Hi Don,

You've received some excellent comments here. A few additional items from the perspective of someone who's been on both sides of this fence:

-- Communication is important, but planning is equally (if not more) important. "Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance" is a poster-board yawner, but it's true. The most successful projects with which I've been involved have ALL possessed a solid "battle plan" and someone with enough stamina and clout to adjust and enforce that plan without any corporate BS getting in the way.

-- Managing off-site consultants is more difficult than managing telecommuting employees. However, it's easier to get a consultant to "go the extra mile" when the chips are down and you need something fast. This may not be everyone's opinion -- this has just been *my* experience in this area. The quality of work, however, has NOT differed significantly between the two groups due to their compensation arrangements; instead, it depends on the personnel in the groups.

-- I prefer to work as a consultant AND with consultants. Why? While it's harder to find good ones with available time for YOUR work, it's easier to "not have to deal" with the ones who aren't producing. If a consultant isn't cutting the mustard, then they don't receive any (or as many) tasks, and those tasks they do receive are "cut and dried" tasks where the time and compensation are within a narrow range. You can't always do that with a telecommuting employee, especially one who might have been there for a long time and is "known".

-- Remember, also, that timely production is only one factor in evaluating an off-site person. Are they available when you need them? Do they always seem "otherwise occupied" when you talk to them? Does their work always have to be "tweaked"? Is their work maintainable and understandable by other team members? Can *they* understand work done by the other team members? There's a lot of "intangibles" that must be considered for off-site persons which normally would just be "figured into the mix" if that person were on-site.

These are just some other thoughts...


>Good evening all.
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>I am increasing working with folks who work at home or at least work outside of our office. If someone works in the office, you have a general sense of when things are going well and how fast an assignment is getting completed.
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>It's different when someone works outside the office. Communications are much less frequent and there is not any of the "hanging around the water cooler" chatter that gives you a sense of where things are.
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>I was wondering how other shops handle the issue of measuring employee productivity of those who work outside of the office? Are there any rules of thumb, or other guidelines? Do you have any business rules that work without pi**ging off the employee?
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>Subcontracting is not really an option. The folks working outside of the office are people we know and like and who know our customers and our business. Subcontracting would waste huge amounts of time because the scope of every task would have to be explained.
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>Thanks
>Don Lowrey