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Are Your Digital Nomads Showing You The Money?
Digital Nomads:
As fixed office workers move into the growing legions of Digital Nomads it is easy to see how in theory ROI would improve as a result of the increased flexibility, decreased need for office space, improved morale, and other factors.   However these clear advantages must be balanced against the challenges faced by businesses with a mobile workforce.  Are your employees as productive remotely in environments that are often unsupervised?   Are your costs to maintain your Digital Nomads balanced by savings or productivity improvements?
To answer most ROI questions it’s best to try to eliminate as many potentially confusing variables as possible, so a good initial approach to answering the question of ROI might be to task existing employees with the same jobs but allow them for *half their time* to work remotely, not check in to the office for extended periods, and work from home.  During this experiment measure productivity carefully in the two environments – office and mobile – and for most you’ll likely see clear patterns emerge.
Clearly however personalities will matter greatly and it may be wise to experiment with various options to see which of your staff is best suited to the mobile work lifestyle and who will perform best in the office environment.
Our own experience as our travel websites grew to dozens of workers was generally that *closely supervised* workers were generally more productive than unsupervised though we had problems in the office environment (which was very open and relaxed) as well as when we allowed people to work from home.
HP has an excellent series devoted specifically to the issue of improving ROI via a mobile workforce. They point out that the inexpensive availability of secure connectivity via wireless broadband, bluetooth, and other technologies has effectively freed up workers and businesses from the constraints of only a few years ago.
Obviously, some jobs lend themselves beautifully to working at home for companies far away – in effect a form of digital nomad “couch potato”. As FastCompany reports, JetBlue manages a large part of their reservations workforce remotely using mobile technologies.  Jet Blue has a cadre of working moms who use mobile technologies to book flights all over the system.   Highly skilled workers are available who might otherwise not be for office environments, and all that is required are broadband internet connections and phone which can be VOIP.  In this example the ROI is easy to measure as these workers are doing *exactly the same* tasks in our out of the office.
Summary:
Generally I would suggest that mobile workforce ROI will remain highest when you are dealing with highly motivated staff such as management and commissioned employees, and worst (in fact negative) when you are trying to “mobilify” employees who are generally just putting in their time.
Source links:
HP: http://www.hp.com/sbso/productivity/howto/wireless_improveROI/plan-it.html
Fast Company:Â http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/82/jetblue_agents.html
Productivity Tips From Both Sides Of The Project
I lead a very small team that builds and maintains a website. Our group essentially doesn’t exist outside of the internet – we have no office, and no one has physically met everyone else on the team. As I’m both the leader of the project and one of the main programmers, I’ve gained significant experience as both a regular worker and a manager. This article is a collection of productivity and motivation strategies I’ve picked up over the years, in both roles.
As a worker
1. Use your natural cycle
Maybe you like to get up at dawn, or perhaps that’s when you’d rather go to bed. Maybe you prefer to put in a few massive work sessions every week, or perhaps you prefer a whole bunch of smaller ones. With the exception of the occasional scheduled meeting, presentation, or conference, you likely have no fixed hours at all, and you should take advantage of this. You know when you work best, and with no regular schedule or commute to worry about, nothing is stopping you from having exactly the schedule you want. (Of course, if you’re raising a family, this is less true, but you still have far more control over your schedule than you would as an office worker, and you should make use of that fact.)
2. Get enough sleep
What time you choose to sleep may not matter, but getting enough sleep most certainly does. If you end up staying up later than normal, and sleeping in seems like the best option, it’s generally best to do it. You’ll get far more work done in 4 hours while well-rested than you will in 12 hours on no sleep.
3. Minimize distractions when necessary
Sometimes you’re doing work that requires little to no concentration, and particularly if it’s something tedious, having a side distraction going can actually help you get it done faster. When you really need to focus, however, minimize your distractions as much as possible. Close your IM client (or log into a work-only screen name), turn the TV off, etc. If you need a break, take one, but when you’re trying to work hard, make sure you actually can do so.
