Teleworking: Guidelines for Good Practice

New forms of flexible working, we hear, can benefit employees through a better quality of family life and leisure, and organisations through more flexible response to customer demands. Teleworking is one such opportunity, but with what kind of contract? As Ursula Huws explains:

'What is a working day and what is the workplace? What are working hours and the work environment? As teleworking in its various forms becomes a feature in organisations, traditional assumptions about employment contracts and benefits may no longer apply. This is where employers need guidelines on how to manage the new forms of work, protect their teleworking employees and ensure equity with their non-teleworking colleagues.'

Teleworking: Guidelines for Good Practice was published on March 25th, 1997 by the Institute for Employment Studies. Its expert author and IES Associate Fellow, Ursula Huws has compiled and analysed case studies, and provides examples of good practice drawn from all fields of teleworking, across Europe.

Different types of teleworking

It is often assumed that teleworking is a single form of employment, to which general rules can apply. Such non-specific and unfocused rules have limited practical use. These guidelines begin by recognising five different types of teleworking:

Multi-site teleworking— an employee alternates between working on the employer's premises and working elsewhere
Tele-homeworking — work is based exclusively in the home and carried out for a single employer
Freelance teleworking— working for a variety of employers
Mobile teleworking — typically working 'on-the-road' using portable/mobile equipment
Relocated back-office functions— typically routine work on employers' remote office sites

For each type of teleworking, the Guidelines identify particular problems, and examples of good practice that address them. Issues of equality and making teleworking a family-friendly form of employment, are given special attention.

The guidelines are aimed at employers and trade union representatives directly involved in the negotiation of agreements covering teleworking, but also at agencies concerned with encouraging the development of teleworking which fall outside the scope of such agreements, such as freelance teleworking, telecottages and enterprise support.

The study

The study which gave rise to the publication of these guidelines formed part of a one-year research project on teleworking and gender, partially funded by the Equal Opportunities Unit of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Employment, Industrial Relations and Social Affairs, and supported by Analytica and Wordbank in the UK, the ADA Women's Technology Centre in Greece, the TNO in the Netherlands and the Swedish Federation of Professional Employees.

Readership

Policy makers, HR professionals, trade unions, teleworking organisations, training providers

Available from:

Grantham Book Services Limited Isaac Newton Way Alma Park Industrial Estate Grantham NG31 9SD Tel: +44 (0)1476 567 421 Fax: +44 (0)1476 567 314

Telephone: + 44 (0)1202 715555

Fax: +44 (0)1202 715556

other recent publications
other publications about good practice in the employment of teleworkers


this page was last revised on September 16th, 2001					all contents of this page © Ursula Huws, 2001