Telecommuting is the Norm is a quick article from Sales & Marketing Management’s website. I don’t think this trend is surprising to most people. We have seen a tremendous shift towards this approach in outside sales positions over the past 2 years especially. Most candidates now expect some form of telecommuting capability including wireless-connected laptops, VPN connections and PDA cell phones.
If your company does not offer these telecommuting basics, consider this excerpt from the article:
“The war for talent, combined with commuting times and costs, and an increasing need for work-life balance are all factors that promote telecommuting,” says Jim Lanzalotto, vice president of strategy and marketing for Yoh. “All things being equal, a well-articulated telecommuting policy can make the difference between winning and losing a bid for a high-impact professional, especially when more than twenty-seven million people in the United States work from home.”
Among the telecommuting trends:
* 25 percent of managers allow working from home, 13 percent allow working from a satellite office and 44 percent have other arrangements that support telecommuting. Only 19 percent say they have no telecommuting procedure.
Most managers say they expect telecommuting to grow over the next two years. Only 35 percent said it was unlikely that telecommuting would increase.