Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Benefits of Telecommuting

As I sat on my deck this evening watching another gorgeous sunset, I realized yet again just how blessed I am to be able to live AND work on beautiful Rainy Lake. Each day that I wake up to the fresh air and beautiful views of my lake home I think about how grateful I am to have had the opportunity move my company to northern Minnesota where I am in close proximity to my family. Although a certain amount of travel is required, I am able to work much of the time from my home office where I can look up from my work on any given day to see deer walking by the window or a bald eagle flying overhead. What a fabulous work environment!

Like many of you, I spent years commuting to work each day - driving through traffic, spending hours on subways and trains, wasting precious time simply trying to get from here to there. This wasted time could have been better spent on work productivity, personal pursuits, or with family.

Through my own experiences as a business owner, I have found telecommuting to be an attractive alternative to commuting to a centralized workplace. It provides significant benefits for employees and employers alike, as well as offering advantages in the areas of environmental protection and energy conservation.

Improved Health – Telecommuting can help employees to create a better balance between their work and family life by giving employees more opportunities to spend quality time with family members. Telecommuting can also reduce the stress associated with the rush hour commute as well as providing employees with more time to incorporate health and wellness activities in their lives. Instead of waking up and rushing to get ready and head into traffic, telecommuters can wake up and take time for a cup of coffee, walk the dog, bring children to school, and still start work at the same time. Better health and lowered stress means employees put a greater focus on work concerns during work hours.

Increased Productivity
– Employees who enjoy the flexibility and independent work environment afforded by telecommuting tend to be more productive employees and display increased motivation for their job as well as higher morale and less absenteeism. In addition, telecommuters avoid travel time and deal with a reduced number of distractions and interruptions than they would encounter in a conventional workplace environment which results in an increase in productivity.

Employee Retention - Each year, many employees leave jobs that they otherwise enjoy due to relocation concerns. The option to telecommute eliminates the number of employees who resign because they want or need to move to a new location. Telecommuters can move with minimal disruption to their work productivity and less employee turnover means bottom line savings for the company in recruiting and training costs.

Organization and Staffing Flexibility – By offering telecommuting positions, I am not limited to hiring employees in my immediate geographic area. Instead, I can select the best candidates from anywhere in the country. As the needs of my organization change, I am free to restructure or reassemble the best teams to fit individual projects with minimal disruption to the company.

Cost Savings – Telecommuting helps companies achieve significant savings associated with office space costs and overhead. The reduced travel time for employees who telecommute also promotes savings in relation to gas prices and automobile maintenance.

Environmental Preservation – Telecommuting can help with the growing concern about global warming and energy conservation in today’s world. Currently, one of the largest sources of pollution in the United States is motor vehicles. Telecommuting significantly reduces the amount of automobile emissions as well as providing a significant potential for energy savings in the areas of on-site heating and cooling, lighting, automobile repair, and highway building and maintenance.

Working from home is certainly not appropriate for all employees or all positions. Those employees who are not self motivated may not do well in a work environment where they are not directly managed. There are also some positions and projects that require on-site interaction between team members. However, incorporating a well managed telecommuting program with built in accountability measures can have great benefits for your employees and your company.

4 comments:

Mike P said...

100% agreement! :-)

Robert Gallagher said...

While some professions cannot telecommute, those that can should if they want to improve society, the firm, and the individual. Your article correctly points out the benefits of telecommuting to employers such as more productivity (not less as some might assume).

However, there are also benefits to the country as a whole, such as environmental improvements and less road congestion.

And of course, telecommuting benefits individuals as your article outlines.

We also strongly recommend that American businesses (and businesses in any country for that matter) promote telecommuting in their companies.

Da Prince said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Da Prince said...

I like the idea of telecommuting... sometimes it's hard to get done all that needs to get done in the home, especially with all the absolute time wasted in traffic.

Sometimes though, you need to have your resources close by, and for certain projects I would want to get all the people I need squished as close together as possible, sleeping near the work, until done, with the trade off being telecommuting and extra vacation.

I think that is probably the most favorable conditions for most people, an on cycle/slow cycle.

Family and home is important.