HFCN - Helping Friends Career Network ~ Jobs, Careers, Success, Transformation: April 2008

18 April 2008

Telecommuting Trends and Greener Business

Helping Friends Career Network has traditional office and telecommuting or flexible working opportunities nationwide. Some of our hot telecommuting opportunities are in IT, Sales, Marketing, and Sarbanes Oxley/Financial Auditing.

If your company would like to explore listing jobs with flexibility, let us know and we can recruit for the experience professional with proven skills in any industry, working from home. Telecommuting need not be an all or nothing sort of strategy.

There ARE companies leading industry in their telecommuting practice-- because they can hire and solve problems from anywhere, expand their reach, and imagine saving thousands annually by being able to hire either for an office or the best talent from where they live!

Nice article "Some Companies Rethink the Telecommuting Trend" written by Sue Shellenbarger for the Wall Street Journal underscores an important notion as to companies who have embraced, but modified it's telecommuting strategies.

Work at home professionals are wise to plan and deliver requirements for keeping a productive telecommuting opportunity, the power of this article is in the practical tips for an individual to accomplish their telecommuting career.

This article's corporate perspective suggests a myriad of reasons for changing the telecommuting policy- some included worker abuse, bracing for a recession, aggressive new business requirements, lack of proven productivity, and relative greater ease with releasing a telecommuting employee than an office employee.

Tips for Corporate Telecommuting:

One size strategy does not fit all. While telecommuting is not for everyone, it can be significant where the policy, expectation, and agreements are clear. rmLibrary has identified some excellent tools for calculating costs, creating agreements, managing risk, and implementing strategy.
Telecommuting requirements should be clear in terms of schedule and performance expectations. It must establish the terms for allowing telecommuting. Some companies might explore telecommuting as an option with other work options - flex time, condensed work week (4, 10 hour days instead of 5, 8 hour days). WomenforHire.com has some advice for exploring options.
ERE explored Inside Recruiting Telecommuting issues, some of the biggest issues are recognition, career pathing
How and why develop skills to manage a distributed workforce? A LITTLE strategy can go a long way. Ask your recruiting team to help you create a strategy for attracting and retaining qualified work from home staff. The trick is in balancing the needs of a work from home employee and a traditional office employee. At the end of the day, it is about being effective in getting work done, whether in an office or in a Virtual Private Network from Home.
What real savings exist? Recruiting suddenly opens a nationwide possibility, that can create local presence. Check out the WHAT YOU CAN DO to Take Action on Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth page. It's environmentally sound, Sun saves $63M in telecommuting benefits and has reduced the environmental CO2 emisions by 29K tons.
Create a plan for bringing together the IT needs of a good telecommuting strategy-- connecting, visibility, security, information protection, etc. CIO.com featured tips a CIO must know about telecommuting.

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11 April 2008

Recession Proof Career Resilience

I want to explore if a newer better job fit exists for me. The situation too often starts like this:

Where am I and what steps can I take to feel better about my work? Queue background noise about current events, fears, limitations, and hopes.

Oh but it's pretty bad out there, what evidence do I have that this time, I could make the right decision to move my career to a happier place? Queue supporting feedback that justifies how stuck you are from former critics, historic evidence of your past failures in business..

I should feel bad, guilty or insane for trying to aspire a better me in this economy, project, environment, or responsibility. Rationalize that we have choices, and choose to either be happier in our ability to make choices, and appreciate the journey. OR Stop trying to take actions on the better vision, because evidence has shown the time is not right, you are not right, the mood is not right, or you just don't deserve it.

Recession Proof Career Resilience Creates Opportunity!

Releasing a romantic attachment to how hard it is, creates the conditions for alternatives.
There is always supply and demand, unless we attach too much to the lack of resource.
Balance is found in healthy dreaming, and consciously realistic choice.
There IS a way to choose a positive direction, despite the limitations at hand.
Appreciating a possibility thinker on your life design board can go a long way.
Value friends who offer realistic input when you need it.
Embrace the positive choice in a negative message to be an advocate of possibility.
Find the courage to articulate the positive values and opportunity, despite popular opinion.
Do a little bit each day to stretch your comfort zone for what success looks like.
What are you avoiding? Select actions out of procrastination and locked thinking.

Counterpoints to environmental buzz noise:

Where thousands are unemployed on the news, remember you don't need thousands of jobs, you just need one.
If your phone is not ringing, growth is still happening. Keep your mind on the prize, and the process will take care of itself. Focus on the lack, and the lack will multiply.
The biggest resistence to your success is not external news.
Happiness is created in a string of actions put together to create a sense of greatness.
Where there is dis-ease, there is both limitation and possibility.

Empowerment:

What is it that I want to create?
What does success look like?
What alternatives exist for the "same old" approach?
What will I need to be willing to release to accept this better place?
What actions can I take to move away from my attachment to lack-- lack of support, response to my resume, my professional capabilities, my market demand, a bad management string?