4. Set goals
It’s quite possible that you don’t have clear deadlines, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have work. It’s a good idea to figure out what you plan to accomplish, and then see where you are at the end of the day. If you don’t meet your personal goal, figure out why. Sometimes it’s not an issue – a task you thought was 4 hours of work was really 10 for instance. If you find that procrastination or excessive breaks are stopping you from getting anything done though, then learn to limit both. Essentially, you need to be your own manager. You can be exactly the type of manager you want of course, but in the end, you’re still expected to have work done, and you need to make sure it gets done.
5. Stay in touch
No one’s work exists in a vacuum, so make sure you know what has and hasn’t been done by others, and what had to be changed – especially those that your work directly connects to. Make sure they have this same info about you, too. If someone needs to change how something is getting built, the others directly affected by the change need to know about it.
6. Take breaks intelligently
You’re not on the clock, and you’re not being watched, so you can take breaks whenever you want to. This has to be done intelligently, however, as it’s easy for a “quick break†to turn into not doing anything that day. Choose break activities that won’t take a huge amount of time, and if you’re really having trouble getting back to work, you may even want to set a timer. This can be especially hard when you’re first starting the nomadic lifestyle, but don’t worry – once you learn to take useful, but not excessive breaks, you’ll find you’re much better off than you were in the office.
7. Break out of the 8 hour mindset
In a traditional office setting, you have to be there for 8 hours, and you have to look busy if the boss checks in – never mind that there might actually only be 4 hours of work for you to do today. In that environment, procrastination isn’t just common, it may be a requirement to keep your job! As a remote worker, this is very much not the case, so learn to actually work at full speed. When the workload is heavy, you’ll have a much easier time getting through it, and when the workload is light, you’ll find yourself with a whole lot of extra free time.
As a manager:
1. Keep track of the project status, and make sure everyone else is aware of it
You can maintain a forum post, send out an email update every few days, or any of a number of options. The method you choose isn’t nearly as important as making sure you’re accurate and reliable in doing this. The simple fact is, many of your employees aren’t going to be in regular contact with each other, and if something goes wrong, they need to know about it. Likewise, make sure there’s a standard way for your employees to let people know when major changes occur. Last but not least, make sure there’s some way to contact you instantly if something goes horribly wrong.
2. Everyone needs to know who can work
If someone is on vacation or sick, this isn’t obvious like it is in an office. You know about it of course, but there’s a good chance they didn’t tell everyone else who should know about this. Make sure you get the word out, especially when it’s going to significantly hinder someone’s work. Better yet, try to get a status board up, and get your employees to update their entry themselves.
3. Plan meetings carefully
Early afternoon is usually best, as it allows for overlap – neither an early morning person nor a late night person should have to significantly alter their sleep cycle to attend. This assumes, of course, that everyone’s in the same or close time zones. If your team is scattered around the world, choosing a good time can be trickier, but still try to be as accommodating as realistically possible – meetings are lot more useful when everyone is awake!
4. Keep track of tasks
Whether you’re assigning tasks, or everyone is choosing what to work on, you should have a good understanding of who is doing what, and whether it’s actually getting done. (You really should have a record of this that everyone can see – this can be a forum, a full project management system, an email relay… etc. As with many things, the method isn’t all that important, but the content is.) It’s usually obvious pretty quickly who isn’t doing much, and don’t be afraid to ask why. If there’s a legitimate roadblock, you should work with the person to fix it. If they’re just procrastinating, you’ll find that in many cases, a gentle nudge and the knowledge that you’re aware they haven’t done anything are sufficient to get them working again. Don’t take this to the extreme, however- no one wants to be micromanaged.
5. Know your team
Regardless of what kind of work you’re doing, there’s almost certainly going to be several different skills involved, and for each skill, different people will have different levels of experience in it, and different levels of interest as well. Try to make sure your workers are usually getting the work they most enjoy, and that if something requires advanced knowledge, it’s being done by someone who has that knowledge. This is of course, basic management, but in a nomadic environment, it may require extra effort to do this well.
