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Telecommuting advantages and disadvantages
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Results In this section, the results of the research are presented. For each task carried out, the most important information obtained is presented. Task 1. Acquire a basic understanding of telecommuting in the workplace Telecommuting, which is also most commonly called telework, is also referred to as working from home, mobile work, remote work, or flexible work arrangements. According to Womans-work.com, telecommuting is “[W]orking at home or at other off-site locations that are linked electronically (via computer, fax, etc.) to a central office or principal place of employment (2009). In a telecommuting arrangement, employees usually follow a company telecommuting policy that allows employees to work from the convenience of their own (See Table 2 for more details on teleworking growth). Table 2. Telework Growth from 2005 to 2014 (Source: Lister, 2016). • The employee population as a whole grew by 1.9% from 2013 to 2014, while employees who telecommuter population grew 5.6%. As we can see from these data, the growth of telecommuting has been substantial over the last several years. It is becoming more and more attractive to both employees and employers. We will further explore why in the upcoming sections. Task 2. Research cost-benefit of telecommuting There are cost benefits for both the employee and the employer when an employee telecommutes. We will examine employee cost-benefits first. Reducing or eliminating the commute to and from work each day reduces the amount of gas or public transportation costs for employees. According to Lea Green with PGi, a leading provider of collaboration software and services, “Two billion gallons of gas would be saved annually by a U.S. telecommuting workforce” (2013). Individually, depending on each employee’s commute distance, gas costs savings could be significant. Figure 1 demonstrates fuel costs for one year for employees traveling 30, 50, and 70 miles per day, round-trip (at the current IRS mileage rate of $ .54/mile) via automobile for one year (IRS, Companies with a telework program report 63% fewer unscheduled absences (2013). According to Green, the Telework Research Network, reported nearly 6 out of 10 employers identify cost savings as a notable benefit from telecommuting (2013). Task 3. Research advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting Because of the many benefits of telecommuting, it makes sense that most employers would support telecommuting. However, the research suggests that there are disadvantages to some companies that would prevent them from supporting teleworking. The primary advantages include: • Improves employee satisfaction––employees tend to have more independence and find better work/life balance telecommuting. The majority of people (80%) see telecommuting as a job perk. Many would prefer telework over a pay raise (37%) and 36% would take a 10% pay raise to be able to work from home (Lister, 2016). • Reduces unscheduled absences––this benefit saves employers money. According to Lister, 78% of employees who take sick time, aren’t really sick, but do so due to family issues, stress or other personal problems. Unscheduled absences cost employers an average of $1,800/employee/year; that adds up to $300 billion/year for U.S. companies
When you have an employee, who does not have paid time designated to sick, they will often go to work sick as opposed to losing a vacation day. (Miller) The reluctance of giving up a vacation day versus staying home and getting healthy is noteworthy. “The problem”, eloquently put by Miller, “they drag their contagious carcasses to work, infecting colleagues, delaying their own recovery and giving less than a day's work for a day's pay”. As an employer, dealing with an employee who comes to work sick does cause concern as they can infect other employees. Similarly, if the employee is in the food or retail industry, they can pass germs along to consumers. As Paquette states, “More than half of U.S. and Canadian fast food workers in a 2015 survey said they reported to work under-the-weather because they didn't want to lose money”. This is a trend that must end and can by offering employees paid sick
Our primary measure of value for this project will be in increasing use of the internet on the go for our employees by giving them direct wire-less internet service in their vehicles. The addition of wireless Internet service will provide on the go service to better assist with customer service and improve the quality of work for our employees. The added value of employee productivity while using the wireless service on their mobile devices and in vehicles will be difficult to measure, but using surveys to further measure the success of this project.
