Telecommuting project falls on deaf ears as businesses are slow to sign up workers.

Telecommuting project falls on deaf ears as businesses are slow to sign up workers

Organizers of a $300,000 demonstration telecommuting project to cut freeway traffic are having a hard time finding companies to participate, partly, they say, because managers are reluctant to give up control over their employees.

The neighborhood work center, set to open next month, is the first telecommunications project of its kind in California -- in effect, a satellite office for telecommuting workers from a variety of companies. It is designed to get people who live in San Bernardino County but work in Los Angeles County off the road. It is estimated there are about 45,000 of them clogging the San Bernardino Freeway every day.

But so far, although banking, aerospace and airline companies from downtown Los Angeles to El Segundo have shown interest in it, they have been reluctant to sign up, said Susan LeDuc, regional manager of the inland empire office of CTS Inc., a private corporation, also known as Commuter Computer.

"In the business community there is a lot of concern (about telecommuting employees)," said LeDuc. "How do they know they're working at home? How do they know they are not watching soap operas?"

The center consists of 30 work stations in 4,300 square feet of office space in Ontario, just off the San Bernardino Freeway, set up to serve employees of Los Angeles County companies who live in Ontario, Upland, Rancho Cucamonga and Alta Loma, LeDuc said. Officials hope the demonstration works well enough that it is repeated in other residential areas that supply Los Angeles' work force.

The facility is one form of telecommuting, a traffic reduction strategy in which employees do their work via computer terminals rather than traveling to the office. Most telecommuters work at home and phone into the office.

Elham Shirazy, a transportation consultant and co-chairman of the national Telecommuting Advisory Council, agreed that managers' reluctance to allow employees to work at home has been a stumbling block in the growth of the phenomenon.

Nevertheless, telecommuting, defined as company employees who work at home part- or full-time during normal business hours, increased 38 percent nationwide last year, according to a study by Link Resources Corp., a New York-based research company that studies how computers, fax machines and phones affect lifestyles and workstyles. About 5.5 million Americans were telecommuters in 1991, as compared to 4 million in 1990, according to the Link study.

In Southern California, telecommuting is one of the most popular -- with employees, at least -- but least available traffic reduction strategies that companies use, according to a telephone survey of 2,568 area residents conducted by Commuter Transportation Services.

Ninety percent of employees who were offered the chance to telecommute took it, according to the 1991 State of the Commute Survey.

But it was one of the least offered strategies.

Telecommuting was reported to be offered twice as much by small companies of 25 employees or less -- 15 percent of the time -- as compared to 7 percent by companies with 100 or more employees, according to the survey.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District requires that companies with 100 or more employees file traffic reduction plans outlining how they intend to reduce employee trip emissions. Of the 5,060 plans filed with the district, 964, or roughly 20 percent of the companies, are using telecommuting as a way to cut down on employee trips, said John Reimers, manager of the transportation program for the AQMD.

Other traffic reduction strategies to meet the requirements include carpooling, vanpooling, mass transit, and biking and walking to work, he said. Telecommuting was much less used than carpooling and mass transit, but was used more than biking and walking, Reimers said.

Shirazy said that employers' concerns about telecommuting are unfounded. In a study of hundreds of Los Angeles County employees who telecommute, Shirazy found that measurable productivity increased by 20 to 40 percent.

Over the years, Shirazy said, she has talked to 600 telecommuters and their managers in focus groups and "I'm not hearing from anyone that people are not doing their work."

One of the reasons telecommuting is successful is that employers typically offer it to their best and most trusted employees. Telecommuting consultants advise that it be offered to top producing employees, Shirazy added.

However, she said, telecommuting is not for everybody.

People who have children or spouses at home often find it difficult to work there, Shirazy said. Some people have difficulty in separating work from home and run the risk of becoming workaholics, she added.

The neighborhood work center was set up, in part, to allay employers' fears about employees goofing off, LeDuc said. Managers "seem to be more comfortable if the employee is in an office environment" as opposed to home.

But companies, even ones that donated equipment to the project, were wary about signing up to participate, LeDuc said. She said part of the problem may be solved when the work center is open and company executives are able to tour it.

"The ideal rollout of this demonstration is that we would see even smaller versions of this center in residential areas," DeLuc said.

PHOTO : Telecommuting: Taking the hassle out of getting to work