6. Keep everyone involved
Everyone wants to have real input on the project, and those who feel they have a voice are going to be a lot more interested in doing quality work. Make sure everyone has the chance to discuss ideas – and to debate them when necessary. Keep in mind that many of your workers have little schedule overlap and little direct contact, so make sure a means for everyone to be involved in a discussion or debate exists – forums are especially useful for this.
What Investment Are You Measuring?
What investment are you talking about measuring the return on? To measure the ROI, there would have to be an investment which was specific to making people mobile. However, the only investment needed to make workers mobile are laptops, VPN, Internet, and mobile phones. And that is part of the daily work portfolio anyway. So what investment do you want to measure?
The underlying assumption is of course “there will be more costs since I can not monitor my employees”. Well, there are a number of sources – from popular books like “the four-hour work week” to serious studies by national research agencies – that people actually become more productive when they are not micro-managed, but can control their own work. Of course, if you change the management philosophy and the work situation and the same time, it is impossible to tell which had which effect. But generally speaking, it will always appear like people are more productive when they become mobile workers.
Those who already are mobile, especially those who travel a lot on business, have no choice. Here, the cost can be significant, though, unless there is free Internet access in the hotel, or you travel in the same country so you escape horrendous data roaming fees for 3G. But any mobile road warrior has been through the same tricks, and knows the cost of not being connected is much, much higher than the 25 euro per day that Swisscom charges in some hotels, for instance. They tend to look for the cheapest connectivity options, because they know how important it is. And the hotels are starting to catch on (although here is a real issue, that not all hotels have, or charge outrageous fees for in-room access). But they are already covered in the measurements of the investment – the cost is part of the travel cost which is part of the standardization budget, or budget for product development, or whatever. The measurement is already in place and there is no specific investment, and the ROI is known and sufficiently high – otherwise, they would not be doing it.
So the simple answer is: Keep using the same measurement methods. There is no specific ROI on mobile workers, because there is no specific investment.
The only thing that has changed is that people are not in the office as often. There are, of course, companies who have tried having less office space by using “hot seats” (not everyone has their own desk), but that generally makes people feel homeless for real. And a small cubicle is not a big investment, even if it is empty most of the time (if it is, you have other problems with the finances of your company).The important thing is to offer people a choice. For some, going to work may actually mean a break from a messy home situation, so it may mean more productivity. For others, it is the other way around. And for those who travel a lot on business, there is no choice.
One issue is that in some countries, the home workplace has to fulfill legal standards. But that investment can be covered by the employee, if there is a need for an investment. Generally speaking, letting someone work from home if they do not have space for it is a bad idea anyway. And in that case, the employee can be responsible for the cost. Or it can be a part of the employment benefits.
So on the whole, there is no specific I to measure the R on. Just keep measuring the productivity of people as usual. It will go up.
The TCO Of A Mobile Workforce
Assuming your IT services are currently sufficient to support a mobile workforce, enabling a mobile workforce is not a question of calculating your return on investment as the majority of a company’s investment will be in the form of defining policies and procedures for this new class of worker. It is more of a measure of the Total Cost of Ownership or in this case, the Total Cost of Employment. This would be the fully burdened cost of an employee including facilities and equipment.
By creating a mobile workforce, your primary reductions will come in the form of overhead. You will be able to reduce the cost of facilities due to few employee’s requiring office space, multiple phone lines, electricity, water, etc. and through the reduction of administrative and governmental overhead such as Insurance, taxes, physical security, facilities management, etc. With a well aligned IT strategy, you could further reduce equipment costs by increasing hardware lifecycle at the same time increasing your data and network security posture.
Beyond the financial TCO aspects, you also have the human element; the intangible benefits of providing a more flexible work environment. With rising gas prices, inflation, cost of living, and the blurring line between work and personal lives, allowing an employee to work from home has enormous qualitative benefits. The employee reduces their gas, maintenance, and vehicle insurance costs. They are able to reclaim 30 minutes to 2 hours plus of their life a day by not having to commute and a reduced stress level for not having to deal with rush hour traffic. All of these things contribute to higher employee satisfaction which in turn creates higher retention. From a hiring perspective, working from home can be viewed as a benefit as many employers do not offer such programs.
