Long overdue for HR to promote telecommuting
08:21, 2 October 2008
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"Everything that affects workforce productivity should be addressed by a truly strategic HR function. Rather than waiting for national gas prices to top out this sum, HR leaders should act now by enabling more remote work options that help inflation-battered employees save on energy costs. Employees will not be the only ones to benefit. Studies show that telecommuters are often more productive than office-bound employees doing the same work... In addition, the secondary benefits of leveraging more remote work stack up quick. Cisco Systems, Sun Microsystems and IBM have saved millions on real estate costs; Deloitte estimates a $40 million savings in reduced employee turnover costs; and Google has found that you can often hire higher-quality talent by taking the work to the talent... There are many things that HR can do, but the first option should be to re-assess which jobs can be done remotely—at least one day a week. Next, invest in technologies that support or enable workforce collaboration independent of the workers’ locations, including conference phone lines, wikis, online forums, videoconferencing and other Web-based meeting platforms that keep dispersed workers connected." Read Time To Telecommute, in Workforce.com (subscription needed, but subscription is free).
