Posts Tagged ‘telecommuting’
January 15th, 2009 in Small Office Home Office No Comments
The nation’s current economic crisis may be spurring more companies to offer telecommuting as a work option to help retain employees and save them money. A number of states are ahead of this curve, creating telecommuting policies and encouraging companies to do the same in an effort to reduce pollution and congestion, conserve energy and increase the efficiency and productivity of employees.
This article highlights a number of statistics that confirm the growing popularity of telecommuting, including:
- From 1995-2001 telecommuting grew from a negligible number to 10.4 million people;
- 44 percent of U.S. companies offered employees telecommuting options in 2005, a 32 percent increase from 2001; and
- One in four employers is expected to offer telecommuting or compressed work schedules to employees for the first time in the next six months.
(more…)
March 3rd, 2008 in Small Office Home Office No Comments
Clogged roadways, rising gas prices and climate change worries are just some of the reasons that this article advocates a renewed push toward telecommuting for government and private employers. Unfortunately, notes the author, while many states have laws or state agency policies, there is usually little teeth and even
less follow through.
Virginia is one state that is serious about cutting commuting whenever possible. Officials there are using legislation, executive orders and agency rules to boost the number of people working from home. They have set targets, established tax breaks for employers who implement telework programs and are considering budget cuts for agencies that fail to meet telework goals. (more…)
January 23rd, 2007 in Trends No Comments
This article provides readers with an overview of how the nature of the office has changed for mobile professionals. The protagonist is a young consultant in Jakarta, who has decided to avoid battling the local traffic snarls. Instead, she sits sipping coffee at a neighborhood café as she checks a proposal and then emails it to a prospective client. Her mobile telephone keeps her in close contact with her officemates. The article proceeds to discuss a host of new and improved instrumentalities whose rising effectiveness and falling prices are allowing ever greater numbers of workers to occupy virtual offices. New methods of communicating like VoIP are discussed, as are new services like Ibackup which allow people to collaborate in cyberspace.
Source: The Jakarta Post; Jan 23, 2007
January 1st, 2007 in Trends No Comments
Coffee Shop ‘Offices’ And Telecommuting Are On The Rise, Trend Spotters Predict
This article warns that Wi-Fi shops and other “defacto offices” will be far more crowded in 2007 as people start setting some boundaries between their hectic careers and their personal lives. “It’s a way of getting out of the home offices. We need to walk out of the front door to go to work.” Trying to slow down and separate home and work is looming as one of the big trends of the year. Exacerbating this situation is another trend spotted by this author – the number of telecommuters will rise in 2007 because people want to avoid “supercommutes” in an era of high gas prices and environmental concerns. The authors advice? Arrive early to secure a good spot!
Source: Joyce Gannon, Pittsburgh Post Gazette; Jan 1, 2007
July 27th, 2005 in Design No Comments
Improved technology and cost-cutting pressure are leading more companies to adopt strategies like telecommuting to reduce the amount spent on office space. This article discusses the results of a recent survey of the real estate directors of 50 major corporations, who together account for more than two billion square feet of office space, who were asked to rate their best options for cutting their real-estate costs. The top choice of 37% of respondents was telecommuting and hoteling, up from 6% just two years ago. Among the additional cost-cutting strategies discussed in this article include consolidating multiple offices into fewer locations and trimming a floor or two of space without moving.
The author cautions firms that cutting too much space can hamper the ability to expand when business picks up. He ends the article by emphasizing the positive effects of hoteling and telecommuting, including the heightened ability to “lure new talent by offering a a flexible workplace, including a day or two of working from home a week.”
Source: Ryan Chittum, Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition); July 27, 2005
April 1st, 2003 in Small Office Home Office No Comments
About a third of IBM’s workforce is “mobile” — the company saves about $10,000 per year per employee on facilities costs alone. That’s a calculation every firm is making now before letting staff work from home, say experts quoted here. IBM, says Pamela Stanford, director of the company’s on-demand workplace initiative, has worked hard to develop an environment conducive to mobile workers. Back in 1993, when their first telecommuters started, they were pioneers. Their joke was that IBM stood for “I’m By Myself.” Now each mobile worker gets a ThinkPad, a highspeed Internet connection and a second phone line for business calls, and workers say they enjoy the autonomy and scheduling flexibility. When someone in Dallas has to call a client in Europe or Australia, they can get up at 3 a.m. and walk over to the computer rather than driving to the office. “The people who consider it a perk, and are concerned about not seeing people in the workplace,” says Stafford, “come from command and control cultures. Command and control doesn’t cut it anymore. This kind of mobility is just right for us.”
Source: Work & Family Newsbrief; April, 2003
March 15th, 2003 in Technology No Comments
It’s telling that corporate employees, lauded as “stakeholders,” “clients,” “team members,” or what have you in certain contexts, are simply–one might say disparagingly–labeled “users” by IT folks. But, to paraphrase George Bailey, these rabble that pester the help desks do most of the working and adding and producing and thinking around here: Is it too much to ask that they get a decent upgrade once in a while?
Meta Group analyst Jack Gold doesn’t think so. He cautions companies against the current make-do approach, arguing that recent and forthcoming advances in operating systems, tablets and notebooks, and other technologies will soon boost the productivity of users–er, employees. (more…)
October 1st, 2002 in Small Office Home Office No Comments
This article holds that “the real key to successful telecommuting lies in a clear understanding of both the worker’s and manager’s roles and expectations.” It advises companies to establish well-defined job descriptions and to have manager and telecommuting employee agree on exactly what is to be accomplished and when. The article declares that telecommuters themselves need to manage themselves for their managers by proactively anticipating developments and consistently and effectively communicating with the home office. The article offers ten “guidelines” for telecommuters to help enhance their relationship with their manager. Managers, for their part, are encouraged to establish commuter support groups and a company-wide orientation that positions telecommuting as a working style alternative, not a perk.
Source: American Salesman, October, 2002
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