We just came across an interesting article by Rieva Lesonsky, the CEO of GrowBiz Media, a media company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. The article talks about how small businesses can benefit from promoting remote work or having their employees work from home. Lesonsky references a survey conducted by 7th Sense Research that found that “60 % of employees said they could do their jobs remotely, and 72% prefer to work at home.” However, the survey also showed that 73% of companies surveyed didn’t have a formal policy for remote work.

In March of 2010, the White House hosted a forum on Workplace Flexibility and released a report by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers that highlighted benefits of remote work including “reducing absenteeism, lowering turnover, improving the health of workers, and increasing productivity.”

The benefits of implementing remote work policies include:

* Reduction of over-head expenses
* Increase in employee productivity
* Reduction of employee turnover

But, how about remote internships? Can it work? More and more we see position descriptions on our Internship Board that describe internship programs where the intern has the opportunity to do a certain number of hours of remote work per week or to only do remote work. This can be extremely beneficial not only to the employer but also for the intern because there’s no transportation cost and it gives the interns a chance to show maturity and responsibility by completing their tasks even if they are not under direct supervision.

The Regional internship Center has worked with hundreds of employers and internship seekers to promote the best internship programs for our region. We understand how important flexibility is for both employers and interns. Employers are aware that their interns have classes to attend and papers to turn in in addition to the work they do for their internship programs.

In return, interns are aware that, by doing an internship program, you are part of a team and it’s important to be conscious of their responsibilities within the organization. Once again, being flexible is part of the deal. For this reason we decided to bring up the remote work topic to the table and let you decide if this strategy could work for your organization.

Image extracted from: Chicago Tribune

The Workplace Bullying Institute posted a really interesting article by Rex Huppke of the Chicago Tribune, “Bullies are Bad for Bottom Line.” The well-known institute is an organization dedicated to the eradication of workplace bullying. We have previously published two posts on the RIC blog talking about workplace bullying as we believe it’s an important subject to be presented to employers and to the upcoming workforce.

According to the article, the American “work culture that often rewards aggressiveness, bullies have a nasty tendency of succeeding at work.” Does that sound familiar? As much as 35% of the U.S. workforce has been victim of workplace bullies.

What differentiates workplace bullies from the classic high-school bullying is the absence of physical violence. While high school kids resort to physical aggression to intimidate their victims, workplace bullies know that this kind of behavior could cost their job.

The abusive conduct of workplace bullies is something that’s done on a regular basis for a continuous period of time. The article contains a quote from Timothy Dimoff, founder of SACS Consulting & Investigative Services, an Ohio-based company that specializes in high-risk workplace and human resource issues. Dimoff states: “It’s constant and repetitive; someone who’s using different means of harassment, whether it’s complaining about the person, spreading rumors, blaming them, encouraging others not to talk to the person. It’s more psychological and emotional abuse.”

Workplace bullies often make jokes about a co-worker in front of other people in a consistent and repetitive manner, demeaning them even in subtle ways. This kind of behavior can lead the victim of the abuse to serious physical and mental health problems.

We previously discussed the “Effects of Workplace Bullying on Employee Productivity” but employers must know that not only the victim of the abuse is not being as productive as they normally would. Think about how much time and energy is spent by workplace bullies on making jokes, and actively engaging in abusive behaviors.

Additionally, workplace bullies can often criticize or take credit for the victim’s work. This sends a lot of misleading information to management. It means managers will not be able to accurately gage who is doing a good job in the team, who should be promoted or get a raise, and who is setting the rest of the group back.

Also on the Chicago Times article, Dr. Gary Namie, founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute, invites employers to ask themselves about the cost that workplace bullies generated for their organizations. Can you gage how many talented and accomplished professionals your workplace bullies have driven away? Do you know how much work time is eaten up with employers having to deal with workplace bullies?

Employers must be aware and know how to deal with these situations. After all, it is the employer’s responsibility to create a work environment that repels workplace bullies and promotes collaboration.