The Many Benefits of the Home Based Worker

With the current economic climate, many companies are having to find creative ways to cut costs. Somecompanies are doing this by implementing virtual worker policies. Letting employees work from home or remotely saves on commuting expense, utilities and other office overhead, and even gains increased productivity from employees.

The government is getting on the bandwagon too. A Telework Exchange study released in April states that a three-day-a-week Federal Government teleworker can save $5,878 annually on commuting costs and spare the environment 9,060 pounds of pollutants.

A study commissioned by The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) indicated that one day of telecommuting saves the equivalent of up to 12 hours of an average household’s electricity use.

Home Based Workers Can Benefit The Company

According to a Web-based survey conducted by CompTIA, a nonprofit trade association, working from home not only benefits employees, but a company’s bottom line as well. Survey results show businesses that allow telecommuting are more productive, save significant money and are able to hire and retain more qualified workers. “With anywhere connectivity, faster broadband options and high-quality video and online conferencing choices, the opportunity for virtual offices is greater today and more affordable for businesses of all sizes and types,” said Todd Thibodeaux, president of CompTIA.

All About Travel, Inc. All About Travel has worked out of its 15,000-square-foot office in Kansas since 1998. Several years ago, the owners realized the business was running out of physical space to house its growing work force. Bringing in quality employees also was becoming more difficult.

“We found Kansas City provided a finite pool of travel professionals,” said co-owner Brent Blake. “We kept asking ourselves where else could we look to sustain our growth.” Blake and co-owner Gary Davis realized that they could use technology to allow employees outside of the Kansas City area to work for them.

At this time, about 45 percent of All About Travel’s staff work off-site — some as far away as Connecticut and Florida. “We’ve been able to improve our company with agents that we never would have been able to get to move here,” Blake said. Annual employee retention has improved from 75 percent to 95 percent.

According to a Business Week report, telecommuting and flexible schedules ranked as the third most important incentives, behind salary and benefits, to attract new hires.

Encouraging Home Based Workers

Companies are finding other ways to encourage home-based workers and business owners. Home-based travel agents can attend the NEST FEST “fiesta” annual conference in Mexico next month for free when they take advantage of a preferred supplier incentive booklet of promotions that were created exclusively for them. The Nest (Network of Entrepreneurs Selling Travel)”….exclusively embraces the home-based travel agency business model, effectively connecting supplier with agency, surmounting challenges, creating opportunities, intensifying partnerships, and enhancing profits for all.”

“With these special incentives, NEST agents can quickly recoup the cost to travel to Mexico,” said Kathryn Mazza-Burney, president of NEST. “Once there, they’ll pick up new strategies and innovative ideas to give their businesses a boost. Everyone is a bit cautious today in response to economic stresses, but it’s in an environment just like this that business owners can decide to pull back in fear or tackle the issues with a fresh approach and intention to create even more profits. We encourage our agencies to choose the second option, along with us at NEST FEST.”

Tags: home based, telecommute, telecommuting