Hard Numbers On Telecommuting

The Herman Trend Alert newsletter (sorry, no link) provides some interesting statistics from a Cisco survey: Now the international technology giant Cisco Systems has just released a study of its own organization demonstrating these benefits and more. Using telecommuting, Cisco estimates annual savings of USD $277 Million. In its in-depth “Teleworker Survey” of almost 2,000 company employees, the company evaluated the social, economic, and environmental impacts associated with telecommuting. The study found that telecommuting significantly increased employee productivity, work-life flexibility, and job satisfaction. In addition, the report cited that “a majority of respondents experienced a significant increase in work-life flexibility, productivity, and overall satisfaction as a result of their ability… Read More

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Telecommuter-Friendly Companies

A few months ago I posted on the rising trend of telecommuting.  The percent of companies that allow working from home has gone up dramatically over the past few years.  From our experience, that trend has been accelerating in just the past few months.  More companies are offering salespeople the option to work form home a few days a month once they are through their on-ramping process.  We are also being asked by sales candidates early in the process if telecommuting is an option. Not all companies and positions have that flexibility, but that shouldn’t preclude you from looking for alternatives.  A recent article from the Workforce Management newsletter lists 7 companies… Read More

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An Electronic Leash

You just knew this was going to happen – companies are using technology to monitor remote employees.  The Wall Street Journal provides this article that illustrates what approaches are used by employers: They’re taking photos of workers’ computer screens at random, counting keystrokes and mouse clicks and snapping photos of them at their computers. They’re plying sophisticated technology to instantaneously detect anger, raised voices or children crying in the background on workers’ home-office calls. That seems quite invasive, but it appears telecommuters are generally willing to trade the invasiveness for the work-at-home option.  I’m not certain I would be so eager to allow this type of monitoring into my computer. … Read More

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The Commute Question

We are sales recruiters so we have been fairly immune to this question, but it is even appearing in our world.  For salespeople, the question is some variation of “How often will I be expected to be in the office?”  This question doesn’t mean they are planning on playing hooky; the candidate simply wants to start the discussion about working from home, their car, coffee shops, etc. The Career News newsletter (sorry, no link) offers up a quick article on this topic: When it comes to making a living, how many miles would you travel? According to many hiring agencies and recruiters, people job hunting are taking climbing gas prices… Read More

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The Gasoline Tipping Point

$4.50 here in the Twin Cities.  According to this Pioneer Press story: And if the price hits $4.50 per gallon, more than half of the commuters in the Twin Cities said they’ll be looking at changes in their daily commute. The survey found commuters are most aggressive about looking for options in Atlanta, Dallas and the Twin Cities. They are slowest in San Francisco. The gas price is a strong lever in sales recruiting right now, but you have to be prepared to discuss the reimbursement side of the equation.  We have noticed a definitive upclick in the discussion of mileage reimbursement/car allowance.  In fact, this topic is coming up… Read More

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Jobhopping And Nomadism

I have a friend who is one of the steadiest guys in the world.  He is extremely talented, has worked for some large companies and has an impressive list of degrees.  However, he has been working on his career path since the moment he graduated college in 1992. He has worked for 4-5 year stints at a few companies before joining a company now that is the realization of his chosen path.  The humorous aspect of his journey is that his employer is an old company.  Their initial review of his stellar resume was this – he is a jobhopper.  I still laugh when I think about that line applied… Read More

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What Is A Flexible Work Strategy?

Apparently the answer to that question depends upon whom you ask.  From an older RecruitingTrends.com article: Furthermore, executives’ innate understanding of what defines flexible work strategies varies. While the largest percentage (45%) define it as pertaining to time, 31% view it as something to do with an employee’s location, and another 23% see flexible work arrangements as something other than time or location. I would fall in the “Flexible location” group in terms of defining it.  It would appear that this relatively new phrase requires a better definition.  Or perhaps all new phrases and terms begin with some ambiguity.

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Telecommuting Is Old School, Nomadism Is New School

The modern workplace is shifting towards a more ad hoc approach vs. a scheduled interaction according this The Economist’s excellent article Labour movement.  This article defines nomadism in the current work world: Today’s work nomadism descends from, but otherwise bears little resemblance to, the older model of “telecommuting”, says Mr Ware. That earlier concept became popular in the 1990s thanks to cheap but stationary telecommunications technologies—the landline phone, the fax and dial-up internet. Because it still tied workers to a place—the home office—telecommuting implicitly had people “cocooning at home five days a week”, he says. But people do not want that: instead, they want to mingle with others and to… Read More

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Web Commute

That is a term coined by Citrix and one I suspect we will see with some frequency.  If gas goes to $4/gallon, I suspect these articles will publish daily.  ManageSmarter.com offers up an article discussing the preference of today’s workers to have technological flexibility in their job.  The key here is the demographics of the results (emphasis mine): …U.S. workers aged 18-34 prefer flexible working conditions two-to-one over other age groups. In fact, 70% of survey respondents agreed that working remotely would be a welcome opportunity. In an era where acquiring and retaining good employees is a challenge, and the workforce is becoming increasingly young and mobile, offering the ability… Read More

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Fast Facts About Telecommuting

Seems like our small-sized companies are catching on to the telecommuting option this year which is a bit of a change.  I think a good post would be one that lays out a salesperson’s tools of the trade for today. Included in that list would be a web-based CRM and a VPN connection for telecommuting.  No?  Check these stats out from a recent Wall Street Journal article (h/t to Lee): Seventy percent of Cisco Systems employees regularly work from home at least 20% of the time. So do 34% of workers at Booz Allen Hamilton and 32% at S.C. Johnson & Sons. Those stats, from a recent Fortune companies survey… Read More

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