The shortest commute ever?
Posted on October 28, 2007
Filed Under Career Development, Boomers, Gen X, Gen Y, Job Search
About 10 seconds, if I stop to admire the view of my backyard on my way from my kitchen to my home office. In case you didn’t get the clue, today’s topic is working remotely, either from home or some other remote location. It’s not a new idea, but it is one that research shows more companies should consider. I’ve been doing it for about 8 years now and I absolutely LOVE IT! I don’t ever want to work in a typical office environment ever again.
It appears I’m not alone in this feeling. A study released in June shows that seventy-three percent of the remote and home-based workers surveyed said they are satisfied with their company as a place to work compared with 64% of office workers. Now a 9% swing in job satisfaction may not seem like much, but if you factor that against retention and the cost of hiring new employees it could save a company hundreds of thousands of dollars annually. Especially when you consider that of the 10,000 surveyed, fifty-three percent of the remote workers said they were not considering leaving the company within 12 months, while 46% of the office workers said leaving was not a consideration. As Jack Wiley, executive director of the Kenexa Research Institute, in Minneapolis notes “We have a significant amount of experience and research that’s shown a link between employee engagement and a whole host of very desirable outcomes, including an employee’s willingness to expend discretionary effort to get the job done and their intention to stay with their employer”. Translation, if you let the employee attend conference calls in their bathrobe and slippers, they’ll work longer and harder. Duh!
Presently only about 4% of the workforce telecommutes, but as the labor market tightens we should see this number grow. Already some tech companies and other progressives such as Best Buy are reworking what we thought was ‘known’ about work environments and schedules. And they should. Empowering the employee by letting them have flexible work schedules or work from home can only breed employee loyalty and at a time when it’s an ever shrinking commodity.
In other research, Wiley said, “when we ask people what are the most important things they want from the company for which they work in addition to their compensation, people want appreciation and respect. They want to be appreciated for the work they contribute, they want to be recognized for that, they want to be treated respectfully,” he said. “This desire escapes the attention of many managers and employers in general.” But perhaps not for long.
So keep your resume updated and your eyes open.
Until next time…
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