Teleworking: Building capacity, sustaining rural and regional communities, and creating opportunities for women

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Executive Summary

A Research Project funded by the Australian Government Office for Women

Acknowledgements

The Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women would like to thank:

  • The talented women in rural, regional and remote Australia who participated in and contributed to this research.
  • The interested employers who participated in and contributed to this research.
  • The project steering committee who offered enthusiasm, guidance and expert advice to this project.
  • The Australian Government Office for Women who funded this project.

We would like to share the acknowledgements made by women involved in this project.

  • ‘I am just so pleased you are doing this study as there is such a need. Thanks!’
  • ‘Thank you for actually carrying out this telework project. Without the efforts of the people running the project it would have remained more than a mystery’
  • ‘This seems to be an excellent project. I do hope you get the support and backing of the government and employers to make it successful. We women are already at a disadvantage to men, so helping us to find opportunities to better our lives, and thus our children and our community.  It’s a gift.  Thanks’

December 2006: A Research Project conducted for the Foundation for Australian Agricultural Women by Jane Dowling, No. 1 Diva Consulting and funded by the Australian Government Office for Women.

                                                                                                                            
Disclaimer: Some of the information in the document is provided by third parties. The author takes no responsibility for the accuracy, reliability or correctness of any of the information included in the document provided by third parties. The views expressed in this document are those of the author and not necessarily those of the persons consulted. Should they be adopted, the author can take no responsibility for the success of the recommendations made in this document. 

Project Overview

This project follows on from the Federal Government Australian Teleworking Advisory Committee enquiry conducted in 2005 which recommended that the Government support the adoption and uptake of telework in Australia.

The national research project aimed to enhance teleworking opportunities for women in rural, regional and remote areas by:
providing data on women’s skills and experiences, women’s capacity to telework and interest in teleworking, and teleworking barriers and opportunities, disseminating findings, and establishing a database of women, employers and other parties interested in locating telework opportunities and following the progress of telework strategies in Australia.

In this research rural, regional and remote were defined as non metropolitan. Due to the exploratory nature of the research a broad definition of teleworking was employed in order to ensure inclusion of a diverse range of experiences. Teleworking is working outside the central office, including working from home, either for an employer or in your own business, using telecommunications to do so.

The results of this report are based on 114 surveys from women and 18 surveys from employers. Participants were recruited through newspaper advertisements, Rural Women’s Networks, email distribution lists and random sampling. 
Respondents included 54 non teleworking women and 60 teleworking women - 37 women (62%) teleworking in their own businesses, 13 women (22%) teleworking as public sector employees, and 13 women (22%) teleworking as private sector employees.

Prior to their current residential location, 42 women (37%) had lived in a capital city and 16 women (14%) in a town of over 30,000 people. Fifty five women lived on farms or stations, and the remainder in rural, regional and remote areas. Distance has significant implications for women’s capacity to access employment opportunities with women living up to 3000kms away from the capital cities in their state and up to 800kms away from their nearest town with a population of over 10 000 people.

Results

Qualifications, skills and employment

Sixty-two per cent of women had undergraduate or postgraduate qualifications – 16% in applied sciences, agriculture, NRM and environmental studies and 10% in business services. Women also had extensive work experience and a range of valuable employment qualities and skills, with 61% of women rating their computer skills in the key areas of word processing, internet research and email as excellent. Women were most commonly employed in agriculture and NRM (12%); administration (11%); business services including consulting and management (10%); writing, journalism, proofreading and editing (9%); and community development and engagement (9%).

Unemployment and underemployment

Employment opportunities were scarce in rural, regional and remote areas and many women were overqualified for available positions. There was also competition for local jobs. Several women had either given up looking for work, were working significantly below their capacity or were considering leaving their areas and relocating to seek employment.
Women described the barriers to accessing employment in rural regional and remote areas as distance including travel, cost and having to stay away, with working often not being viable after fuel, accommodation and childcare expenses; no local employment opportunities; no local employment opportunities to match skill levels; and a lack of networks and contacts to source work.

Many women also traveled significant distances for employment and in some cases stayed away during the week.  While a small number of teleworking women enjoyed travelling and staying away, the majority of women reported significant disadvantages including strained personal relationships; household demands; reduced social interaction; being tired; travel time and cost; less time at home and with family; accommodation costs, limited or no childcare; being unable to participate in community; and being unable to assist on the farm.

