10/9/13 Telecommuting Creates Happier and More Productive ... - Input Output h30565.www3.hp.com/t5/Feature-Articles/Telecommuting-Creates-Happier-and-More-Productive-Employees/ba-p/1834 1/5 Search Blog Go US > Feature Articles > Telecommuting Creates Happier and More Productive ... Telecommuting Creates Happier and More Productive Employees by Diann_Daniel on 05-03-2012 08:08 AM - last edited on 22-03-2012 08:05 AM by estherschindler The arguments for allowing your workforce to have more telecommuting options are many. There's the environmental argument, to begin with: Telecommuting raises your company's green profile; it keeps cars off the road and reduces traffic congestion. Telecommuting already saves 10 million barrels of oil per year, according to a 2011 study (PDF) from the Mobility Choice coalition. (See this infographic for more connections between telecommuting and green practices.) Environmental sustainability and greater work business continuity are valid reasons to create more flexibility in your company's work arrangements. Another, arguably more pressing one? Your employees want it. Also see A Manager’s Guide to Telecommuting for mentoring advice. Telecommuting programs can increase employee productivity and satisfaction According to the Telework Research Network, a public-private partnership focused on demonstrating the tangible value of telework and serving the emerging educational and communication requirements of the Federal teleworker community, telecommuting can make employees more productive, not less—despite what many managers fear. It points to heavy hitters like Best Buy, Dow Chemical, and American Express as just a few companies that have found teleworkers are more productive by 35% to 40%. In a global survey by Reuters, 65% of respondents from around the world think telecommuters are productive due to the greater control over work life enabled by a more flexible work arrangement. In a Cisco survey of 2,000 of its own employees, 69% of the employees surveyed said they were more productive when working remotely, and 67% said their overall work quality improved when telecommuting. A study published in the June 2010 issue of the Journal of Family Psychology supports this. The study found that workers with a more flexible schedule were better able to balance work and family life. Employees with the flexibility to telecommute at least part of the time worked 19 more hours than their office-bound workers before experiencing work- life conflicts. Increased productivity from telecommuting and virtual programs also squares with the experiences of Rick Albiero, founder and CEO of the remote workforce consultancy the Telecommuting Advantage Group. There can be a lot of wasted time in a physical office. Woe to the person whose cube or office is a high-traffic zone, he says. How much time is lost as anyone who walks by feels the need to stop in and make small talk? Also, in an office it's easy to "walk around and bump into people." There's less pressure to be strategic in your communications and requests. It's much more likely that you rely on popping into someone's office to make that additional request you didn't think to make when you, for example, first asked for that report. In addition, Albiero says, typically the first part of a meeting tends not to focus on work, but rather gets taken up by topics like what team members did during the weekend. It is partly for reasons such as these that teleworkers may be not only more productive, but happier. Contrary to the popular wisdom that personal interaction on the job is an important determinant in job satisfaction, a study in the October 2010 Journal of Applied Communications Research notes that there are distinct benefits associated with restricted face-to-face interaction. "Indeed, some communication scholars have questioned the notion that face-to-face interaction or a sense of 'being there' are necessarily positive," write the researchers. Past studies show that traditional collocated environments do enable greater levels of Security management mobile innovation career hardware cloud computing networking trends hiring printing w orkf low data center green infographic budget collaboration geek social media marketing storage big data pow er roi Linux nostalgia virtualization administration conference smartphone View All The HP Input Output site is sponsored by HP and features articles and content from HP and third-party contributors. 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10/9/13 Telecommuting Creates Happier and More Productive ... - Input Output