What will telecommuting cost your company really?

October 13, 2008 by Valerie Helmbreck

Posted in: Budgets and spending, Communication, Compliance, Green technology, Information security, Special Report

The boom in telecommuting’s being driven by soaring gas prices and a sinking economy, and now there’s data that’s showing just how big an impact the practice is having.

A new survey finds that companies wind up winning on two fronts: Productivity and cost containment. More than half of those surveyed cited both increased productivity among offsite workers and lower costs as benefits from the practice.

A new survey of 212 IT managers and CIOs in a wide range of industries by CompTIA research tells the telecommuting tale:

The majority of respondents (78%) report that some employees within their organizations telecommute, at least part-time.
Most organizations don’t have a high percentage of full-time telecommuting employees. Most organizations (82%) say that less than 25% of employees telecommute full-time.
Workers in IT management (41%), field technical support (37%), and administration (35%) most commonly telecommute (part-time or full-time).
Top benefits of telecommuting to organizations include improved productivity (67%), cost savings (59%), access to more qualified staff (39%), employee retention (37%), and improved employee health (25%).
Significant challenges of telecommuting to organizations include securing corporate information systems (53%), limiting use of unauthorized and unsupported devices (38%), and controlling personal use of corporate mobile assets (33%).
To meet challenges of telecommuting, IT departments have tackled issues such as upgrades in network circuits and VPN equipment, expanded security, training, and implementation of new virtualization technologies and applications.

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Tags: lower costs, productivity, security, survey, telecommute, training, upgrades, virtualization, VPN

Maria Russo

What is the cost savings? (59%) The article never tells what that involves.
MS

This article falls short of answering the question posed in its own title. They mention lower costs – but what is driving those lower costs for the company?
misty

I second (third?) the other 2 respondants…I’d love to sell the boss on telecommuting, but exactly what cost will he save?
http://www.financetechnews.com Valerie Helmbreck

You’ll have to figure out what boosted productivity, healthier employees and less turnover will save your company. A pilot telecommuting project can tell you this. I’d try a six-month program with selected employees to gauge the impact. Establish benchmarks for on-site and off-site workers. Then calculate savings based on improvements in any of the targeted areas.

It’s also possible to negotiate a program with employees: Smaller raises or bonuses in exchange for gas/commuting costs. Being able to hang onto staff and manage compensation should be worth a lot to your boss — or any boss, for that matter — in these volitile economic times.
http://www.telcoa.org Chuck Wilsker

We (The Telework Coalition, a Washington DC based nonprofit) have done studies on this. An average organization can save ~$20,000 per year per full time teleworker. Real estate is the largest piece of this followed by increased productivity – approximately 22% – based on both more hours worked and fewer distractions, reduced costs relating to absenteeism – 63% based on an American Management Association study, and an increased ability to retain employees.
Bill

Working at a state agency that has done telecommuting on a limited scale 8 to 10 years ago and is currently wanting to do it again, i have seen many of the positives and negatives. The original pilot was stopped because of cost and questionable productivity (the telecommuters had increased productivity after returning to the office). The test subjects mentioned are IT employees; sending Geeks home to work on their computer there makes sense. However, current management training and education is geared toward “team” environments. A telecommuting environment is just the opposite of a team environment. Unlike the commercials on TV, most employers lack the bandwidth to provide streaming video to telecommuters in addition to Internet functionality. Two other things are lost as well: organizational culture (what percentage of the ‘best’ companies to work for have a large number of telecommuters) and organizational knowledge (leaner organizations that telecommute will find that (1) no one knows why they did what they did in certain circumstances and (2) no one passes along how to do certain functions). People in the executive suite are just passing through on their way to the next ‘challenge’ and as a rule don’t telecommute. To do so would put them out of touch with the ‘action’. Generally speaking, it is the workers that are sent to telecommute. Two last points: I have determined it’s not the price of gasoline that is the problem, it’s the traffic, and out-of-sight, out-of-budget.
http://www.billige-flybiletter.dk Krie

Commenting usually isnt my thing, but ive spent an hour on the site, so thanks for the info

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