Axero President and Co-founder, Tim Eisenhauer, talks with Dana Wilkie of the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) about his success with telecommuting to work.
Has the Telecommuting Bubble Burst?
The popular perk has faced a fierce backlash—but that doesn’t mean telecommuting can’t work in your business. Creating an effective program requires training, technology and communication.
Bringing everyone into the workplace is often a reaction to a decline in profits or the company’s failure to meet organizational goals, says Tim Eisenhauer, CEO of San Diego-based Axero Solutions, which builds social networking platforms for companies.
Bringing “all hands” back into the workplace, where managers can see them, creates an illusion of control, Eisenhauer says, even if having everyone there doesn’t translate into more productivity, higher profits or a bigger market share.
“The biggest asset to telecommuting success is giving people access to information,” says Eisenhauer of Axero Solutions, whose 24 employees reside in various states and all work remotely. “You need collaboration software, ways for people to communicate outside of e-mail, ways to give workers access to people in the company who have the information that can help them do their jobs.” Key to Axero’s success is the company’s intranet, which connects colleagues in real time so that everyone can see and discuss how projects are coming along.
