Advantages to Implementing a Telecommuting Program

Positive Aspects of Telecommuting for Businesses

Research has shown that the benefits of a properly implemented telecommuting program are many and diverse. A well-designed telecommuting program can improve employee and manager morale by reducing stress, improving productivity, reducing absenteeism, and lowering an organization's overhead, among other positive factors.

Whether telecommuting can work for an organization or not has been the focus of numerous studies for over twenty years. Not until the comprehensive and widely reported November, 2007 study by Gejendran and Harrison published in the Journal of Applied Psychology was a complete understanding of the positive factors involved with telecommuting presented to the public.

The Gejendran and Harrison study found, "Telecommuting has a clear upside: small but favorable effects on perceived autonomy, work-family conflict, job satisfaction, performance, turnover intent, and stress. Contrary to expectations in both academic and practitioner literatures, telecommuting also has no straightforward, damaging effects on the quality of workplace relationships or perceived career prospects." ["The Good, the Bad, and the Unknown About Telecommuting," Journal of Applied Psychology, v. 92, n. 6]

A trial program at IBM involving 300 computer programmers established that home-based workers were more productive. [Bell Communications Research, "Telecommunications Infrastructure: Analysis of its Economic Impacts," April, 1990]. The city of Portland invested six months in a telecommuting pilot program that resulted in happier employees and higher productivity ["City of Portland Gives Telecommuting a Thumbs Up Following a Six-Month Test.".] Similar positive experiences have been reported from U.S. West and Novell.

Potential Advantages

1. Reduce the number of cars traveling to a work site. An employee can save thousands in travel expenses a year.

2. Reduce number of interruptionsand alleviate stress means larger blocks of concentrated thought devoted to a task, thus the task may get done faster with higher quality and less stress.