Teleworking is One of Today's Needs

Thursday, March 24, 2011
There are so many reasons why telecommuting is big right now: Childcare support, elderly care, earthquakes, influenza scares, commuting and labor efficiency, CO2 reduction, free desk, cost reduction, community activation, etc.
Ever since the establishment of Japan's "2003 eJapan strategy II," more companies are supporting "teleworking" and the population of teleworkers has risen to approximately 20%. In Japan most teleworkers work at home after pre-determining the content of work and time it will take to finish. (Also see: A Workflow for a Telecommuting System)

Today's workflow system is a general workflow for providing work instructions. This makes work instructions, schedule adjustments and management of results transparent. Being able to clearly allocate and instruct work is essential in teleworking.

<Tasks>
1. Instruct Work, 2. Reply Schedule, 3. Approve Schedule, 4a. Additional Instructions, 4b. Register Results, 5. Confirm Completion

[Telecommuting <Suggest Work> : "" screen]


With the above workflow, when task 5 is finished, task 4a also automatically ends. This is done with the Terminate End Event (BPMN terminology BPMN = Business Process Model and Notation).

Data such as "amount of work completed" and "ratio of work completed within deadlines" should be part of the information reviewed at monthly and/or quarter meetings. We might want to consider a workflow that allows employees to suggest work content. (below)


<Tasks>
0. Suggest Work, 1. Instruct Work, 2. Reply Schedule, 3. Approve Schedule, 4a. Additional Instructions, 4b. Register Results, 5. Confirm Completion