Telecommuting interest soars

There has been a sharp increase in the number of North American employers offering telecommuting as an option in the past year, according to an annual survey by WorldatWork, a global human resources association. In the US, 42% of employers said they offered a telework option, up from 30% in 2007, while in Canada, the jump was even greater, from 25% to 40%.

“What we are seeing is that a lot more organizations are utilizing this as a tool to attract and retain employees,” said Rose Stanley, Work-Life practice leader at WorldatWork, which conducts its Salary Budget Survey every year to determine what employers are doing to recruit and retain employees, including salaries and benefits.

One reason for the increase, according to the survey, is that technology is no longer a major issue, Stanley said.

“We provide education and information, and a lot of people have been calling us about this,” Stanley said. “They want to know how to put it in place and how to train everybody – that’s one of the biggest areas that have stopped from considering a telework option. It’s no longer technology but the cultural aspects of accepting this as a viable way of managing employees that presents roadblocks.”

The rise of easy-to-use Web conferencing and collaboration programs is making it much easier for workers to operate efficiently even when they aren’t in the same physical location, Stanley said, and widely available broadband access makes use of Web-based technologies easier. Managers still are concerned about how to manage employees that aren’t in one site, however.