Teleworking and remote working are two very similar concepts. They’re both unique job arrangements that involve working from home. But, at the same time, they are different in quite a few ways.
In this article, we’ll explore the differences between telework and remote work. We’ll cover which industries use which, and why you may prefer one over the other.
Exploring telework
Let’s begin with the rarer of the two terms: telework. You may not have heard of it, but you’re certainly familiar with its concept.
What is telework?
Teleworking involves employees completing tasks outside of but close to their offices. This means that a typical teleworking professional will live near their employer but work mostly from home. That being said, teleworking often requires staff to be in the office for certain tasks. This includes mainly collaborative ones such as meetings and discussions. Such arrangements aim to combine the best of working from home and from an office, which can have lots of benefits.
What industries use telework?
Teleworking is used in all sorts of industries worldwide. These include everything from marketing and writing to development and IT. The main requirement for teleworking is that tasks can be completed from home. After all, working from home is a major part of such arrangements. Telework is also popular in companies that want to switch to working from home but rely heavily on collaboration.
The downsides of telework
One of the key downsides of telework comes down to management. In teleworking arrangements, you will need to manage your team members both in the office and outside of it. This can be challenging if you don’t use productivity software at your company, such as a time tracking solution like WebWork.
Understanding remote work
Now, let’s explore the more popular working arrangement: remote work.
What is remote work?
Remote working arrangements are pretty self-explanatory. They involve professionals working remotely outside of an office, typically from their homes. But, people work remotely from all sorts of other locations as well. In fact, these locations don’t even have to be close to their employer’s offices. Many companies take advantage of this fact to hire talent from other countries. This can have several advantages, especially for upstart businesses. Not having a geographical restriction benefits employees as well, as finding better positions becomes easier.
Where is remote work used?
Just like telework, remote working arrangements can be used in a variety of firms. They share the same requirements, namely the ability for tasks to be completed at home. It is more suitable for smaller and startup firms that may not have the resources for an office. Managing employees will also be easier as you won’t have to do so both at the office and outside of it. But, the location freedom of remote work makes it more limited in a few key areas.
The downsides of remote work
The biggest disadvantage of remote working is collaboration. While you can improve remote collaboration with productivity tools, it won’t be as effective as working together in person. This can be especially important for collaboration-heavy work environments. As a result, teams in such environments are not well suited to remote work.
The key differences of telework vs remote work
Having learned about telework and remote work, we can now explore their differences.
Location
Work location is an important difference between telework and remote work. As mentioned earlier, telework is done outside of an office but near to one. Remote work, meanwhile, has no restrictions on location. This is one of the biggest differences between the two and can be a deciding factor for those undecided about which to use.
Environment
The work environment can play a major role in employee productivity. In fact, it can be enough of a concern for some managers to use employee GPS tracking to ensure their team works in distraction-free environments. Teleworking can have a slight advantage in this area, especially if they spend the majority of their work hours in the office.
Technological requirements
The requirements of both arrangements are pretty similar. But, there’s one key difference for those who work on computers. Teleworking will require either one portable device or two stationary ones. With remote working, on the other hand, the type of the device doesn’t matter much. For most professions, this won’t be a cause for concern. But, for those who need powerful hardware like engineers and 3D artists, this could be a challenge.
Work-life balance
The differences in the work-life balance of teleworking and remote working will vary greatly for different people. Those who have a hard time switching off from work may be better suited to teleworking. Others, however, could take advantage of the freedoms of remote working without any negative side effects.
The role of time trackers in teleworking and remote working
If you’re looking to implement teleworking or remote working at your business, you might be looking for ways to simplify the process. An excellent one involves productivity software that’s popular in lots of industries: time trackers.
Track working hours
The most obvious way time trackers can help with anything is by tracking work hours. By doing this, you can ensure your team members are doing their tasks when they’re supposed to. Time trackers can be invaluable not only for out-of-office periods of teleworking and remote working but also for in-office sessions.
Monitor productivity
When implementing any out-of-office work arrangement, productivity is one of the biggest concerns managers have. After all, it is harder to tell if your team members are working at any given time. But, a time tracker can completely solve this issue. Using a solution like WebWork, you can see what your staff are working on right now. Besides this, the tracker offers many other features that make managing remote employees simple.
Choosing a time tracker for teleworking and remote working
If you’re looking for a time tracker for teleworking and remote working, you should consider one with lots of functionalities. This will help you ensure that your team is productive during work hours. Using features such as task management, app and website usage tracking, and activity level tracking can transform your company’s work process.
The future of telework vs remote work
Before summing up this article, let’s briefly cover what the future of teleworking and remote working looks like. Because the two are so similar, people will likely continue using the more popular term to refer to both concepts. Regardless of what they’re called, data suggests that they will continue growing in popularity. These remote working arrangements will benefit both businesses and their employees in the long run.
Final thoughts
Both telework and remote work offer many advantages. Regardless of which one you choose, they can enhance your team’s work-life balance and boost productivity. As more professionals demand these arrangements, knowing the differences between the two is vital. This can help you make better decisions for your business to speed up its growth over the long-term future.
