About
The Telework Research Network is a consulting and research organization that specializes in making the business case for workplace flexibility. Our proprietary Workplace Savings Calculator™ has been used by hundreds company and government leaders in the US, Canada, and the UK to quantify the economic, environmental, and societal potential of telecommuting and other flexible work options.
In addition to the Workplace Savings Calculator™ and our Custom Workplace Savings Calculator™, we have:
• Authored a variety of white papers including:
- The Bottom Line on Telework – California State Workforce
- The State of Telework in the US – Five year trend and forecast
- The Bottom Line on Telework (Canada)
- The Shifting Nature of Work In The UK – The Bottom Line Benefits of Telework
- Results-Based Management – The Key To Unlocking Talent, Increasing Productivity
- Telework: The Bottom Line Benefits (US)
• Researched and wrote the “The Case for Change,†an e-learning course delivered by e-Work.com, a leader in interactive learning for Fortune 500 and governmental clients worldwide;
• Selected as one of four subcontractors for TeleworkSocal, a state-funded telework outreach program providing support for Southern California employers;
• Served as a resource for Congress, state and local governments, the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Washington Post, Huffington Post, Sloan Foundation, and over a hundred other publications, web sites, and blogs;
• Developed an extensive database, available to our clients, of flexible workplaces and telework sources including: worldwide best practices, case studies, news, research papers, service providers, innovators, and more;
• Conducted dozens of webinars and delivered numerous speeches on a variety of workplace strategy topics including how to overcome the obstacles. Sample presentations are available on Slideshare and YouTube;
• Cultivated relationships with the nation’s most respected workplace researchers, consultants, program managers, and service providers;
Our independence is fundamental to the way we work. Our work is non-aligned and unbiased. We only partner with organizations whose funding or sponsorship allows us to explore new avenues of research, but only when there is no conflict of interest with our aims and objectives.
About Kate Lister
Twitter @FutureWorkForce
LinkedIn
Slideshare
YouTube
Kate is a recognized authority on alternative workplace strategies, telework and workplace flexibility. Her organization has synthesized and cataloged more than 500 studies on telecommuting and related topics. And she has interviewed dozens of virtual employers, employees, advocates, naysayers, and venture capitalists who have invested in remote work models.
As a writer, Kate (together with and her partner, Tom Harnish have co-authored three business books. Undress For Success: The Naked Truth About Making Money at Home (John Wiley & Sons 2009), is aimed at empowering employees to request, find, or create workplace flexibility. It won the praise of top telework and work-life advocates including principals with WorldatWork, the Canadian Telework Association, the Telework Coalition and many others. Jack Nilles – the father of telework, wrote the foreword for the book.
Kate and Tom’s other books include Finding Money–The Small Business Guide to Financing (Wiley, 1995; revised as eBook in 2010), and The Directory of Venture Capital (Wiley, 1996).
As a speaker, Kate has delivered over a hundred lectures, webinars, and speeches for organizations including the Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM), WorldatWork, Citrix Online, Verizon, Watermark, Wharton School of Business, and Temple University; and she’s developed training programs for Corestates Bank, Keystone Bank, Liberty Bank, Unisys, and Eastman Kodak.
As an entrepreneur, Kate founded and led several successful businesses:
- a consulting business that successfully helped hundreds of entrepreneurs raise millions of dollars from banks, government agencies, angels, and venture capitalists
- an air tour business that we grew into the largest of its kind in the country and was sold in 2006.
- a news distribution business that she purchased, built over ten years, and sold to Knight-Ridder
As a corporate executive, Kate spent ten years as a small business lender with two of the nation’s largest banks and a year as a partner with a venture capital firm.
As a philanthropist, Kate developed a microloan program aimed at helping welfare mothers start businesses. She convinced five major Philadelphia banks to provide seed grants for the loan fund based on the Grameen Bank (Bangladesh) circle-borrowing model – a concept that has since gained considerable notoriety. The program included business training and one-on-one counseling for the loan recipients.
Kate’s works has been recognized by the Inc. magazine / Arthur Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award Program, by the SBA with a Business Advocate of the Year award , and by the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce as the Business Leader of the Year.
Kate Lister is one of a hundred expert contributors to George Washington University’s TechCast virtual think tank where she contributes to telecommuting and other forecasts.
About Tom Harnish
Tom’s first technical journal article was published when he was a sophomore in college; as a junior he taught computer programming at a night school, as a senior he started the first commercial computer service bureau in Albuquerque.
After 8 years in the Navy, Tom joined Booz Allen & Hamilton as Consulting Scientist. As Senior Scientist for the Online Computer Library Center he conceived and led the first U.S. trial of a networked home information service. He was President of a medical imaging start-up funded by Elsevier, then founder and president of Flightline Electronic Publishing.
A former carrier-based Navy jet flyer, civilian pilot and flight instructor, Tom has over 45 years of flying experience and holds two aviation world speed records (both in aircraft older than he is). He was selected as a NASA Solar System Ambassador. He’s an award winning photographer, and has written articles on technology, aviation, and management.