Telecommuting, Knowledge Worker Flexibility
If you’re already checking email from a mobile device, developing presentations on the weekends, and taking international calls during the night, why not take your remote accessibility one step further and regularly work from home?
Many knowledge workers, and their managers, are asking themselves this question today. Many companies are re-thinking their historical ambivalence to telecommuting.
With technology advancing at the same pace that gas prices are increasing and environmental concerns are mounting, a couple of days per week at the home office can save time, money, employee sanity, and the planet.
Back in 2006, when $10 bought roughly four gallons of regular gasoline, companies were already adjusting their benefits to accommodate for rising fuel prices. According to recent research conducted by WorldatWork through The Dieringer Research Group, 12.4 million Americans were allowed by employers to work from home at least one day per month - up from 9.9 million in 2005.
A 2007 study from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) revealed that more than half of surveyed employers offered some form of telecommuting option. If employees worked from home just one-and-a half days per week, research from the University of Maryland found a cost savings of $4.5 billion annually (note that this was based on gas at $3.33 per gallon, which seems like a distant memory as the price of gas is rapidly approach $5.00 per gallon here in California).
According to a recent Sun Microsystems flexible work program study:
- Employees saved more than $1,700 per year in gasoline and wear and tear on their vehicles by working at home an average of 2.5 days a week.
- The office equipment energy consumption rate at a Sun office was two times that of home office, from approximately 64 watts per hour at home to 130 watts per hour at a Sun office.
- Commuting represented more than 98% of each employee’s “carbon footprint” for work, compared to less than 1.7% of total carbon emissions to power office equipment.
- By eliminating commuting just 2.5 days per week, an employee reduces energy used for work by the equivalent of 5,400 Kilowatt hours/year.
- Working from home 2.5 days per week saved the employees in the study an average 2.5 weeks of commute time (8 hours/day, 5 days/week).
Coupled with these cost and environmental savings, companies are finding telecommuting also enhances their ability to recruit and retain employees. This is particularly true for highly compensated (and self-motivated) knowledge workers. Organizations that build telecommuting into their recruitment programs are likely to competitively fare better when they can attract workers with critical skill sets from beyond their zip codes and also eliminate relocation expenses.
On an emotional level, there’s no doubt that transportation is causing a great deal of stress. “Length of commute” was among the top 10 reasons senior-level executives recently told ExecuNet they were dissatisfied in their jobs, and “flexible work options” ranked 5th on the list of reasons for satisfaction.
When you combine the movement towards more telecommuting with the parallel knowledge workforce trend towards greater flexibility you end up with a compelling argument for flexible workforce models like M Squared Consulting. We enable independent knowledge workers, and employers who need their expertise, to find one another and get vital work done. Quite often a significant portion of this work can be done remotely.
