Telecommuting: Managing Off-site Staff for Small Business

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

Checklists, charts, sample forms, examples, and case studies—all the
trademark characteristics of a Self-Counsel book—are found here.
What’s surprising is the depth of coverage of the topic, the balanced
perspective, and the up-to-date content.

Comprehensive research and a willingness to consider both the positives
and negatives of telecommuting make this book stand out as an authority
among the sudden tidal wave of books on the topic. Grensing-Pophal’s
definition of telecommuting sets the tone: “[B]ring the work to the
worker rather than the worker to the work.” The text is simple, clear,
beautiful in the way it demystifies the subject. It is also
straightforward, uncomplicated, and well organized with a logical flow.

The scope is broad, covering recruiting, hiring, training, monitoring,
motivating, and evaluating telecommuters. There’s a discussion of what
makes a good candidate for this way of working and suggestions for a
management stance that will head off the problem of those who want to
telecommute but are not good choices. Policies and procedures,
challenges, and measuring outcomes all receive attention from both the
employee’s and employer’s perspective. Web site references are
plentiful. One couldn’t ask for more.