Striving to keep teleworkers happy

IBM’s efforts to create a flexible work environment have been so successful that 40% of its 330,000 employees work from home, on the road, or at a client location on any given day. But a few years ago, the company realized that as its staff became more distributed, employee morale was weakening.

In the region Dan Pelino inherited in 2002, barely half of IBM workers surveyed by the company said they thought morale was good. Employees felt they lacked a strong connection to their peers, they were missing out on mentoring relationships, and institutional knowledge wasn’t being passed down within the company, says Pelino, who today is general manager of IBM’s global healthcare and life sciences business. Internally, employees joked that “IBM” stood for “I’m by myself,” he recalls.

The predicament IBM faced is common among companies that strive to provide nontraditional work arrangements. How do you offer flexibility without sacrificing corporate culture?

Employees who work from home or in remote branch offices often feel disconnected from corporate life and worry they will be forgotten and bypassed for promotions. Managers and employees have to make a concerted effort to stay in touch, experts say.

It’s a realization that typically comes after the technology hurdles have been crossed and IT departments have successfully outfitted employees with the gear and services they need to work from home or on the road. That’s when many companies realize the alienation issue is lurking throughout corporate outposts.

At IBM, Pelino and others set out to improve corporate culture. The company sparked new life into an old tradition: IBM Club, which brings together employees for intramural sports, picnics, movies and other types of social, cultural and recreational activities.

IBM Clubs organize activities for employees in a geographic area, says Mary-Ann O’Connor, a work/life flexibility and mobility specialist at IBM who has traveled the world to revive the network of IBM Clubs. The clubs are run independently by local volunteers, and the common thread is that “they all allow people to come together, to network, to get to know each other,” she says. Membership has grown to 90,000 today.

IBM also launched mentoring programs and set out to improve the way knowledge is transferred from longtime employees to more recent hires. Executives like Pelino began to rethink the way they acquired office space, taking into account a more transient population and including mobile-friendly options such as wireless access and unified messaging.