Technology developments that have brought the Internet, Skype, satellite television and other communication services to even remote corners of the world now allow us to live and work virtually anywhere, providing the new American expat generation global job opportunities.
The core of the new American expat generation – the primarily 18-to-34-year-old Millennial Generation – is technology-savvy and masters of multi-tasking. And they are ready to take on the world in search of adventure, new job opportunities and a more satisfying work/life balance.
One of the growing enablers of fulfilling the expat dreams of this new generation is teleworking, or working independent of location. About 10 percent of Americans now telework from home, according the U.S. Bureau of Census (2010).
To get a better understanding of what teleworking is and the job opportunities it represents, we interviewed the President, CEO and Co-Founder of the Telework Coalition (TelCoa), Chuck Wilsker.
“The term telework was actually coined in 1973,” Wilsker said, “but technology-enabled telework probably came in the late 1990s with the widespread adoption of DSL, cable and satellite broadband connections. Good broadband and collaborative software provides all the tools needed for teleworking communication.”
Many developed countries in the world provide Internet connection faster than the U.S. In a study done in 2013 by the United Nations Broadband Commission, the U.S. ranked just twentieth in the percent of broadband connections per 100 people. Switzerland was number one. Singapore had the most access to the Internet via mobile broadband and Hong Kong led all countries in connection speed, a blazing 70 megabits per second. The U.S. clocks in at an average of 20 megabytes per second.
“Now we can say, ‘let’s use Skype in an hour,’” Wilsker said. “All of a sudden we have five, 10, 11 images on the screen. We can all look at whiteboards, share documents and do many other collaborative things.”
Technology is not a barrier to teleworking in most countries. But employer perceptions may be. “To allow someone to telework is a matter of trust,” Wilsker said. “The employer has to trust the employee to be able to work independent of location, and the employer has to have the metrics available to be able to judge the amount of productivity that someone is putting in. Productivity cannot be measured by time spent, it has to be made on output.”
Productivity improvements are what companies are looking for in the implementation of teleworking programs. “The studies we show are in the neighborhood of 22 percent productivity improvement,” Wilsker said. “American Express did one several years ago with their people working from home and showed that their people were 45 percent more productive teleworking. I’ve seen some, though, as low as 5 percent.”
Organization policies and procedures, though, are still the biggest barriers to teleworking programs, according to Wilsker. “If you want to have meetings with teleworkers, you’re going to have to do some time shifting. How do you get them to collaborate when you’re 12 hours away? A lot of organizations require their people, for example, to keep certain hours.”
We asked Wilsker to describe a typical teleworker. “It’s going to be somebody who has the capability of working independently,” he said. “Also, those looking for a better work/life balance.
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