Why Telework?

We didn’t wake up one day and say, “let’s be telework advocates,” it was our research that convinced us that telework and other new ways of working can have a profound impact on employers, employees, and the environment.

The reality is that, whether you want to call it telework, or mobile work, or e-work, or whatever, the employees have already left the building and they’re not coming back.

Study after study, in a wide range of industries and across global lines prove that a typical office workers spends less than half their time at their desk.

Technology has allowed us to be mobile, but office buildings and management techniques haven’t kept pace with the transformation. Essentially, we’re managing and provisioning a 21st Century workforce with models that are decades old.

Whatever you want to call this new way of working, it’s clear that if it’s effectively managed it can help employers:

• Save money
• Reduce employee work-life conflict
• Increase employee engagement
• Increase employee loyalty and reduce turnover
• Attract and retain talent
• Reduce absenteeism
• Increase productivity
• Reduce healthcare costs
• Slow the brain drain associated with retiring Baby Boomers
• And much more.

But the impact goes well beyond individual or corporate benefits. Telework and other new ways of working can:

• Dramatically reduce our fossil fuel dependence and slow global warming
• Increase national productivity
• Provide new employment opportunities for at-home caregivers, the disabled, the un- and under-employed, and military spouses
• Offer rural and economically disadvantaged populations access to better jobs
• Improve family life
• Reduce healthcare costs
• Bolster pandemic and disaster preparedness
• Reduce traffic jams and the carnage on our highways
• Alleviate the strain on our crumbling transportation infrastructure
• Help reclaim many of the jobs that have been lost to offshoring
• Increase personal savings
• And much more.

Telework – or whatever label you want to put on it – offers a solution to some of our most vexing problems.

Environmentalists applaud it because it significantly reduces greenhouse gases and energy usage.

Astute company owners endorse it because of the cost savings and increased productivity.

Workforce planners see it as a strategy that can reduce under-employment and talent shortages.

Human resource professionals see it as a way to recruit and retain the best people.

Employees enjoy it because it saves them time and money and improves their quality of life.

Baby Boomers find it an attractive alternative to full retirement.

Gen Y sees it as a way to work on their own terms.

Disabled workers, rural residents, and military families find home-based work an answer to their special needs.

Urban planners realize it can reduce traffic, reduce the gap between transportation supply and demand, and revitalize cities.

Governments see it as a way to reduce transportation infrastructure costs, improve the environment, and reduce terrorism pockets of opportunity.

Organizations understand that it can help them ensure continuity of operations in the event of a disaster or pandemic–all federal workers are required to telecommute to the maximum extent possible for just this reason.

People who visit this page typically like these pages as well:

• Telecommuting Pros and Cons
• Data on How Many People Telecommute, Where They Work, What They Do, Telework Trends
• Other Telecommuting Statistics
• Free white papers on telework in the U.S., U.K. and Canada