wasn't really necessary for us, since we were selling services (web design and video production). We kept the space for 2 years before we decided it was an extra expense that simply wasn't needed. We realized we could fulfill all of our obligations to our clients by working in a virtual office. Our video editors and web developers were also very happy to work from home.

At first I was really concerned that by not having an office we'd somehow be a less legitimate business - that our clients would not take us seriously. But as time went on, I realized people were growing more accepting of companies who don't keep physical offices. In fact, they see us as "lean and mean" - less overhead lets us keep our prices reasonable and our service efficient and fast. Don't worry too much about how clients might perceive you if you operate a virtual office - they may well see it as an advantage.

Times really are a-changing when it comes to remote work. As workshifters, it's up to us to lead by example to educate and inform those who still don't get that workshifting is a productive, efficient and cost-effective way to do business.

Photo Credit: bellowsa

Al Pittampalli and The Domino Project have recently published a book, "Read This Before Our Next Meeting," focused on the modern meeting and the importance it plays in businesses success. Al provides strategies on how to replace mediocre meetings with well-managed, productive meetings.

With Al's permission we have been allowed to share this exclusive excerpt from the book:

Sometimes, when I'm called into a meeting, I wonder what could possibly be so urgent that it pulls me away from my real work. As with the yellow "BREAKING NEWS" banner that appears on CNN every time I turn it on, I'm skeptical. And after the meeting is over and I'm forced to confront the truth that no, there was no real urgency, I'm disappointed, angry. I feel betrayed.

Once we're exposed to the callous indifference of a false-urgent meeting, we begin to question everything the organization does. If management is willing to regularly tolerate such an affront on our productivity, why bother?

Meetings need to be less like the endless commercial breaks during a football game, and more like pit stops at the Daytona 500. Sure, even these stops slow momentum, but not for long, and only in service of winning. Quick high-energy transactions to refuel, to change the tires, to allow the driver to do the work better and faster--that's the type of meeting that people will walk away from with a continued sense of urgency and energized with a feeling of aliveness.

Maybe even more unsettling than the false-urgency problem is that meetings have become a tool to delay decisions. They have become our default stalling tactic.

I fear we have become politicians.

I recently saw a town hall meeting on television, featuring a candidate for state senate. When confronted with questions from the audience that would force him to make tough decisions, he dodged, and instead scheduled future meetings. Not surprising for a politician desperately trying to hold on to votes.

But this scenario is eerily similar to ones I've seen in our organization.

Like all human beings, we're terrified of making decisions. In the face of pressing, difficult decisions, we stall. Meetings are a socially acceptable and readily available way of doing so.

This is why we find them so useful. Meetings provide a forum for us to gather more and more intelligence indefinitely, and the emotional assurance from surrounding ourselves with others alleviates the fear (at least temporarily).

We have to remember that we can never guarantee a good outcome, no matter how much planning we do. Thoughtfulness is important, but so is speed. A system that allows the use of meetings as a stalling tactic leads to a culture of indecisiveness that is no longer acceptable.

The system is broken. But it's not too late to fix it.

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Want to learn even more? In addition to picking up a copy of "Read This Before Our Next Meeting" you can join Al Pittampalli and change expert Seth Godin for a webinar, sponsored by GoToMeeting, on why embracing change is more critical than ever - and how the Modern Meeting can help.

The webinar is on Thursday, August 18 at 10a PST / 1p EST. To register, click here.

President Obama, the self-titled Teleworker-in-Chief, declared at a recent workplace flexibility forum that "work is what you do, not where you do it."

It's no wonder then that out of every possible work sector, the Federal Government takes the crown for workshifting. Although they don't have the most remote workers, their numbers have been growing the fastest, and to top it off, they have the highest participation rate among their employees.

The Feds have the Telework Enhancement Act to thank for this surprising growth. Passed back in December, the Act just had its first deadline recently: all government employees were to be told of their eligibility status for workshifting.

That's quite the step. Imagine if your employer told everyone who could workshift (around 45 percent of the total workforce) that that they could now do so? We'd likely see change just as fast as what the government is experiencing.

To make things easier for everybody, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently released a guide to teleworking. The 40 pages of light reading explain just what the agencies should do to fully implement workshifting policies of their own.