Sourcing telework

Women who were teleworking often commenced teleworking after having established metropolitan based networks. As a result of these relationships, when women relocated to rural areas or had a child, they either negotiated telework arrangements to remain employees, or were approached for telework positions and contract work. Women who did not have these networks were significantly disadvantaged.

The lack of local employment opportunities caused many women to attempt to locate telework opportunities. 38 non teleworking women (70%) indicated that they had unsuccessfully looked for work which could be done from home and had found it difficult to distinguish legitimate opportunities from unethical disreputable teleworking employers (26%); a lack of teleworking opportunities (16%); and employer resistance (11%). 30 non teleworking women (56%) also indicated they would like to start their own business.

Women who had not attempted to locate telework opportunities did not know how or where to look for such opportunities, lacked time to look given their family and farming responsibilities especially in drought and were concerned about distinguishing disreputable from reputable teleworking employers. Many women who were self employed and engaged in contract work also had difficulties in accessing further telework opportunities.

Potential of teleworking

Despite the barriers to locating telework opportunities, non teleworking women expressed a significant desire to telework. 40 women (74%) indicated they would like to telework and 13 women (24%) indicated they would like to increase their overall work hours by teleworking as well.

While maintaining work life balance and information communication technology (ICT) reliability, accessibility and affordability were challenging for many teleworking women, these women reported numerous benefits for themselves and their families and were highly satisfied with teleworking.

Forty-one per cent of teleworking women wished to continue, 19% wished to telework more hours and 16% wished to continue teleworking while also attending a workplace.

Teleworking income was essential with 27 women (45%) reporting they could not survive without it, 25 women (42%) reporting that it was very important to maintain their standard of living and 6 women (10%) reporting that it supported their agricultural enterprise. Further benefits included being able to work in the context or no or limited local employment opportunities, improved flexibility, increased self esteem and decreased isolation.

Teleworking women also contributed significantly to their communities by providing secondary employment (55%) particularly for IT support services and childcare workers, building community capacity by contributing their time and skills to local activities and events (27%), and ensuring they spent their income in local businesses (18%). 

The most challenging aspects of teleworking from an organisational perspective included costs, practical issues, communication, and management and culture. However, despite these issues organisations were also highly satisfied with teleworking arrangements with the main benefits including increased work life balance for staff, reduced costs, broader scope for recruiting skilled staff, increased productivity, having regional representation, retention of staff, providing employment in rural areas, and increased business flexibility.

Benefits

All participants were asked to describe how increased teleworking opportunities would benefit rural, regional and remote women, families and communities. The benefits of teleworking for women included increased income and finances (42%); increased self esteem and improved mental health (36%); the ability to use and develop skills and continue careers including being remunerated according to skill level (25%); decreased isolation and expanded social networks (20%); increased sense of purpose, mental stimulation and satisfaction (18%); enabling women to work who due to distance or no employment otherwise would be unemployed or underemployed (16%); off farm income in drought reducing stress on families (14%); enabling women to continue working when they relocate to rural areas to be with their partners without having to ‘choose’ between their career and relationship (12%); increased employment choices for women (12%); enabling women to assist on their farms (12%); reduced travel time (11%); and increased flexibility and productivity (11%).

Benefits to families included  women’s increased self worth, sense of identity and improved mental health meaning stronger, happier and healthier families (41%); increased income (32%); more time with families and for children’s activities including school and sport (18%);  access to essential income including less reliance on government benefits, increased  standards of living and reduced poverty (18%); greater flexibility increasing women’s work life balance (14%); reduced family involuntary separation with families together during the week (11%); increased income reducing stress on families (10%); off farm income in the context of drought (10%); women being available to assist on their farms including being available in farm emergencies (10%); reduced travel time (10%); and improved social networks and decreased isolation (8%).

The most frequently reported benefits to communities were injections of income into the local economy (47%); building community capacity by women contributing their time and skills in community activities (43%); enabling women and families to remain in rural communities instead of relocating to seek employment (32%); increasing community diversity by attracting women and families to rural communities (19%); stronger, more sustainable communities where community members have a greater sense of belonging, wellbeing, improved mental health and reduced suicide rates (17%); increased secondary employment particularly in IT services and childcare (10%); and increased services including childcare places in rural areas (6%).

