Telecommuting – Innovative and Economically Viable
Author: Gregory Rood | Date: 20 May 2009 12:40
Businesses around the world continue to cut costs wherever possible so as to ride out the current financial crisis. Unfortunately, areas most affected by cost reduction strategies often include the core business growth drivers namely; new product development, the acquisition and retention of human capital, marketing and advertising. Job losses abound whilst the average customer base shrinks as a result of reactionary measures. Experts are calling on business executives to look at innovative ways of reducing costs whilst improving efficiencies and supporting growth.
One way in-which to innovatively reduce costs is by selectively introducing telecommuting as an option for employees. Telecommuting is a rising organisational trend. It involves the employment of telecommunications technology to establish off-site virtual offices. Executives realise that the high cost of commercial real estate makes acquiring additional office space for new employees undesirable whilst time spent traversing congested highways to and from work could be spent more productively.
Telecommuting has taken on mainly as a result of the shift towards output based performance assessment. The traditional perception of work being a place to go to is being replaced by the idea that employees are responsible for achieving specific objectives in the most efficient manner.
Significant advances in the telecommunications industry have made electronic communication simple, affordable and scalable. Even home offices can get high speed internet in which VoIP and other communications services are integrated. A typical home office requires a PC, phone and fax lines, PBX, broadband modem and wireless LAN. A single IP solution is now capable of delivering all of the above and more.
Cloudworking has taken the concept of telecommuting a step further. When data and computing power is hosted on the Internet, access to shared network information is available from anywhere at any time. This means that there really is no need for physical office space. Employees can work anywhere, be it a quiet coffee shop or an Internet cafe, airport or hotel.
Telecommuting or cloudworking is a great way to reduce costs and improve efficiencies during an economic downturn.
Working from home has advantages for both employers and employees:
It is Cost Effective
Employers usually bear the cost of office space, equipment, telecommunications, power, maintenance, security and insurance. Telecommuting eliminates many of these costs resulting in direct savings. Other possible savings arising from this mutually beneficial arrangement include reduction in the costs the company bears in terms of sick leave and medical aid. The reasoning is that the reduction in employee stress levels would lead to less sick days being taken and possibly a reduction in employee medical costs. Employees will see significant savings by not having to commute to work and will have far greater control over how they allocate their time each day.
It facilitates employee retention
When benefits such as health care and retirement need to be cut back, employers find it difficult to attract and retain skilled employees. Telecommuting may be a great strategy for retaining valuable staff. It may be a very attractive solution to single parent families and families in which both parents work. Staff will be better able to balance their work and home lives which will result in improved productivity.
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