Have you heard about JobsFor10? Seems like a new concept. I’ve joined it recently and they’re pretty cool. Has anyone had any experience with them?

Half time telecommuting by those who hold compatible jobs could save employees 2-3 weeks of free time each year, reduce Persian Gulf imports by 37%, add over $400 billion to corporate bottom lines, put up to $7,000 in the pockets of every telecommuter, and reduce greenhouse gases by 27% of the President’s 2020 goal. And that’s not all.

Less than 2% of U.S. employees work from home the majority of the time (not including the self-employed), but 40% hold jobs that are compatible with telecommuting. If those employees who wanted to worked at home just half of the time (roughly the national average for those who do), as a nation we would:

-save 289 million barrels of oil (37% of Persian Gulf oil imports) valued at over $23 billion (based on $80/barrel).
-save consumers $15 billion at the pumps (based on $2.60/gallon).
-reduce greenhouse gases by 53 million tons—the equivalent of taking almost 10 million cars off the road for a year.
-reduce wear and tear on our highways by almost 115 billion miles a year saving communities almost $2 billion in highway maintenance.
-save almost 100,000 people from traffic-related injury or death. Accident-related costs would be reduced by almost $12 billion a year.
-increase national productivity by 5.5 million man-years or $235 billion worth of work.
-provide employment opportunities for the disabled, rural residents, military families, part-timers, and retirees.
-save businesses over a $200 billion in real estate, electricity, absenteeism, and turnover—together with the value of the increased productivity, that’s more than $10,000 per employee—almost three times the average first-year cost per teleworker. Additional savings would result from reductions in other utilities, janitorial service, security, maintenance, paper goods, coffee and water service, leased parking spaces, ADA compliance, equipment, furniture, and office supplies.
-save enough in office electricity to power almost a million homes for a year.
-enable employees to gain back the equivalent of more than 2 weeks worth of vacation time per year—time they’d have otherwise spent commuting.
-save employees between $2,000 and $7,000 in transportation and work-related costs. In addition, many would also be able to cut daycare and eldercare costs. Some would also qualify for home office tax breaks.

[Note: The above numbers are net of the effect of: errands on telecommuting days; the increased costs associated with working from home; the fact that not everyone would want to work from home.]

In total, that’s an economic impact of almost $650 billion a year!

We’ve synthesized over 250 case studies, scholarly reviews, research papers, books, and other documents on telecommuting and related topics. And we’ve interviewed the nation’s largest and smallest virtual employers and their employees, corporate executives, telework advocates and naysayers, top researchers, legislators, legal representatives, leaders of successful telework advocacy programs in both the public and private sector, and venture capitalists who have invested in the remote work model.

Using the latest Census data, and assumptions from dozens of government and private sector sources, we’ve developed a model to quantify the economic, environmental, and societal potential on telecommuting for every, city, county, Congressional District, and state in the nation. It’s been used by company and community leaders throughout the U.S. and Canada to quantify the extent to which telecommuting can reduce greenhouse gases and petroleum usage, save money, improve work-life balance, increase employee loyalty and turnover, reduce absenteeism, increase productivity, and reduce highway congestion and traffic accidents. It’s available free on the web at http://teleworkreserachnetwork.com/research/telework-savings-calculator/ along with a model that allows companies and communities to quantify their own potential telework savings based on dozens customizable parameters such as real estate costs, turnover, absenteeism, participation rate, frequency, labor costs, etc.

Our research has been quoted in the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, Washington Post, and dozens of other publications.

Telecommuting—specifically, home based work, offers a relatively simple, inexpensive solution to some of the world’s most vexing problems:

• Environmentalists applaud telecommuting because it significantly reduces greenhouse gases and energy usage.
• Astute company owners support telecommuting because of the cost savings and increased productivity.
• Work-life experts endorse telecommuting because it addresses the needs of families, parents, and senior caregivers.
• Workforce planners see telecommuting as away to avoid the ‘brain drain’ effect of retiring boomers.
• Human resource professionals see telecommuting as a way to recruit and retain the best people.
• Employees see telecommuting as a way to save time and money, and improve the quality of their lives.
• Baby Boomers find telecommuting offers a flexible alternative to full retirement.
• Gen Y’ers see telecommuting as a way to work on their own terms.
• Disabled workers, rural residents, and military families find home-based work an answer to their special needs.
• Urban planners realize telecommuting can reduce traffic and revitalize cities.
• Governments see telecommuting as a way to reduce highway wear and tear and alleviate the strain on our crumbling transportation infrastructure.
• Organizations rely on telecommuting to ensure continuity of operations in the event of a disaster or pandemic–all federal workers are required to telecommute to the maximum extent possible for just this reason.

More details about the telecommuting workforce are available at Telecommuting Pros and Cons, How Many People Telecommute, and Other Telecommuting Statistics.

“It’s time we made the road less traveled the way to work.”

Virtually Yours,

Kate Lister
Kate@TeleworkResearchNetwork.com
TeleworkResearchNetwork.com

Self-discipline is definitely necessary: my personal triumph is not at all being tempted by the radio or TV anymore. But if telecommuting makes you more available to your employer in more hours of the day (like close to 24 sometimes), it also needs to let you get some non-work things done when they need to be done, and I’ve found it more than balances out. Quite simply, my employer gets much more work out of me than when I commuted to an office location.