Teleworkers Are More Productive
Big companies are making big money by allowing their employees to telecommute. Are you?
The reason most bosses refuse to allow their employees to telecommute is a long-held belief that employees are less productive at home. This notion couldn’t be farther from the truth.
Big Companies Love Telecommuting
If you happen to be an old-fashioned boss that says, “Bah humbug” to telecommuting for your employees, you may want to think twice about reprising the role of Scrooge. Like Christmas, teleworking is here to stay and it’s actually a little bit fun.
Caution: these numbers may cause giddiness among unsuspecting managers and business owners as they realize what they stand to gain from telecommuting. It is recommended that you are seated.
- Best Buy, British Telecom, Dow Chemical and many others show that teleworkers are 35-40% more productive.
- Businesses lose $600 billion a year in workplace distractions.
- Over two-thirds of employers report increased productivity among their telecommuters.
- Sun Microsystems’ experience suggests that employees spend 60% of the commuting time they save performing work for the company.
- AT&T workers work 5 more hours at home than their office workers.
- JDEdwards teleworkers are 20-25% more productive than their office counterpoints.
- American Express workers produced 43% more than their office based counterpoints.
- Compaq increased productivity 15% – 45%.
This information comes from the Telework Research Network site, which is among the foremost authorities on teleworking statistics in the US, if not the world.
Don’t be this guy. Make sense of telecommuting for your company instead.
The People Aspect
Let’s look beyond the numbers with this quote from Michelle Obama that appeared in the Washington Post (we found it at Workshifting.com):
The Washington Post reported that Obama said, “I found that as I’ve managed staff, the more flexibility and opportunities that I gave them to be good parents, the more commitment that they made to working with me, the less likely they were to leave because they wouldn’t find the same sort of situation somewhere else.” She added, “So this isn’t just about family balance. This is about making work places stronger and more effective, and keeping and attracting the most qualified people.”
What Are You Really Waiting For?
Telecommuting is making big companies a lot of money. We’re talking billions. In the face of this information, it’s hard to fathom that the way forward isn’t clear.
If a major part of your hangup is that you don’t understand the process of telecommuting and how it could work for your business, that’s fine. That’s what informational resources like the ComCenter Blog are here for.
Join us on Facebook so we can continue the discussion there. Telecommuting is our passion. We’d love to share what we know with you.