ICT, virtual offices and flexible work options: marketing and implementation strategies

Abstract

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have created a scenario where geographic location is no longer important. A virtual office (VO) is a work site situated outside of the traditional office where people still execute traditional administrative services supported by ICT, as opposed to employees who traditionally commuted to corporate offices. A teleworker is defined as a full-time corporate employee working at any other geographic location away from the corporate office during normal business hours for one or more days each month. The implications, as investigated in a holistic research project, which resulted in a doctoral thesis, found significant advantages to the corporate environment. These include improved work and personal life experiences for human resources (HR), improved environmental and social circumstances, a significant paradigm shift in the corporate management arena and revised education and training curricula or interventions providing formal and informal training interventions. In this article the focus is on relevant strategies, as investigated and implemented by Absa in order to launch telework in SA, where ICT was found to effectively sustain such initiatives.