Benefits reported by organisations reported included increased work life balance for staff; reduced office space and overheads; increased productivity; increased scope for recruiting skills; regional representation; environmental benefits; reduced travel time; social benefits; staff retention; providing employment in rural areas; and increased business flexibility during peak work times.

Barriers and strategies

Women reported the major barriers to teleworking in rural regional and remote Australia as ICT reliability, accessibility and affordability (46%); employer attitudes (35%); women not knowing where or how to source teleworking opportunities including having no mechanism to access legitimate telework opportunities such as a teleworking employment agency (25%); and training needs (21%).

The most effective strategies to increase teleworking opportunities for rural, regional and remote women were employer education, awareness and training (33%); improved access to affordable and reliable ICTs (21%); a teleworking employment agency or register (17%); and education and promotion of teleworking to women and improved access to information (16%).

Discussion

A highly educated and skilled untapped workforce

This research provides evidence that women in rural, regional and remote Australia are a highly educated and skilled untapped workforce. Women were highly qualified, had extensive work experience in a range of sectors and roles, and at a variety of levels including senior management. Women were highly skilled with excellent communication skills, a range of desirable personal qualities and technical work skills, and a high level of computer skills in key areas.

While women were working and seeking employment for personal reasons including increased self esteem and improved mental health, a driving factor was a need for income with 46% of women working for financial reasons and 24% of women working for vital income in drought.

However, many women are unemployed, underemployed or traveling significant distances to work. Despite being highly motivated to work and continue their careers and in many cases desperate for income, these women live in areas where there are no or limited local work opportunities and high competition for available unskilled jobs. Many women reported being overqualified, their skills underutilised and working for considerably less income than they would receive if they were working at their capacity. Geographical distance also means working is economically unviable for some women after travel, childcare and accommodation costs. Several women were considering relocating to seek employment in cities.

There is also a high demand for telework with women indicating they would like to commence teleworking, continue teleworking or telework more hours. In this context, telework provides significant opportunity for increasing work force participation.

Travel and staying away

While distance was a barrier for women in locating employment, many women traveled significant distances to their workplace, leaving home early and arriving late and often staying away for between one and four evenings each week.  Traveling was tiring, costly and stressful and involuntary separation proved unsustainable for many women.

While some women enjoyed the opportunities afforded by traveling for work, these women were teleworking and either had some flexibility regarding their travel or felt they had a balance between traveling and working from home. 

It must be remembered that teleworking also enables these women to work in a professional capacity where otherwise they would be underemployed, unemployed or traveling greater distances to non teleworking employment. As such, some travel may be seen as a concession.

Teleworking women’s experiences of traveling and staying away also suggests that in some cases women may be more satisfied with their teleworking arrangements if there was greater flexibility in workplace attendance requirements.

Teleworking in rural, regional and remote Australia

This research provides evidence that teleworking in rural, regional and remote areas is possible. Many women in this study were successfully teleworking and highly satisfied with their arrangements.  Despite the challenges of teleworking, women felt that teleworking offered more benefits than disadvantages and 97% of teleworking women wished to continue.

Income from telework was also essential for many women. 45% reported they could not survive without it, 42% reported that it was very important to maintain their standard of living and 10% reported that it supported their agricultural enterprise.

Teleworking women are not only working more productively and gaining personally in terms of income, enhanced self esteem and increased flexibility, but their families and communities are also benefiting.

In the context of drought and rural decline, the contributions women make to their communities cannot be underestimated. 55% of teleworking women employed local people including IT support services, childcare workers, other teleworkers and housecleaners; 27% of women contributed to building community capacity by investing their time and skills; and 18% of women spent their income in local businesses. 

While the most challenging aspects of teleworking from an organisational perspective were costs, practical issues, and communication, management and culture, organisations reported considerable benefits including increased work life balance for staff; reduced costs; broader scope for recruiting skills; increased productivity; retention of staff and increased business flexibility.

Women and employers involved in this research had experience with teleworking in a range of roles from less skilled positions such as data entry and telephone surveying through to professional roles including management, research and consulting. Women were also teleworking in positions such as counseling which required face to face contact yet were teleworking the administrative components of their roles. This highlights the potential for at least some component of all roles to be teleworked regardless of skill level or contact requirements.

