Work At Home: The Numbers are in Your Favor

In 2013, Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer ended work at home options for employees.  It threw the dogs a new bone to chew on — thousands of new media people gnawed on the idea that telecommuting was becoming a thing of the past. Less than two years later, I can assure you . . . it’s not.   Global Workplace Analytics says that 2.6% of the American workforce considers home to be their primary work place.  That’s not counting self-employed people.

There are many jobs that don’t lend themselves to working at home.  Most sanitation engineers, nurses, and roofing contractors won’t be working remotely any time soon.  But Global Workplace Analytics says that in the US, 50% of the employees have jobs that could be done at least partly at home, and estimates that 64 million employees in the US could telecommute at least part time, and 79% would like to.

As I mentioned before, the challenge was convincing potential employers to allow it.  The difference is that now companies are beginning to see the advantages:

Telecommuting is green.  By taking commuters off the roads, even part time, we ease the impact on the planet.
Employees save thousands of dollars in transportation costs every year, which amounts to a pay raise.  The employer saves millions of dollars in real estate, absenteeism, turnover, electricity, parking costs and maintenance.
Contrary to early assumptions in this trend, the employer benefits from  higher  productivity.

As more employers see the benefits (and more women take the plunge and become entrepreneurs), you will find more opportunities to work at home.  But read on in this blog series to decide whether you’re going to jump on the work-at-home bandwagon.