The Viability of telework in Sri Lanka

Abstract

Sri Lankan commuters daily face problems of transport in traveling to and from their places of work. Traffic Congestion, poor road conditions and an inadequate public transport system creates unnecessary hassles and stress for the average commuter. The aim of this research was to ascertain if tele working can be introduced as a viable alternative mode of working to eradicate the problems faced in commuting as well as bring about economical, environmental and social benefits in terms of increased productivity, reduced real estate and administration costs, less pollution and improved quality of life for employees. The objectives of this project arc to identify critical success factors for tele working and determine if Sri Lanka is able to meet the needs for tele working, and to find out what the perceptions of information workers and their employees arc with regard to tele working. A survey was carried out by means of e-mail questionnaires and telephone interviews and also with face to face interviews with a few employers to get their feedback on the subject. Ii was found that many employees seem agreeable with the idea of tele work. and also that several employers would not mind certain of their employees tele working. But was also found that several 'challenges exist in relation to tele work. Prom an employees point of view certain assumed benefits such as enablement of mere free time and savings in costs were not perceived. Similarly employers thought that employees being disciplined to tele work, security concerns, difficulty of monitoring &measuring performance and opposition from senior management would be obstacles to tele work. Also employees did not see much benefit from tele work in the aspects of improving productivity and cutting costs. Therefore although a rather positive answer was received regarding willingness to tele work of both employees and employers, many future challenges which need to be addressed before adopting tele work were also found.