The range of distances between central office locations and the location of teleworkers in this study also demonstrates that teleworking can be a practical and workable arrangement regardless of distance.

Locating telework

Prior to their current residential location 37% of women had lived in capital cites. These women who had relocated to rural areas often had the advantage of having previously established metropolitan based networks. Women often commenced teleworking as a result of these networks. Reflecting the value of these employees, when women relocated to rural areas they were able to either negotiate telework arrangements and remain employees, or were able to source or offered contract work.

Women without these networks were highly motivated to telework and 70% of women who were not teleworking had unsuccessfully attempted to locate teleworking employment and found there were few opportunities, employers were resistant and it was difficult to distinguish between reputable and disreputable telework opportunities. 56% of women who were not teleworking also indicated that they would like to start their own business. Many women who were teleworking in their own businesses also found sourcing ongoing telework challenging.

Women who had not attempted to locate telework did not know how or where to look for such opportunities and were also concerned about distinguishing disreputable from reputable teleworking opportunities.

Women who were not teleworking felt that telework had significant potential to improve their lives by providing necessary income and access to employment, increase employment choices and allow careers to continue or career pathways to develop, reduce stress, enhance self esteem, reduce travel, increase flexibility, enable women to work around farming and family responsibilities and increase women’s community involvement. Several women also highlighted their urgent need for off farm income in drought.

Benefits

Increased telework opportunities would decrease unemployment, underemployment, competition for local jobs and address the skills shortages in rural areas. Teleworking would provide employment where geographical location makes working unviable or where there were no local work opportunities. Women would be able to work at their skill level and be remunerated accordingly, further develop their skills and careers and expand their professional networks.

Women could continue working when they relocate to rural areas to be with their partners without having to ‘choose’ between their career and relationship and enable them to continue working after having children. While teleworking and simultaneously caring for children is problematic, teleworking enables women to work when there is no childcare or where the cost of childcare is prohibitive. Employment options would not only be increased for women with caring responsibilities, but all women including mature women, young women and women with a disability.

Women and families would be able to remain in rural communities, retention rate for young people would improve, and women and families would be attracted to rural communities creating greater community diversity.

Teleworking would be of significant benefit financially. There would be less reliance on government benefits and an increased standard of living for families. Off farm income in drought would also significantly reduce stress for families and assist in alleviating poverty. Further financial benefits for families include fuel, childcare and accommodation savings and a reduced need for a second vehicle.

Work life balance would be improved. Travel time and involuntary separation would be reduced enabling families to be together and women having a greater capacity to be involved in community activities. Time saved and increased flexibility would also enhance women’s productivity and their capacity to work around family and farming responsibilities.

One of the most commonly cited disadvantages of teleworking is isolation and this was the experience of some teleworking women in this research. However, more women reported that teleworking decreased their isolation by providing them with increased opportunities for social interaction and networking. This can be attributed to the geographical and social isolation which many women in these areas already experience, and the fact that telework in these areas for many women is not an alternative to working in an office, but the only option for employment.

Teleworking could impact substantially on rural communities and contribute to economic revitalisation by injecting income into the local economy and providing secondary employment opportunities particularly in the areas of IT services and childcare.

Telework could also facilitate increased services and infrastructure in rural areas such as childcare and postal services.
Women could contribute their time and skills to building community capacity by increased involvement in local activities. Increased interaction and networking also enables teleworking women to act as mentors and role models for other rural women, children and community members.

Women’s increased self esteem and improved mental health leads to stronger, happier families and healthier communities. Teleworking would result in more diverse and sustainable communities, greater wellbeing and community connectedness, reduced depression and isolation and improved mental health and reduced suicide rates.

Barriers

Despite this potential there are significant barriers to women teleworking including inequitable rural access to ICTs with Broadband unavailable to 22% of women, employer attitudes, women not knowing where or how to locate telework opportunities and training needs.

