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Virtual Company: Questions Potential Employees Frequently Ask
- Does Fentress have actual employees or is everyone a subcontractor?
- How are employees supervised?
- Can employees set their own work schedules?
- How do employees adapt to working largely on their own?
- What forms of communication are most effective?
- What equipment and support do Fentress employees receive?
- What is the difference between telecommuting and a virtual company?
- Do you have any physical office space at all?
- What are some of the benefits of working from home?
1. Does Fentress have actual employees or is everyone a subcontractor?
We are a traditional company in every sense of the word except for the presence of a physical office where employees come to work every day. All employees work for the company, not as independent contractors. Fentress employees are expected to work during normal business hours and have traditional benefits, such as health care, 401(k), flexible spending accounts, vacations, etc. We also have a comprehensive policy manual that details our policies, procedures, and benefits.
2. How are Fentress’ employees supervised? Most importantly, how do you trust that your employees are really at their desks and working each day?
The ultimate foundation of our success is simple trust in our employees. Our trust-based management philosophy is straight forward: we expect that employees are responsible adults with the ability to work independently and manage their time. This approach does not require direct oversight and close proximity. Fentress measures employee performance - we may not be able to walk down the hall and see employees busily working in their offices but we do see the results of their work. We trust and believe in their skills and abilities to manage their time and perform the work that is required of them.
3. Can employees set their own work schedules?
One of our important internal policies deals with our work schedule and flextime. The policy states that employees are expected to be at work during the core business hours of 9:00 am to 5:00 pm and must work a full eight-hour workday encompassing at least those hours. We realize that our employees occasionally need to take time during a workday for personal matters, such as doctor’s appointments, so we allow our employees to take the time they need for such matters (flextime) and make up the time during the week.
4. How do employees adapt to working largely on their own?
We spend a lot of time explaining the virtual company environment to prospective employees to make sure they know what to expect if they come to work at Fentress. Over the years, we have learned a lot about the type of person who thrives in this type of environment and try to determine a perspective employee’s success during the interview process and first three to six months on the job. Our employees are all independent workers, largely self-sufficient and motivated, and most importantly, able to manage their time and stay focused on their work responsibilities. Fentress employees are highly successful without the daily social environment of an office setting. In addition, having a focused work environment enables employees to place more social energy into their free time.
5. What forms of communication are most effective?
We use all the usual methods – email, telephone, and meetings. We have an internal company website where we publish an informal employee newsletter each week as well as a general company calendar so that everyone can see each other’s schedules. We also use teleconferencing and web conferencing services for project or team meetings. Each project manager is responsible for coordinating the contact with our clients and ensuring regular contact through telephone calls, written status reports, and in-person meetings.
6. What equipment and support do Fentress employees receive?
We provide a laptop computer, printer/fax/scanner, office telephone, cell phone, a separate business telephone line, and high-speed internet connection. We also provide standard office supplies like paper and letterhead, paper clips, staples, pens and pencils, notepads, folders, etc. The only thing we ask our employees to do is to make sure they have a dedicated space and office furniture that is set aside for their work area.
7. What is the difference between telecommuting and a virtual company?
There is an important difference between telecommuting and working for a virtual company. The biggest distinction is that people who telecommute or telework work for a company that has a physical office. These employees work from home part of the time, perhaps one or two days a week, and go into the company’s offices the rest of the time. Fentress is a true virtual company, where employees work from their home offices all the time, except for client or company meetings.
8. Do you have any physical office space at all?
We have approximately 1,000 square feet of dedicated office space located at the residence of the company president , which is where we keep all business files and manage the general administration of the company. We also have space for computer workstations and a large conference table for in-person project or team meetings. For our monthly company meetings, we rent office space in a facility large enough to accommodate our entire company.
9. What are some of the benefits of working from home?
Since we don’t link our home through video conferencing, we don’t know how many of our employees come to work in their pajamas, slippers, or comfy sweats. Speaking of clothing, since we only worry about business attire when we meet with our clients, our employees are able to save money on dry-cleaning and clothing costs.
Another important factor is that since the commute time to the office for our employees is generally one minute or less, we don’t worry at all about traffic, inclement weather, or fuel prices. Most U.S. workers face the stress of a daily commute to and from work. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans spend approximately 24.3 minutes commuting one-way to work. That’s a total of over 100 hours per year spent in commuting. Maryland ranks as one of the states with the longest commute-to-work times – 30.2 minutes (just below New York, with an average commute-to-work time of 30.4 minutes). Baltimore is also one of the two cities in the U.S. with the highest “extreme” commute times – 5.6% of business commuters in the Baltimore area travel over 90 minutes to work (in the state of Maryland, 3.2% of commuters overall travel over 90 minutes to work).1 Not only do we not added time of a daily work commute, we don’t face the stress of dealing with rush hour traffic or the risk of an accident. This means more productive work time for our employees each workday and more time with families at the end of the day.
Another key area for us is sick leave. We don’t have any. If our employees are sick, they take the time they need to recover. Since we don’t have to worry about being around others during the day, we find that our employees actually use very little sick leave compared to U.S. workers in general. In 2003, our average sick leave per employee was just six hours for the entire year.
In general, we find that working from a home office allows us to be much more productive and relaxed than workers who face stressful daily commutes. Working from home, our employees save money on business attire and transportation costs. Most importantly, our employees work in comfortable environments and are able to strike a balance between their professional responsibilities and an enriching home life.
1 Source: Longlev, Robert. Americans Now Spend Over 100 Hours a Year Commuting. April 2005. http://usgovinfo.about.com/od/censusandstatistics/a/commutetimes.htm
