After raising the issue of teleworking to save on fuel consumption, I received some questions from IT managers wondering how to take the theoretical into the practical.

In other words, it’s easy to say more companies should allow particular employees to work from home, but getting management to act upon that good-will gesture requires a bit more strategic thinking.

IT staffs are instrumental in making teleworking a reality. Yes, it takes more than IT, but IT is spearheading the effort in many forward-thinking organizations. Here are some best practices to get the rest of the company on board:

1.) Identify which positions can work from home, and how many employees fall into those categories.

2.) Talk to the business-unit leaders of those areas of the company. Explain how IT can help with the implementation and transition to teleworking. Explain how such a move will make employees more loyal and reduce turnover.

3.) Work with the facilities staff to build a cost model. Determine the facilities cost for keeping these employees at the office, vs. working from home full-time or part-time using an office-sharing arrangement when they come into the corporate building.
4.) Determine the IT costs for both work-at-the-office and work-at-home environments. Factor in networking costs, implementation, help desk, hardware, software, new management tools required. Nemertes has found that cost to be $6,000 per employee, on average.

5.) Present the case to the CIO or other high-ranking IT executive first to get their buy-in. Depending on the corporate culture, you and/or the CIO can take the case to the executive team to win approval.

Obviously, there are more steps in between, but the key is to build consensus among decision-makers and influencers in the company. At the same time, it’s crucial to understand the cost issues involved.

These steps go beyond the day-to-day responsibility of running IT. So why bother? Three key reasons. First, it shows initiative for those interested in moving into a more strategic IT or business position. Second, it provides the IT staff with new challenges and opportunities to work with new collaborative technologies and connectivity services. Finally, it helps to save colleagues money on the rising cost of gasoline.

Robin Gareiss is executive vice president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research. Click  here for the newsletter archive.