Besides the fact we have remote team members who solely telecommute, recently we've upped the telecommuting ante for our full-time staff to two days per week. Most of them drive 20+ miles round trip per day, so we did this primarily for three reasons:The cost of fuel
The positive impact on our environment (think green)
To increase productivity
To increase productivity you ask? How the heck do you know they're working when you can't see them?
According to Karol Rose, author of five books on human resources issues and an executive with FlexPaths, a Web-based provider of workplace flexibility solutions, companies need to:
Understand it's easier to implement than they think
Assume if their employees are uninterrupted by in-office disruptions, they will certainly be more productive at home
Understand it's not all or nothing; telecommuting may require a blend of off-site and in office face time (as we do with our team)
Avoid viewing telecommuting as an employee benefit while understanding how telecommuting can benefit their business by meeting customer needs (i.e. across time zones) or save the company real estate and other overhead costs (as we do with our remote team members)
Staff who have the subject matter expertise and skills needed for their position, are professional and autonomous (sales and customer service for example), and have the Internet connectivity and communications equipment can "virtually" work from anywhere and be just as productive if not more so.
According to a 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.
Office equipment energy consumption rate at a Sun office was two times that of home office equipment energy consumption, from approximately 64 watts per hour at home to 130 watts per hour at a Sun office.
Commuting was 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 of 2.5 weeks of commute time (8 hours/day, 5 days/week).
Through this program, nearly 19,000 employees around the world work from home or in a flexible office, representing more than 56% of Sun's employee population.
And lastly, according to a recent LifeCare (a work/life services company) poll of its 1,500 client organizations, 86 percent of full-time workers said that it is either "very important" or "important" that their employers engage in green initiatives.
Considering the latest tragic fires in our area turn commuting into excruciatingly stressful gridlock, working from home saves energy, time, money, mind, body and soul.
Labels: flexible work schedules, green initiatives, increase productivity, telecommuting