A virtual team can be effective for many types of projects too, which could be considered telecommuting, although, not all projects are appropriate for telecommuting. The bigger question is whether you are willing to personally direct the day-to-day actions, and manage the hours of an at-home worker or not. One big issue is that they can frequently become sidetracked on side projects and family matters when they work from home. Another is there are many times they risk looking unprofessional, or miss out on professional networking, team building, water cooler chitchat, socio-business interactions, and the like.
If you don’t want them as your employee and liability, consider hiring them as an independent contractor. This can possibly save you on taxes and other expenses. Also, at-home employees may not be on the clock forty plus hours a week, so you won’t necessarily be responsible for their full-time employment expenses: like the reimbursements for excessive fuel costs or lost hours in traffic.
