Telecommuting News

Corporate Telecommuting Profile:
Bob Fortier, President, Canadian Telework Association

by Mark Stokes

The State of Telecommuting in Canada

There are 1 million teleworkers right now in Canada out of atotal population (working or not) of 30 million people. Thismeans that 3.33% of the whole nation of Canada is working viatelecommuting. The figure becomes even more significant when it'sestimated that the working population is around 18 million, soteleworkers consitute 5.5% of everyone working.

Compared to the United States, the figures are fairly close:there are 11 million commuters in the U.S. out of a totalpopulation of 250 million (4.4%), many of whom are in structuredcompany telecommuting programs.

According to Bob Fortier, President of the Canadian TeleworkAssociation (CTA), "most of this has occurred informally inCanada, as in companies by and large don't have structured,applied telecommuting programs in place. Employees and theirsupervisors have simply worked out these arrangements betweenthemselves. This grassroots, bootstrapped effort is due to anumber of factors:

• Canada has one of the world's lowest cost per capita ofcomputers, software, and Internet connectivity in the world
  
  
• Many Canadians have longer than usual commute distances to work
  
  
• Winter weather can be daunting for commuters
  
  
• Not many companies have instituted formal telecommutingprograms to date

This combination of influences has created a prime,self-motivated core of teleworkers that can only grow fromexperience.

Mr. Fortier founded the CTA one year ago to meet the needs ofexisting teleworkers and to support the obvious growth of thistrend. With 300 members now and growing daily, over 1000corporate and individual registrants for their online TeleworkJob Matching Board and growing too, he sees nowhere to go but up.

The CTA is a premier resource of its kind in the country, and theonly one offering an online telework job matching program. Thenon-profit organization is dedicated to promoting telework inCanada, with members from all walks of Canadian life, whetherindividuals, small businesses, corporations or governments, whowish to share information or best practices.Its goals are to:

• provide national leadership for the promotion and developmentof telework, and telework programs and initiatives across all ofCanada
  
  
• build a national network of telework experts and resources
  
  
• become the leading source of information and recommendationsfor the private sector, government, and media
  
  
• seek endorsement for telework from public, private and mediadecision-makers
  
  
• provide an open forum for the exchange of information betweenmembers

"The interesting thing about the CTA," says Fortier, "is that weourselves are truly virtual - we telecommute too. Our 10-memberBoard of Directors is scattered across the country, we've neverhad one face to face meeting, and many of us don't know what eachother looks like. We do all of our work by...telework." Fortieralso serves on the Board of the Washington D.C.-basedInternational Telework Association http://www.telecommute.org,and manages his own telework consulting company calledInnovisions Canada which shares the website with the CTA at http://www.ivc.ca.

Lag Between GoGetters and Corporations

So why isn't Corporate Canada up to speed on this? According toFortier, he feels that "resistance to telework by companies hasbeen primarily due to lack of time to address the issue. There'sbeen a recent wave of downsizing in Canada, so the averagemanager is typically dealing with more work in the same timeframe with fewer employees to do the work and just can't handlesomething new."

Another factor is managerial resistance - old school thinking,managers not trusting employees to deliver of their own accord,and faulty impressions of telework - that it costs too much, itdoesn't really work, we need to observe our employees working,etcetera.

"Through the CTA, more information is reaching individuals andcorporations about the benefits and risks involved inteleworking, which in turn is changing attitudes," Fortier notes."There is an information hurdle and then a learning curve, butwith that comes the perception that, hey, telework can be alegitimate work arrangement."

Good examples of companies and organizations that have programsto varying degrees are Northern Telecom Canada, Bell Canada, theCanadian Federal Government, and the British Columbia Government.Nortel is the only one with a formal, established program inplace are part of overall company operations.

Advice About Telecommuting for Individuals and Companies

According to Fortier, the CTA currently has 300 members and isgrowing daily, and 1000 workers have signed up on the CTA JobBoard for potential matches to high tech employers. It'simportant to note that both Canadians and those from othercountries are welcome to list themselves for no charge on the JobBoard, and that for now membership in the Association is free.You can visit the Job Board at http://www.ivc.ca/part19.html.TheCTA plans to offer non-technical job matching on the board aswell within the next few months.

He suggests that anyone interested in telework/telecommuting cangain a great deal from the CTA website athttp://www.ivc.ca/part3.html. Included here are:

• Telework Information
• The Canadian Scene
• Jobs and Telework
• Canadian Telework Job Board
• Broader Impacts,
• Telecommute America
• Telework and Office Space
• Timeshifting
• Distance Education ... and more.