Despite an employee’s heart felting requests to work remotely from home (telework environment), many government supervisors continue to resist allowing employees to telework. Many working adults/employees seek ways for a better quality of life. Work life integration involves juggling long work hours, minimizing commute time to the workplace, obtaining career positions with competitive wages, maintaining quality time with family, participating to social and network events, giving their time to community services, and some may return to school for a higher education or additional degree. As employees’ seek ways to deal with additional life stress and learn how to manage the stressors in their life. Stress is threatening and damaging if not managed appropriately. Although stress
According to the case, employees were complaining about heavy traffic causing long commutes, high parking cost, stress and balancing work and personal responsibilities. One of the alternatives that might help to reduce MedEx’s turnovers is telecommuting. Businesses suffers when there is another business that is about to start in the market and is closer to work for the majority of employees that have a long commute from their current employer “Futurologists and policymakers optimistically anticipated that telecommuting would not only reduce travel demand but
Working for my families new small-owned business that is expanding rapidly, I believe we should switch to telework for our employees. I think this is smart to do so we can become closer to our clients. There are three main advantages that I believe we should act on to make our business more successful and create better relationships with clients. The benefits of telework include more productive time use such as synchronous and asynchronous, telework creates media richness to help build relationships with clients, and telework lowers cost of office space by allowing your employees to work virtually.
Many different types of workers are constantly connected to work. They work even when they are away from their jobs, often at nights, on weekends and on vacations,
Explain that less office space will be needed and how employees of companies that offer telecommuting often have a better retention rate than companies that do not.
Everyone deals with these demands differently, affecting the employee’s quality of life and job satisfaction. Though the job and office types and locations have changed over the years, the need for job satisfaction has not. In today’s economy, the job is not as stable as it used to be. One must be prepared for changes in the future. The structural-functional analysis of jobs in the U.S. is governed by the workforce stratification and technology.
Ultimately, our business will be able to allocate resources using the money we’ll save by implementing these workplace flexible policies. We want to continue to compete amongst our competitors and rigid workspace environments cause employees to feel less valued, trusted and comfortable in the workplace. This type of tense environment effects our turnover, attendance and productivity metrics which is why telecommuting and flexible schedules should be incorporated in our business’ workplace flexibility policies. Allowing our employees to have a voice in how they work best will increase employee satisfaction, retention and the long-term success of our
One of the main driving factors for any company is economics and how will telecommuting allow the corporation to be profitable. The primary saving for companies embarking upon the telecommuting concept is the reduction in the amount of office space required to conduct business. Telecommuting benefits the employer because they have an expanded pool of employees. The skills of employees with commuting difficulties, childcare conflict, disabilities, geographical barriers are made available to a telecommuting employer. Companies are now starting to expanding oversees where the labor price is cheaper for telecommuting. This however can be looked at as both an advantage to the employer, and as a disadvantage to the employee.
The workplace today goes beyond just the walls and ceilings that surround an office environment or office building. According to the International Telework Association and Council, 44.4 million Americans worked from home at least part of the time in 2004, up 7.5% from just on year earlier (Earthweb, 2005). Though it may be very convenient to work from home, the choice can bring its own set of problems. There are financial reasons, efficiencies, and even managing time are just a few to name that bring about many challenges and issues that any remote employee would face in that type of work environment.
Thomson, M. 2012, "The hidden cost of sick leave", Management Services, vol. 56, no. 4, pp. 17-18.
• Lower Operating Costs The per-mile fuel cost of operating an electric vehicle can be less than
In Today’s world, the composition and how work is done has massively changed and is still continuing to change. Work is now more complex, more team base, depends greatly on technological and social skills and lastly more mobile and does not depend on geography. Companies are also opting for ways to help their employees perform their duties effectively so that huge profits are realized in the long term .The changes in the workplaces include Reduction in the structure of the hierarchy ,breakdown in the organization boundaries , improved and better management tactics and perspectives and lastly better workplace condition and health to the employees. (Frank Ackerman, Neva R. Goodwin, Laurie Dougherty, Kevin Gallagher, 2001)
The rapid development of information systems and technology brings some positive effects to individuals. In order to use information systems effectively, individuals need to acquire skills and knowledge on using different computer technology. Take an example of an individual working in a project on market research, he needs to learn the way to use spreadsheets for analysing the data. The new knowledge acquired by the individuals will lead to upskilling effect. The innovation of technology brings a lot more new channels of communication, such as e-mail and instant messaging applications, it increases interaction between individuals. The barriers of location is eliminated by technology, people can communicate with one another in anywhere around the world through Internet. In addition, virtual office and work from home are becoming a common practice for companies, people can enjoy more flexibility in working locations and hours, and this is particularly beneficial to individuals who have young children at h...