Throw away the suits and telework!
Posted by: Sheryle Moon in teleworking, tags: climate change, teleworkingSick of suiting up each day and tackling the traffic to get to the office?
More and more Australians are choosing to work from home for at least part of the week, saving time, headaches and CO2 emissions into the bargain.
At a conference I attended last year, Victorian Cabinet Secretary Tony Lupton pointed to a study by the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO) which concluded that if 20 per cent of business travel in the EU were replaced by audioconferencing, videoconferencing or telepresence, then 25 million tonnes of CO2 might be saved annually by 2010.
Closer to home, Telework Australia says that having a workforce that works at least partly at home can reduce costs of heating, air-conditioning, car parks and lighting by 17 per cent of salary costs.
And teleworkers are happy workers! In Australia, telework reduces avoidable staff turnover by over 20 percent, while managers report that employees are up to 40 percent more productive.
These results are backed up by an international study by CDW, published in August 2007, found that teleworkers are more satisfied with their current jobs than those that don’t have the option to work from home. 89 per cent of US government employees and 89 percent of private sector employees with the option to telework were either satisfied or very satisfied at work
As we look for ways to reduce our carbon dioxide emissions and minimise our environmental footprint, teleworking provides an answer. Teleworking helps companies get the most out of available resources. It provides an alternative to traffic congestion, office distractions and tying up capital in expensive office space or car parks.
It’s time to get smarter about how we manage our businesses. Technology has delivered the solutions which enable people to work from home - it’s time for businesses to embrace them.
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Sheryle, this is great! I currently work at Ross and I always thought about Teleworking, but never thought of it as a reality because we hardly see it.
I deffinitly beleive it will help employees be more productive because they feel more comfortable working from their own surroundings and don’t have that “Big Brother” feeling, where you feel as though your every move is watched.
It deffinitly motivates employees alot more and also it helps save up on employer costs. The amount of money employers can save on electricity and other misc. expenses is immense. On top of that, alot of employers could use teleworking as a possible option to counter high salary requests.
I think teleworking is a great idea, and with technology progressing at a rapid rate it is deffinitly a viable and affordable option !