Alexandria, VA (US), April 2007 - The April 2007 issue of T+D (Training + Development) reports that last year, 63 percent more employers allowed their employees to work remotely than in 2004, according to the WorldatWork, an association for HR professionals. Based on government estimates of 149.3 million workers in the United States's labor force, the 2006 data means that roughly eight percent of American workers are able to telecommute one day per month, and roughly twenty percent of both employed and self-employed workers engage in telework.
The association believes that the rising trend is the result of a combination of factors, including the proliferation of high speed, broadband, and other wireless access and the willingness of more employers to embrace flexibility and work-life balance issues. "The current data suggests that technology is no longer a barrier to telework," says Rose Stanley, work-life practice leader at WorldatWork.
"We estimate that 100 million U.S. workers will telework by 2010. That's partially because more and more companies are realizing the cost benefits and are viewing it as a tool to attract and retain employees." While the latter may be true, recent survey data from CoreNet Global suggests that cost control is a bigger reason for embracing telework.
The association for corporate real estate executives talked to senior executives who manage the workplace function and setting for Fortune 500 firms and their global equivalents or service providers.
Of those interviewed, 54 percent cited higher utilization of space as one of their top three workplace objectives; 58 percent mentioned the need to improve efficiency and productivity; and 45 percent said they wanted to reduce costs. Although flexibility was identified as one of the top three reasons by only twenty percent of respondents, CoreNet maintains that most companies appear to understand the implicit tradeoffs for workers and employers.
"Today's forward-thinking, results-driven companies are sending workers home, purging underutilized real estate, saving money, and reinventing the whole concept of 'going to work,'" says Eric Bowles, director of global research at CoreNet. More than half of the respondents to the firm's survey indicated that ten percent or more of their knowledge workers work remotely, and 65 percent have stopped providing an assigned workspace to at least ten percent of their workforce.
Interestingly, the survey also indicated that many companies don't measure performance levels outside of company walls. "Currently, a majority of companies track easy-to-measure items such as cost, but other factors, such as employee satisfaction and productivity, are more challenging," says Bowles.
Respondents indicated that they measure total occupancy costs, and most also measure cost per workstation and cost per person. In addition, most measure meeting-room use, workplace effectiveness, quality of environment, and personal comfort and wellbeing. However, 61 percent do not measure the effectiveness of remote worker support.