Reflecting concerns about the essential nature of efficient and reliable ICTs as an enabler of telework, organisations reported redressing rural inequity in ICT services (44%) as the most important strategy for increasing teleworking opportunities.
Inequitable and unreliable ICT access causes some teleworking women substantial inconvenience and in some cases prevents women from teleworking. However, despite these difficulties, many women were resourceful and made use of the available technology to the best of their capacity by employing strategies such as working at times where internet speed was greater. Several women without Broadband also indicated that while this would increase their capacity to telework, they still had sufficient ICT access to enable them to telework.

While ICT affordability was also an issue many women explained that cost would not be such an issue if they had guaranteed regular teleworking income. Indicating the importance of continuing Government subsidised ICT programs, several women acknowledged the benefits of the Hibis scheme and explained that without this they could not have afforded satellite Broadband.

Just as in an office situation, ICT costs for employees are an employer responsibility. While this may be a concern of some employers, previous research has demonstrated that after these costs have been taken into account there are still significant cost benefits of teleworking for employers.

While ICT access was the most common reported barrier for non teleworking women, the major barrier reported by employers (77%) and teleworking women was employer attitudes (47%). Given that these women have had experiences with teleworking and employers, this reflects the pervasiveness of this barrier. Of particular concern was the inability of managers to assess performance based on outputs rather than attendance. This was associated with a perceived lack of management control and mistrust of teleworking.

In addition, women felt that there was a perception of rural people as unskilled and uneducated and a lack of Government support for teleworking.  A significant barrier for increasing telework in rural, regional and remote areas was the lack of an available mechanism such as a telework employment agency to link employers and employees. Women experienced considerable difficulties in accessing telework opportunities and many women did not know how or where to source telework employment. Employers also recognised that the lack of a linking mechanism such as a telework employment agency prevented employers from accessing and locating employees in these areas. 

Training

Eighty-eight per cent of women reported that they would like to receive training in skill gap areas, computer and IT and teleworking techniques. Reflecting the increased availability of training through an employer, non teleworking women and self employed teleworking women desired training more than women who were teleworking as employees.
Distance, cost and time were significant barriers to accessing training for rural women. To redress rural inequity in access to training and ensure that women are able to maintain and further develop their skills, teleworking strategies need to be linked to accessible training opportunities. Appropriate delivery methods and Government subsidies are important in this regard.

Strategies

International comparisons indicate that teleworking is not being adopted in Australia as quickly as in other countries. Australia’s unique size represents unique challenges. While with the most obvious is the provision of ICT infrastructure, a further crucial facilitator of the increased adoption of telework relates to the perception of telework and employer attitudes.
Currently telework is often considered as an extension of flexible work practices for employed staff. This is evident in the lack of a mechanism to link employers with new teleworkers, and telework arrangements often being negotiated in an ad hoc for current employees.

Increasing telework opportunities to women in rural regional and remote Australia requires a cultural shift. Telework must become viewed as a legitimate option for employing talented skilled and motivated employees who have not necessarily had previous experience with an organisation and who are able to work from home regardless of the physical distance between employers and employees. Technology in many cases means the actual amount of distance between employers and employees becomes irrelevant. This would require greater trust on the part of employers and targeted actions such as recruiting in rural areas and accessing a linking mechanism such as a telework agency.

Reflecting the pervasiveness of employer attitudes as a barrier to telework, the most common strategy reported by women to increase telework opportunities was employer education, awareness and training including the promotion of rural, regional and remote women as a teleworking workforce. Altering employer attitudes may be fostered by bringing employers into these areas to meet women, State and Federal Government incentives to employers, promoting telework as an alternative to off shoring, using case studies and positive testimonials, pilot teleworking programs, and the Government leading by example and increasing teleworking in the APS including employing teleworkers in rural areas.

Organisations felt that employers would be encouraged to ‘think outside the square’ through education on the benefits of and ‘business case’ for teleworking, management training and raising employer awareness of women in rural regional and remote areas as a skilled teleworking workforce. Teleworking could also be promoted to business and recognised through Industry and business awards.

Increasing awareness of teleworking to the general public and ensuring better access to information is also vital. While the teleworking resource website currently being developed by Government as one component of the implementation of the ATAC recommendations will partially address this need, a more proactive strategy is also required such as a national telework advocacy, support and information body.

A strategy such as a telework employment agency to link women seeking telework opportunities with employers is also vital and was not an ATAC recommendation. Further suggestions which may be incorporated into this model include the development of consortiums to tender for contacts and brokering work from key employers and government.  ICT accessibility, affordability and reliability also need to be continually improved in order to redress rural inequity issues and to enable telework to occur to its full potential.

