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Benefits of Telecommuting

Teleworking is a benefit, not a right.  Workers have to be serious about working remotely, and not expect their company to cater to their unique situations. Companies should feel free to ask for pictures of the remote office space, or even, in some cases, request an inspection of the proposed space.

Why Invest in a Telecommuting Program

In Fortune's America's top 100 employers list, one of the top benefits offered by these companies is Telecommuting. Along with health care and child care, many of the top 100 companies include work-life balance and telecommuting opportunities to the benefits they offer their employees. Here is the list as posted on CNNMoney.com:

Health care Sixteen companies on this year's list pay 100% of their employees' health-care premiums.
Child care Almost one-third of the Best Companies (32) offer an onsite child-care center. Here are the 10 with the least expensive, average monthly rates.
Work-life balance The top 10 Best Companies where employees feel "encouraged to balance their work and personal life."
Telecommuting Of the 82 Best Companies that allow employees to telecommute or work at home at least 20% of the time, these 10 have the highest percentage of telecommuters.
Sabbaticals 22 companies on this year's list offer fully paid sabbaticals.
Unusual perks These companies found unusual ways to keep their workers happy. Yes, we're jealous.

The benefits to companies are just as amazing.  Telecommute America, a national public awareness and education effort implemented back in 1995, is an initiative undertaken by several public and private organizations to educate the public about telecommuting and its benefits.  In initial surveys conducted of 200 executives of Fortune 1000  companies, it was discovered that:

  • The biggest advantages of telecommuting from an employers perspective are:
    • better employee morale (79%)
    • reduced costs office space (64%)
    • reduced stress among employees (63%)
    • retaining valuable employees (63%)
  •  The top four job titles that senior executives believe would benefit from telecommuting include:
    • information specialists
    • sales representatives
    • programmers
    • market research analysts.
  • More than one-half (57%) of the Fortune 1000 companies who are considering telecommuting, indicate that they expect to initiate programs within the next three years.
  • Of the Fortune 1000 managers who have a telecommuting policy in place, almost all (92%) believe it is advantageous to the company.  Nearly half (43%) believe it very advantageous.
  • Of the executives with telecommuting policies currently in place, more than 70% expect that more employees will telecommute in the future.