With all choices, there are negative aspects as well. Management will require new skill sets to understand how to effectively manage a remote team. Explicit efforts have to be made to build community and team work. Being away from the office can mean some IT related issues are not able to be resolved as quickly or easily which results in extended downtime. Depending on policies, some employees may feel some jealousy regarding those employees who do not have to come into the office. The most common concern is if the employee is not able to be seen, they have more opportunity to ‘goof’ off. On this specific point I disagree. I have had several traditional employees who spent as much time and energy figuring out how to get out of work as it would have taken to just do the work.
The bottom line is just that, look at the bottom line. Try to devise ways that you can reduce costs by allowing your employees to work from home instead of trying to quantify why you should allow them to work from home.
Psychology of being a Digital Nomad
Working independently has many benefits. You skip the commute, you have a small share of office politics, etc.
Though, what many people forget, is that being part of a group is very important in getting work done. It is important to share thoughts with colleagues, not only clients.
Working alone can be very productive at times, but be aware that based on work load, work intensity there might be times when there is no energy to work through long to-do lists, tasks and all the needed building blocks for todays work.
My guess is that there is a specific psychology attached to this that should be explored and understood. Such a psychology of digital nomads should provide a holistic view of what is needed to stay motivated and productive over longer periods, including ups and downs of such a work style.
As a checklist such a psychology should be based on a classic Masslow pyramid. The key of this model is that there are human needs that must be fulfilled and that the lower levels must be satisfied before higher levels can be addressed.
It might be a mistake to look at new work styles only by “Self-Actualization”, which is the dream of many and often a misunderstanding about working as a free-lancer and/or a digital nomad. (My source for this: Steve McConnell, Software Project Survival Guide”, 1998, Microsoft Press, ISBN 1-57231-621-7).
What are the hierarchies?
(Turning the pyramide upside down, starting on the low levels…)
Physiological Needs
(food, air, water, etc.)
Safety Needs
(avoid pain, fear, and insecurity)
——–
Social Contats, Belongingness and Love
Self-Esteem
Self-Actualization
………..
It might be a distortion only to look a successful “digital nomads” and think that they have achieved “self-actualization” as the first step. My guess is that you have to go through all stages, starting at the bottom, to reach the higher levels and stay there for a longer time.
This might be obvious to everyone who went through all the cycles of independent, entrepreneurial work. But making newcomers aware that there is a need for a strong base from which you can build such a lifestyle might be important.
This is open for comments, of course.
Protect Yourself And Your Data
Physical Security for the Road Warrior
In this digital age, it is easy to overlook the critical element of physical security. Put simply, it is often far more efficient to steal or gain access to a physical object like a laptop or flash drive than to break into a computer system. And despite the sanitary and controlled environments many mobile employees often travel in, risks to personal safety are real. Therefore, it is sensible to consider the physical security needs of the road warrior.
Protecting Your Data
Digital Nomads love gadgets, but so do thieves. According to a 2008 Ponemon Institute study for Dell, over 12,000 laptop computers are lost in US airports each week, and 70% of these are never reclaimed. Other studies have shown similar losses at public places like restaurants, hotels, and parking lots. Thumb drives, portable hard drives, and smart phones share the top of the most-stolen list with laptop computers.
Because these are often crimes of opportunity, the simplest protective measure is to keep these devices under ones personal control at all times. Never ask a stranger to watch your bag, and do not leave computers or peripherals unattended in conference rooms or hotels. Special care is needed when passing through airport security: Never put your laptop or other valuable items through the scanner first, since you may be delayed while passing through the metal detector. Instead, place them in the middle or rear of your items so they will remain inside the x-ray machine longer.
Most hotel rooms have safes available, and these should be used whenever you must leave your laptop or other valuables behind. Although they are not foolproof, they are much more secure than car trunks, cable locks, or bell desks. If a safe is not available or is too small, use a Kensington lock to secure your laptop computer to a bulky and sturdy object like a desk. These will not stop a determined thief, but should be enough to discourage a snatcher.