In the context of rural decline, drought and the lack of employment opportunities in rural, regional and remote areas there is considerable potential for business to incorporate rural teleworking policies as part of their corporate social responsibility agendas. Promoting themselves as contributing to revitalising rural areas may be particularly attractive to employers as they also directly enjoy the benefits of teleworking such as cost savings and increased productivity.

Committing to strategies to increase telework opportunities for women in rural, regional and remote Australia also directly aligns with the Government policy agendas of increasing workforce participation, revitalising rural areas and drought assistance.

Conclusion and Recommendations

This project concludes that:

  • rural, regional and remote women are a highly skilled and educated, underemployed or unemployed, work ready teleworking labour force;
  • teleworking has the potential to markedly increase quality of life for women and their families and revitalise rural communities;
  • there are considerable benefits to employers including those resulting from incorporating revitalising rural Australia in their corporate social responsibility agendas;
  • there are a range of concrete actions which may be undertaken by Government to increase telework in rural, regional and remote areas; and
  • increasing teleworking opportunities in rural, regional and remote areas aligns with the Government policy agendas of increasing workforce participation, revitalising rural communities and providing drought assistance.

This research provides evidence that women in rural, regional and remote Australia are a highly educated, skilled and motivated untapped workforce with few or no local employment opportunities. In the current drought conditions many women are also desperate for off farm income.

Teleworking in rural regional and remote areas is also possible with many women in this study successfully teleworking and highly satisfied with these arrangements. Teleworking organisations are also satisfied and recognise the benefits of teleworking.

Teleworking women are not only gaining personally but their families and communities are also benefiting. In the context of drought and rural decline, the contributions women make to their communities in terms of secondary employment, spending money locally and building capacity cannot be underestimated.

Inequitable access to ICTs including Broadband is a major barrier to teleworking for rural women and while this continually needs to be improved, many women do have the capacity to telework. In this context there is significant scope to increase teleworking opportunities by addressing employer attitudes and assisting women in locating telework employment opportunities. A strategy to link employers and employees is vital to achieve this objective. Teleworking strategies also need to be tied to training opportunities to ensure that rural women have the opportunity to maintain a high level of skills and are not disadvantaged by their geographical location.

Funding strategies to increase telework potential in rural, regional and remote areas has significant potential to increase workforce participation for a diverse range of women and contribute significantly to the economic and social revitalisation of rural areas, particularly in drought. This aligns directly with Government policy agendas in these three key areas.

Employers also stand to benefit by increased teleworking. In addition, employers may benefit considerably by incorporating rural telework policies in their social corporate responsibility agendas while simultaneously enjoying the cost savings and increased productivity associated with teleworking.

Women are highly motivated to work and there is substantial demand for telework employment. As a result of this project FAAW has a database with over 130 women, employers and other interested parties who wish to locate telework employment and/ or follow the progress of teleworking strategies in Australia.

In order to advocate for these women and to increase telework opportunities for women in rural, regional and remote Australia FAAW makes the following recommendations that:

  • Government continues to act on the ATAC recommendations with a particular focus on fostering a teleworking culture within the APS and implementing strategies to address employer attitudes.
  • Government makes a commitment to increase workforce participation and assisting in rural revitalisation by employing teleworkers in the APS within rural, regional and remote Australia.
  • Government provides funding urgently to increasing telework opportunities in rural, regional and remote Australia in order to utilise the repository of interested women and employers on the FAAW database and service their needs.
  • Government funds a telework employment matching service as a mechanism for women to locate telework opportunities and employers to access women.
  • Government makes a commitment to increasing workforce participation by offering financial incentives to employers to employ teleworkers in rural, regional and remote areas. 
  • Government provides funding to establish a national rural teleworking organisation to support and advocate on behalf of teleworkers and promote teleworking.
  • Government continues to improve ICT accessibility, reliability and affordability in rural, regional and remote areas, particularly in relation to Broadband.
  • All teleworking strategies are linked to on line education providers to ensure teleworkers have equitable access to training in order to maintain and develop their skills.


‘We need to see real jobs being outsourced to skilled women in rural and remote areas by government and business’