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Telecommuting: Once a Perk, Now a Necessity

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Brie Feb 10, 2011 11:20 AM GMT I love that companies like Capital One are offering the technology and cash necessary to make a home office truly compatible to full-time work! I've been working from home for almost two years now, and my current company, FlexJobs.com, is completely virtual. It's wonderful and compared to a regular in-office job, I'd take telecommuting every time. Companies who have new job postings should consider whether or not the job could be a telecommuting one. Turning open positions into telecommuting jobs would help companies find a wider pool of candidates, enabling to hire the best of the best, regardless of location.
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Terence Traut Jun 24, 2009 11:08 AM GMT I started my company in 1992 and have only had virtual employees. The cost savings from a business perspective are tremendous and allow the company to weather difficult times without layoffs. Additionally, I'm able to tap into talent that isn't available for the 9-5 job - talented MOTHERS! The perks from an employee perspective are apparent - flexibility, no commute, etc. We get together once a month for face-to-face time.As one person wrote, work-at-home/telecommuting isn't for everyone. You need to be more task focused than people focused (although technology is rapidly breaking down that wall with blogs, RSS feeds, webcams, etc.)Additionally, ours is a project-based business (we create training programs), which is very easy to monitor and coach to.Terry
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Eric O Apr 3, 2009 9:55 PM GMT Mentoring? In the office? HA! All the mentoring I do takes place over email, shared RSS feed posts, and blog entries. I've worked for a number of different companies, and I would honestly say that there isn't much that really happens. Certainly not on a daily basis. As to the "face time" issues in light of layoffs, here's the important things to remember: (1) saving on real estate costs might save jobs, and (2) you can be unproductive in the office, if not even more so than at home. Results are what really matter, not a butt in a seat for 40 hours a week, as indicated by ROWE.
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Mediaman Apr 1, 2009 5:39 PM GMT I wrote a blog about Cloud Commuting, and I hope you find it useful in view of "telecommuting."www.1000opinions.blog.comI think the forthcoming revolution in "Cloud Commuting" can save Billions of commuting hours, Billions of commuting gasonline dollars, billions of tons of pollution emissions. Most importantly, efficiency and productivity combined with significantly enhanced "worker" satisfaction make the 50-60 percent of office workers, lawyers, accountants, CR and HR and many other functions the best practices" wave of the near future.Besides think of the billions of square feet of ofice space that could be recycled into Millennium-efficient combinations of Home and home office.Add in Cloud Education, and Cloud Health and the shape of the new economy starts tp form.I hope you sticvk with this subject on a regualr basis; you'll be a visionary when yopu report on developments.
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Robert Mar 20, 2009 8:30 PM GMT I would not be so willing to work from home. With the economy in a downward spiral, management is forced to make cuts not only in expenses but staff. It is human nature to cut those people in which you are not close to or that appear to be not part of the team. If you work from home, you and your management lose that personal connection and you may be asking to be moved to the top of the chopping block.
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Lindsay Finlayson Mar 10, 2009 11:54 PM GMT Management have to be careful with telecommuting , that they do not overlook the mentoring/development that occurs daily with staff in the "traditional office" , in the trade off for cost savings .
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Thelma McClure Mar 10, 2009 4:19 PM GMT Our management does not want any of us to work at home. Most of our work in on the computer and very little need to come into the office unless we need to print and file something. We can print from home and file there is need be. This office does not have personnel information that would be a problem.We need to know how to get our management to let us do tell working.Hope we will soon be able to work from home, it would save me approx 3/12 hours or more commute time per day not to mention the stress an car expense.Thanks for any assistance you could provide to our management to get up to be able to work most of the time from home.
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Brian Mar 10, 2009 1:33 PM GMT Brian, I thought you might find this article interesting. Amy Telecommuting used to be considered a special perk for the most privileged employees, but with the economic downturn, telecommuting could become the best option for employers looking to reduce capital expenses, especially when it comes to office space.
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Jim Ware Mar 6, 2009 12:42 AM GMT Interesting. Adam, we know people who have lost weight - they take longer walks and they're not eating fast food at lunch or on the way home.And William, I agree it's the next big thing - but there are lots of reasons why both companies and individuals resist the change that telecommuting involves.In fact, you are welcome to download a white paper we've written on the topic. It's called "How Come Distributed Work is Still the Next Big Thing" and it's available at this link:http://www.thefutureofwork.net/assets/WP-20061-Distributed_Work_Next_Big_Thing.pdf
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William Mar 4, 2009 9:15 PM GMT a huge potential ....how to tap it...this is the next big thing !....some of it happening for some time,of course,but its about to explode with even large companies redesigning....just read it at lunch and brain is in burnt out mode so cant process the perfect solution right now....but it wont be only Steelcase and HON and RIM and Verizon and etc etc that make $$$ there must be an entrepreneurial niche...need rest to think of it..
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