Proximity versus Productivity.

It perplexes me that Human Resources decision makers and departmental heads still base their hiring practices only on a few traits, such as years of experience, previous jobs, certifications, and studies in general.

Although not always the case, most SMEs are comprised of local talent that usually commute to work on a daily basis. People in the major cities of North America and Europe are so used to commuting for at least fifteen minutes each way, that they even think it is ‘normal’ to do so. In fact, some even consider themselves lucky not having to spend more than half an hour doing it, as that figure is below the average for most major cities.

With telecommuting and the current remote technologies we utilize now, commuting time averages have decreased for people whose job involves being in front of a computer most of the day. However, there are still many other functions that require physical presence at the work place.

Even if a person travels for only fifteen minutes each way for a year, minus holidays and vacation; such person still wastes 120 hours a year doing nothing.
Better rephrased: such person still spends 120 hours a year wasting resources, polluting, making everybody else spend even more time on the roads and, in brief, being counter-productive.

A 45 minute commute extinguishes 360 hours a year. That’s fifteen full days a year; if we include sleep time in the equation, that’s a whooping twenty two and a half days per year.

Then the well-rested not-stressed productivity factor needs to be taken into account:
Let’s suppose we have two people working in the same department doing very similar work. X is a worker whose qualifications, a combination of experience, education, smarts and all involved and required for the position, gives her a mark of 92. She works with another worker (Y) whose mark is 88.

X commute to work is 30 minutes. Y’s is 15.
Therefore, we can infer that Y is more relaxed than X. Y will also usually be more on time than X. When leaving, Y could very well take an extra 1 to 5 minutes before rushing out the door. For X, the sooner she leaves the better. X also spends more than double the amount of money needed to commute than Y does.

We could measure the productivity gains attained by a more rested worker in terms of emotional intelligence, mind freshness, focus on the tasks, etc. All these without even considering external and disruptive factors in the daily commute such as accidents, power failures, peak-hour fluctuations and such. We can conclude that Y will always be ‘closer’ to the job in every sense. So, let’s give X an 90 mark on proximity and timeliness, while Y receives a 95.

That would make X receive a total mark of 82.8, while Y makes 83.6.
Needless to say, Y will be way more productive than X. Even if the commuting factor is decreased by an extra point in opposite directions (91 for X, 94 for Y), that makes 83.72 vs. 82.72. This would make X be ahead in ideal scenarios (no disruptions in the daily commute), but in real terms both numbers would be even close, with the extra-work benefits from and for Y: less money spent on commuting, less time doing it; polluting way less than X, etc. In brief, lots of resources saved and a fresher element at work.

In terms of community, Y would feel she’s working in and for her community, being a happier person than X, whose day starts having to face the long commute to a place she doesn’t even feel she belongs to…

Get the picture?

So, why do we keep hiring based on non-community and non-proximity factors?
It is true that some key people need to travel more than others, also truth there are some that go to different places all the time, and perhaps have no other option but to do so once or twice per week, but daily?

Let’s reset the hiring machine. Local resources preferred.

Productivity + savings. What’s not to like?

Facebook, text message, phone call, email, YouTube… what’s your pleasure?

A day after Christmas I met with some friends I hadn’t seen for years. After catching up on everything that has happened to us (and by us) in such a long time, one of them asked me what field of study I had chosen at university.

It has been a while since the last time I heard that question. The fields I work on now have apparently no connection to those origins, and the lateral and postgraduate studies seem to somehow leave those titles in the background.

Then it sparked again: the many years I and my fellow classmates, coworkers, competitors, etcetera have been producing the many ways we communicate nowadays.

See, putting aside the many courses on business, societal studies, personal growth and anything else nonrelated to technology; I am a telecommunications and an electronics engineer, have taken many courses on computing and similar technologies, and have worked for at least a quarter of a century on telecommunication and computer networks.
Throughout that time I’ve met so many technicians, programmers, consultants, designers, engineers, and so many other IT related people that listing their names would require a whole book. And that’s only me: I can’t imagine the millions of people around the world that have made and continue to make possible the most amazing type of technology ever created. It is a kind of magic.

From Edison, to Franklin to Marconi, through Berners-Lee to Gates to Jobs, through Brin and Page, Yang and Filo, and Zuckerberg… the list is long and keeps growing…

All these amazing new ways to communicate: book flights, close sales, win contracts, find information and friends, enjoy scenes of what’s going on a different part of the world, watch commercials from other countries, etcetera, and etcetera. None of it would be possible without the creativity, dedication, hard work, smarts and long hours put by the myriad of people around these “networks”.

Did you just receive a picture of your newborn granddaughter on EM? Called your family 8,000 Km away via Skype? Quickly finished your homework through research via Google and Wikipedia? Finally found and purchased that gadget on eBay or that rare book on Amazon? Recently found an old friend on FB?

All good, isn’t it?
It isn’t good. It is AMAZING!

So, the next time you see those telecommunications-company vans going on the highway, the pulling-cable technicians you dismiss as nonexistent, the nerdy looking programmers you think know nothing except computers, the engineers that have trouble explaining the IT terms in simple language, or the consultants that seem to charge more than what their advice is worth; please take a look at your laptop, Blackberry, iPad or any gadget you choose and use for communicating; and acknowledge each and every one of those wonderful people.

You don’t need to kneel and kiss their feet. A simple “hi” or “thank you” will do.

Engineering… what a ride. What a magic an amazing ride.