This isn’t shocking news, but telecommuters are more satisfied with their work when compared to the traditional office worker. CareerJournal.com’s Working From Home Fosters Job Satisfaction does provide some detail to this difference that I found noteworthy. First the background stats:
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, according to the survey in June of about 10,000 U.S. workers.
But here is the section that points to retention (emphasis mine):
Some of the differences were striking, Wiley said, pointing to the 10 percentage point difference between the 54% of telecommuters who said there is “open, honest two-way communication” at their company versus 44% of the office workers who said that.
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.
Fifty-eight percent of the telecommuters said “senior management demonstrates that employees are important to the success of the company,” versus 51% of the office workers who agreed, and 53% of the telecommuters said they believe senior management speaks honestly versus 44% of the office workers.
That is remarkable. I seriously doubt there is a tremendous difference between the companies that allow telecommuting and those that do not. But the employee’s perception is drastically different.
Telecommuting is a sea change that is occurring in the modern work environment. If you are struggling with retention, telecommuting is an excellent option for changing the problem completely. Yes, it requires a change in management approach. Yes, you have to trust your salespeople to be self starters. But it will pay dividends in your retention efforts.