Teleworking Saves Gas Money... and Employees?

As gas prices continue to rise – with no end in sight – U.S. drivers are finally reaching a breaking point and seeking out alternatives to avoid spending their paychecks on outrageous fuel expenses.

A recent study referenced by InformationWeek found that if everyone who *could* telecommute did their work from home twice weekly, the country could save 9.7 billion gallons of gas and $38.2 billion a year. The Telework Exchange survey cited that 92% believe they could do their jobs from home, but only 34% actually do telework. And, eighty-four percent of respondents said they rely on their own transportation for work.

The good news is, employees can work from home twice weekly to achieve those results – without sacrificing productivity. By negotiating ways for employees to work remotely 1-2 days a week this summer, companies and employees that pay travel expenses can save hundreds of dollars a month. The situation has led many employers to realize and more firmly believe that communicating and collaborating remotely using Web office collaboration tools such as Cisco WebEx' can often be as or more effective than working in the office. And, many employers believe that the switch to remote collaboration is here to stay – even if/when gas prices go down.

More alarming for employers, 28% of those polled in the above-mentioned study said they are even seeking new jobs to reduce commuting costs. Maybe businesses should be paying even *more* attention to helping their employees work remotely?

Colin Smith, Dir., Public Relations, WebEx

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[Maria Tseng]

Teleworking also supports one of Cisco's themes: life-work balance (as well as frugality). Cisco is the parent company of WebEx and has made collaboration a strategic initiative.

A Cisco blogpost about Virtual Worlds http://blogs.cisco.com/virtualworlds/comments/virtual_news/

said that avatars improve interactions (aka collaboration). I know that I build my avatars to manage the assumptions of people behind their avatars. Will WebEx add to their long and complex product roadmap, avatars?

[Sheryle Moon]

Remember that song: "My baby takes the morning train. He works from 9 to 5 and then he takes the train back home again…”

Thank goodness work isn’t like that anymore!

Work is not a place. It’s not time bound. It is all about mobility and connectedness, anywhere on the globe.

I’m a big advocate of teleworking as a new business model for sustainability and economic productivity. The use of flexible working arrangements and telecommuting provide opportunities for increasing participation of women in the workforce, governments growing productivity and communities reducing their carbon footprint as fewer cars hit the road and large buildings burn lights and air conditioning plants.

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 telework reduces avoidable staff turnover by over 20 percent, while managers report that employees are up to 40 percent more productive.