Protecting Yourself
Many of us wrongly assume we are safe in the familiar surroundings of offices, hotels, airports, and restaurants. The rolling suitcase, airline ticket, and laptop bag marks us as targets even in these environments, and serve as enticing evidence of loot to be had.
One of the best ways of protecting one’s safety when traveling is always to be aware and prepared. Get directions ahead of time instead of asking or driving around. Consider whether your surroundings put you at risk: Select hotels in safer neighborhoods or where access is more controlled. Avoid public transportation when toting cumbersome bags, even if you would happily take it alone. Spending a bit more money is preferable to losing your valuables or coming to harm.
When you are away from the office or hotel, dress like a local and watch out for too-friendly strangers. Most people are helpful to others, but avoid those who ask prying questions of offer extravagant services. Con-men often prey on travelers, waiting near hotels, airports, and offices. For example, never take an un-licensed limousine or taxi since these nearly always end up being more costly or risky than desired.
Business travel can be enjoyable, but one must always be careful to avoid becoming a victim!
Tangibles and Intangibles of Digital Nomads
To gain good perspective on the ROI of digital nomads it’s important to look at both tangible gains like reduced facility expenses and intangible factors like employee morale and the security of intellectual property.
The leadership inside many organizations has a tendency to focus on tangible benefits. That kind of benefit usually takes the form of numbers that are comfortable in their black and white symbolism. The problem with that approach is that it can often lead to shortsighted decision making and quickly lead an organization toward mediocrity or worse.
The table below illustrates the theoretical costs and gains realized from a set of tangible benefits. Values will scale to a cost of -100 to a gain of 100. This provides a model for discussion without the distraction of company-specific metrics.
View the table in html.
Now take a look at intangible benefits using the same scale.
View the table in html.
With this analysis, it’s clear that the business is benefitting strongly by utilizing digital nomads, though individual organizations are sure to allocate valuations differently. This is simply a tool meant to provide clarity and direction.
Building A Team
Getting to know the other members of the team can be tough. Using videoconference technology helps break down some of the barriers. Applications like Skype that combine voice and video have proven to be very effective. A more costly approach would be a full telepresence solution, something to do maybe monthly or quarterly.
Letting a team or project have team page, Sharepoint or other collaboration suite, allows them to express themselves. In the past I have created a “yellow pages†of team members with a small bio, photo, skills, past project and roles. This has gone a long way to helping people connect and find like minded individuals to help them.
Don’t be afraid to create sites on products like Facebook to allow the team to bond in the same way that you would after work.
Collaboration
It is very easy to work in isolation and lose track of progress and goals. There are lots of virtual rooms where teams can meet and share ideas. From full blown solutions like WebEx or HP Rooms down to more simple solutions like Net Meeting or AOL Instant Messenger that allow desktop and application sharing. Being able to walk through a project plan, mind map or document in this way helps individuals buy in to the process.
Voice of the team
It is very easy to work in the silence of email. Having a reservationless conference bridge is a good way to get the team meeting frequently. Be wary of cultural and individual sensitivities, it may prevent people from speaking out in public. Consider using tools like WebEx or Yahoo Messenger to create an environment where people can ask questions to be picked up in the call. These also allow you to publish the chat as a call back channel for easy reference later on.
Forums
Forums or groups offer two vital aspects that are missed in virtual teams:
- Adhoc conversation
- Knowledge management
Most people learn what’s going by talking to colleagues, not be reading the press release type emails preferred by senior management. Instant messengers help keep people connected and most now allow many-to-many chat. IM is becoming the virtual water cooler and like those conversations it is volatile as it is easily lost. Forums provide an outlet for knowledge sharing and idea generation and development. They could be in the form specific software or using a blog approach. Sharepoint offers structured content, discussions and blogs and has the benefit of being able to be deployed as an extranet solution which is key to virtual teams.
Also worth considering are Google Docs and Calendar as a way of actively sharing information, can be constrained by IT security policy. Dabble with platforms like Jeteye that allow users to share bookmarks, if joined with Meebo it also allows conversations to be stored and shared.