For everyone else, the guide is an excellent resource for what you can expect from a comprehensive workshifting policy. It covers all the bases, from explaining how to workshift regularly to describing the specifics of manager-employee agreements.

Since the government has already done the work for everyone, both current and prospective workshifters should take advantage of this manual the best they can. Here are a few quick tips from the guide.

Clear and usable policies

A teleworking policy should be written simply with familiar words, so staff across every department can easily understand it. The policy should also explain the steps to implement workshifting, the responsibilities of those involved and the day-to-day operations themselves.

Eligibility and participation

Instead of suggesting a generic one-size-fits-all category for who is eligible to workshift, managers should base their decision on employee performance - and refuse poor performers.

Training

A training website has been provided by OPM to help both employees and managers understand the new practice. And fortunately, Telework 101 is open for everyone to use.

Agreement

Make the agreement renewable, and include items such as the work schedule the employee will follow, responsibilities, information security and equipment needed. A signed agreement should be mandatory.

Good communication

Managers and employees should have an actual face-to-face discussion before starting a workshifting arrangement to settle each other's expectations. And while workshifting, both managers and employees must keep each other informed of any progress or changes. Also, workshifters should not be excluded from discussions simply because they are not physically in the office.

The manual is quite long, but don't let that stop you from using it. Even the most experienced workshifter might learn something new. And if you've come across any other helpful guides to workshifting that you think can help others, be sure to include them down below in the comments.

Workshifting is not always a solo act. In many cases, you work as part of a team of people who are in geographically diverse locations. And sometimes, you're in charge of those teams. Managing people can be challenging at the best of times, but when you can't be in the same room with them you face even bigger obstacles. Misunderstandings arise much easier when you can't look someone in the eye, and it can be much more difficult to track individual progress.

Here are some things I've learned about managing when your team is located in multiple locations. 

Be Flexible with Schedules

One of the things that people like best about workshifting is that they have the opportunity to set their own hours. Some people are morning people, some work best in the afternoons, and some are night owls. Giving your team the flexibility to choose their ideal work hours can be a really effective perk. It allows people to work at the times that work best for them, but ultimately it allows them to be more productive. And it works well for me as a leader, too. If I have a team member that likes to work late at night, and I'm a morning person, then I know that deliverables will be in my inbox when I get to my desk in the morning. Of course, being flexible with schedules works both ways. If I DO occasionally need someone to be available for a morning client meeting, then planning that in advance ensures it can happen. The important thing is to discuss schedules in advance, so all parties know what to expect. And if things change, then nobody is thrown off completely.

It's All in the Details

The biggest issue with working remotely is that you have to rely on remote forms of communication. In an office environment, you can just call someone into your office, have a quick chat, and send them off with their tasks. But in the workshifting world, these conversations have to happen over email, instant message, or the phone. By removing the physical presence from the equation, there's a risk that tone and sentiment can be lost, and the finer details can get confused or overlooked.

There are a few ways to combat this. First, try to find ways to connect face to face when you can. Video chat is becoming more accessible for people, so using video chat or setting up a virtual meeting for your team can be a great way to connect with people face to face when you need to. And always follow up these conversations with an email to the team that captures the highlights of what needs to be done. Then, keep the lines of communication open - literally; be available via chat or phone so that team members can contact you right away if they need clarification or have a question.

Use Collaboration Tools

It's wonderful that we have so many tools available to us now to help us communicate and collaborate remotely. I can't stress enough how important file sharing and collaboration tools are for running effective teams. Email was once our only choice for file sharing, and it was wildly ineffective. File attachments were too large to email. Version control was nearly impossible. Things went missing and much time and money were wasted.

These days, tools like Google Docs and Google Calendar are brilliant ways to share information among teams and maintain current versions of information that everyone can contribute to. Dropbox is a wonderful method to share larger files like videos or graphics without bogging down people's emails. These tools also allow you, as a manager, to track peoples' progress in real time, without "bugging" them for updates continuously, because you can access the most current versions of whatever is being worked on. Using collaborative tools will save huge amounts of time and help your team be more creative on the fly. And we could all use less email, right?

