Telecommuting Interest Soars
Aug 28, 2008 10:23 AM, By Carol Wilson
There has been a sharp increase in the number of North American employers offering telecommuting as an option in the past year, according to an annual survey by WorldatWork, a global human resources association. In the US, 42% of employers said they offered a telework option, up from 30% in 2007, while in Canada, the jump was even greater, from 25% to 40%.
“What we are seeing is that a lot more organizations are utilizing this as a tool to attract and retain employees,” said Rose Stanley, Work-Life practice leader at WorldatWork, which conducts its Salary Budget Survey every year to determine what employers are doing to recruit and retain employees, including salaries and benefits.
One reason for the increase, according to the survey, is that technology is no longer a major issue, Stanley said.
“We provide education and information, and a lot of people have been calling us about this,” Stanley said. “They want to know how to put it in place and how to train everybody – that’s one of the biggest areas that have stopped from considering a telework option. It’s no longer technology but the cultural aspects of accepting this as a viable way of managing employees that presents roadblocks.”
The rise of easy-to-use Web conferencing and collaboration programs is making it much easier for workers to operate efficiently even when they aren’t in the same physical location, Stanley said, and widely available broadband access makes use of Web-based technologies easier. Managers still are concerned about how to manage employees that aren’t in one site, however.
“When we conduct polls, the responses we get are, ‘We don’t know how to manage someone we can’t see,’” Stanley said. “In the technology piece, they are developing things that enable us to stay connected to coworkers and managers but also to collaborate like Webex, Go to Meeting, Live Meeting. I work in Scottsdale, and I can collaborate with a coworker in Seattle on a single document that we can both see and work on.”
Among the benefits to employers who embrace telecommuting as either a full-time or part-time option for employees are a wider geographic base of potential talent and the ability to retain valuable employees if they need to move or to work at home for quality-of-life reasons, Stanley said.
High gas prices make telecommuting more attractive to employees, but that doesn’t necessarily motivate employers, Stanley said.
“Honestly, from a business perspective, gas prices are not as much a factor,” Stanley said. “That doesn’t mean that senior management isn’t concerned and doesn’t see that as a definite problem. But they still run their businesses, and what they are going to react to is when it starts to affect their turnover and ability to attract employees. They won’t necessarily implement something unless they see it as a win for both.”
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