Give Your Employees a $1,700 a Year Raise, Free

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  1

  skw2008

  06/17/08 | Report as spam

  Fear...

  My employer won't even consider part time tele-commuting, too afraid employees will lose productivity. Granted, some workers cannot work from home due to their job function. But there are many data processors, support people, etc. who would benefit from part-time telecommuting.

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  2

  Trancender

  06/17/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Give Your Employees a $1,700 a Year Raise, Free

  Global warming is fake. Please stop including it in your stories and justifications. It's not necessary and thinking people are turned off by this crap.

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  3

  gwetherhold@...

  06/17/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Give Your Employees a $1,700 a Year Raise, Free

  Working from home...if you can, in this day and age is a smart thing to do. Gas is at an all-time high and this can be a significant incentive for employees. The main problem is the upper-mgmt. who sometimes haven't a clue as to how "out of control" prices really are...sort of like our own government!

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  4

  mkateeb

  06/17/08 | Report as spam

  Don't like it!

  Many companies with this creative home-office, hotel-ing, and shared offices try to save the company money on office space and real estate than actually trying to save employees in gas money. I was a senior executive in multinational and I was always against this policy. Many American companies are losing work-place culture and teamwork because of the lack of belonging to the company. We are getting so good at reading spreadsheets and numbers that we lost the ability to understand how to create great corporate cultures! These policies may have short-term positive impact on the financial statements of the company, but I am convinced that they have a long-term deteriorating affect on companies. A great work culture is being lost in our companies and we have to fight for it back. Working on a workstation at home is never a substitute for the time spent in the office socializing with the team and creating great culture. We need to wake up and earn back the great American corporate culture once we had! Just look back what made companies like Microsoft and Intel once great cultures and look what google is doing today. You need to create more home at the office not create office at home! Sorry I just don?t support it! Thanks. MTK.

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  jsargent

  06/18/08 | Report as spam

  Work culture

  I agree that some work culture is lost but this can be maintained if employees are encouraged to meet once a week or organise some social events.
  
  Apart from reduced cost of commuting, an added advantage is that the impact of working mothers is reduced and the working flexibilty reduces everyday tension and increases employee retention. A disadvantage is "when are you NOT at work" if you are always working from home?
  
  Why aren't more companies doing this?
  Most managers are neither organised enough or trusting enough to let their employees work from home. In addition if they no longer have employees at the office it appears to the world as if they have lost some power. Imagine a manager sitting in an empty office when he was used to having his employees around him.

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  6

  Akramyoussef

  06/18/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Give Your Employees a $1,700 a Year Raise, Free

  i guess it is cultural dependent strategy, where cultures rely more on face to face communication would suffer a bit.
  moreover i guess this would jepordize moral and sense of belonging to company and the cost should be invested in monitoring, controlling and motivating those employees would be more than the savings.

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  7

  mewawalla

  06/18/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Give Your Employees a $1,700 a Year Raise, Free

  Think its a great idea. if you included the cost of property in big cities it would make huge savings for companies

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  8

  Melpo

  06/18/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Give Your Employees a $1,700 a Year Raise, Free

  I don't care where or when my team works as long as they are accessible to each other and get the job done. Accessability is usually no problem with mobile phone and instant messaging. If they can't get the job done with a little more freedom at home they probably weren't going to get it done with all the distrations that happen in the typical office environment.
  
  BTW, another cost savings of working from home is in clothing. I can save my business attire for my business trips. A typical work day outfit for me consists of jeans and a blouse. I am sure I save several hundred dollars a year on clothing expenses because I don't need to "dress for success" 100% of the time.

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  9

  ivanjay

  06/18/08 | Report as spam

  No good (most of the time)

  My response will not be liked by many I am sure. Management type of employees are able to work from home. They stay focused, work beyond the 8 hour clock, and understand how to balance their personal and business lives. However, management need to be around people to effectively manage. This day and age face to face meetings are becoming more and more rare and it is an issue. Emails and phone conversations get misconstrued too easily.
  
  On the flip side support staff are the people who could provide their functions at home without issue. However, most support staff are support staff for a reaon (I am not trying to be obnoxiouis and I apologize to those that take offense to this). Support staffers tend to be clock watchers, and will take shortcuts to get out early. A short lunch at home will turn to 1 1/2 hours.
  
  My wife is a perfect example. She works very hard and is very dedicated. Yet if she needs to stop at the 3rd party printer her company uses (which is often) she will leave 20-30 minutes early so she is leaving that location at 5. Most of the time by 4:40 she is on her way home cutting 20 minutes out of the work day. If she does that 2 days a week it is almost 35 hours a year, almost an entire work week lost!!
  
  Yes I am upper management, yes I agree everyone should work from home, but most just cannot stay focused enough to do so... Myself included!

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  dasuarez

  07/14/08 | Report as spam

  Personality issue not employee type

  I disagree that it is a difference in whether a person is a manager or staff. I notice many managers that leave early or right at 5pm.
  
  I believe the issue is related more to personality type and internal values. There are those who work better when they are in an office situation and those who accomplish more when they are left alone. This is regardless of being an executive, manager, or staff level. Unfortunately, it makes it a very difficult decision to make regarding whether or not to implement this type of telecommuting policy.
  
  If during the recruiting process employees whose personality and work ethic align with this strategy are hired, then it can be very successful. I think it can be a benefit, but must be very carefully implemented.
  
  The original question posed was how to monitor. One suggestion is to have employees track the tasks they work on and turn in a weekly report. Many of the employees in the IT department I work in are already required to do this, and we work at the office not from home.
  
  I have previously worked for small companies where everyone worked from home, and we had no problems. Of course, the larger the organization, the more difficult it becomes to monitor.

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  WayneBrush

  06/20/08 | Report as spam

  Work at Home Friday

  As a product development consultancy we do almost everything on the computer, except for the occasional face to face client meetings and 3D model making. We have a strong focus on green and sustainable products so this idea has a strong appeal. As the price of gas rises (one of our employees spends $20-25 per day on his commute!), we have decided to try working at home one day a week.
  
  Today is our first day, but the concept appears to be a success. I had to go in to assist our new sales person who's been here less than a week and can't work from home, but all the other employees are working remotely. It's eerie watching their computers working "by themselves"!
  
  Mary Brush
  President ID-ONE Design
  www.id-one.net

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  Peachezz

  06/25/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Give Your Employees a $1,700 a Year Raise, Free

  I work in a medical call center that is located outside of the medical facility. This type of work could definetly be done in an at home office. It would also save the facility a lot of money now spent on rental dollars.

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  david.burnett@...

  07/01/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Give Your Employees a $1,700 a Year Raise, Free

  How about computing the energy savings in electricity, natural gas, etc. due to decreased job site employee demand? If nothing else, just not having all those humans on site drinking susbsidized sodas and cofee and then flushing has some economic value. In the summer, fewer warm bodies mean lower air conditioning cost? Doesn't that rate?

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  Verical

  07/01/08 | Report as spam

  Pre-Tax Equivalent: $2500!

  Commuting costs are typically out of pocket. Saving $1700 on fuel and wear & tear is the equivalent of close to a $2500 raise (at 30% Federal, State & Local taxes).
  
  Health Savings Accounts have a similar tax equivalence.
  
  The culture works as long as people spend a couple of days a week together. 1-2 days at home is no problem.
  
  - JB

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  yenyong@...

  07/02/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Give Your Employees a $1,700 a Year Raise, Free

  this is a good suggestion, but may some one tell me how i could monitor my staff's performance at home? would this move reduces the creativity when staff meet together in office place?