These are just a few ways to help you run projects more smoothly in the workshifting world. What it really comes down to is communication. Be clear in your instructions, flexible in your scheduling, and communicate well, and you will have a happy and productive remote team.

Photo Credit: C.C. Chapman

By this point, if you are workshifting you have either earned the ability from an employer or chosen the path yourself as an independent workshifter.

And, although workshifting is becoming more and more accepted and valued among traditional employers - sometimes, getting to a workshifting position is not the most difficult step on the path.

Having transitioned from a fully-traditional position to a bona-fide workshifter with the same organization, and with little to no guidance on the what-when-and-how of workshifting expectations by this organization, I initially found myself in a world of uncertainty and self-doubt!

Time tracking, defining project scope and deadlines and "showing up" virtually were not the issues - I knew that the quality of my work would not suffer whether I did it chained to an office desk or on my leather sofa. What I did not know, however, was how my output was being perceived simply because the work was being done remotely. Out of sight, out of mind? Offsite and unreliable?

So, I took some steps to ensure that my efforts were recognized and I instilled, from the outset, an inherent trust in my capacity to work remotely without adversely affecting the organization. I knew I could be counted on, but others needed to know it, too.

To whom much is given, even more is expected! The one step I took to ensure that, as a new workshifter, I could be trusted, was to OVERcommunicate in the following ways:

• Inclusively: Not only were pertinent email CCs necessary, but I took it one step further and provided a weekly summary and monthly time sheet with detailed logs of what and whom I had handled. Sure, it took time for me to track, and often a measure of precision to report on exactly how my time was being spent, but it also ensured that my time could never be questioned by my superior nor his, in spite of the fact that the results spoke for themselves.
  
  
• With Honesty: In the same way I reported what I was doing to produce work and results, I similarly and candidly reported when I would be away from my home office and/or taking time during the day to handle non-work tasks. At the same time, I set clear expectations about the alternative hours I would keep on those days to make up the time and ensure that my results were met.
  
  
• Selflessly and Flexibility: If the goal of my new schedule was 100% flexibility, I recognized my threshold of tolerance (translation: what I was willing to concede) and knew that its cap was roughly 80% - this left room for any unscheduled or impromptu meetings or projects that would require on-site presence without completely disrupting my sense of autonomy and freedom.

What is the one step you've taken to ensure trust as a workshifter?

Photo Credit: vagawi

During the long weekend when we celebrated American Independence Day, I came across an interesting report that made me start to wonder about the cost of people trying to realize the great American Dream. The report, summarized by Harry Bradford in the Huffington Post, notes that top level professionals now view the 40-hour work week as part time. Working less than this is widely recognized as career suicide, leading to less prestigious and less upwardly mobile career paths. Essentially people are working about 30% longer, so that 50 hours a week or more is now becoming the norm; yet for many, incomes have not kept pace.

Most of us recognize that the report is simply providing data in support of what we have been experiencing for a while - our approach to work-life and work-family balance has changed significantly over the last decade. The lines between work and personal time are fading and will almost certainly disappear. With the relentless consumerization of technology, the proliferation of mobile devices, and the rise of social business, we are effectively always connected, always on and always available, which translates to always being potentially 'at work' even if we are not physically in a formal office.

These trends should, however, be ringing alarm bells in that one has to question the extent to which this is sustainable and why management practices are so outdated. Contemporary research into the human brain shows that the worst kind of stress is the feeling that you have no control over the problem, that you are helpless. Dr. John Medina notes in his best-selling book, Brain Rules, that emotional stress has huge impacts across society, from children's ability to learn in school to employees' productivity at work. Could it be that we are working longer hours and yet becoming less productive because of associated stress-related causes? Does this reflect a lack of independence for Americans from a working practices perspective?

One way employers could help alleviate the stress of professionals working longer hours is to give them the flexibility to manage their working day as any time during their waking day. We all have a span of time available each day from the time we wake to the time we go to sleep. By allowing individuals to determine for themselves how they prioritize different tasks that need to get done in that period of time, stress can be reduced, people become more productive and a new form of sustainability introduced. If the Class of 2011 is to be able to realize their American dreams, something has got to change. Maybe it is time for a new form of American independence!