Comments on: The rising cost of telecommuting

By: Jason Christensen

Jason Christensen — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 02:07:15 +0000

I agree with ctm, you do have to have the right person in place and it is still the manager’s responsibility to ensure productivity is not lost in the telecommuting process. I feel Keith states it well in regard to the cost associated with telecommuting, it is really dependent the number of people telecommuting, the office supply agreements and technological tools already in place. Aside from the associated with my productivity I also have cost saving measures in place to save the company additional costs. Some examples of this are scanning documents and sending them via email rather than using FedEx or the postal service. Additionally I will utilize web conferences to work through presentations with colleagues and occasionally a customer. Please go to “Life as a Remote User” at http://jasonchristensen.wordpress.com/ to find more information on perspectives on life in a remote office.

By: Valerie

Valerie — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 04:46:00 +0000

I would use my own equipment at home and could pay for the software to use at home if needed as long as it were not too expensive initially to do work at home. I would be willing because to work at home would save time and gas expense and mileage on the car, while going to work some of the time inspires one in the presence of others, while working at home sometime helps for greater concentration and less stress.

Valerie.

By: MJB

MJB — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 22:48:01 +0000

I question the validity of the study. My company is saving close to $20,000 a year by allowing me to telecommute. No commercial office space means no commercial rent costs. They already had to pay for phone, internet & computer equipment before when we had an office, so these are pass through costs for my home office. Additionally, the phone costs are substantially reduced as a multi line business phone system is no longer required. We pay $25 a month to an executive suite to have a “proper” mailing address for the office and conference services available for the odd client meeting. Like ctm says – it’s not for everyone, but I can also promise you that my company is getting more work out of me during the day since I no longer have to commute an hour each way to work. And it also contributes to a better work/life balance which makes me a much happier employee. While it may not have a measurable financial figure attached to it happy employees have been shown to be a benefit to their companies.

By: Keith

Keith — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 14:22:23 +0000

I think the costs described above may depend on the number of people who are involved in telecommuting. If an organization of a few hundred people only has one telecommuter, and new servers, laptops, remote-access software, additional security, etc must be added, then the cost increase per telecommuter is going to be high. If, on the other hand, most of the servers, equipment etc are already available and just being re-assigned or re-configured to allow remote workers/telecommuting, the costs will be significantly lower.

As someone else mentioned, it would also depend on what other costs (high-speed internet, phone lines, fax, paper, ink supplies) are or are not covered by the employer.

If only one, or a few, people are telecommuting, then it won’t have much, if any, noticable cost savings on parking, building maintenance, etc. However, if a large number of employees are doing this, it could have significant cost savings.

By: Barbara Lioi

Barbara Lioi — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:03:56 +0000

Hi am one of two telecommuters and it appears to be working fine for our department. We own our own equipment and we do not get reimbursed for any supplies or utilities etc.
We make meetings when requested and we do conference calls when needed. Our staff say they have not seen any change in our service. I think we are more flexible as a result of working from home.
I would say if there are issues then maybe supervisor needs to address on your employee is not committed or suited to work remotely.

By: ctm

ctm — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 21:40:43 +0000

Daniel, The problem is not with offering telecommuting, it is ensuring that your employee is doing his part of the agreement and living up to performance standards. The manager should be dealing with this. I telecommute and put in more time than I would in the office. It is not everyone, you have to have the right person to do this.

By: Daniel A

Daniel A — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:15:26 +0000

We have one employee that works via telecommute from another state. For our organization, engineering consulting, the productivity is less than if he were in the office. Part of the agreement was for him to come into the office at least once a month but this only worked out for the first year. His lack of attendance has had a negative effect in that he does not stay abreast of current activities and he does not benefit from daily interactions. We are kind of at a cross roads of whether to continue the telecommuting. We also invest in his local printers, telephone charges, and Federal Express deliveries, which would not be incurred if he was in the office. Our overhead would not be increase if he was in the office.

By: mike R

mike R — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 16:17:49 +0000

I wonder if that study deducted the savings for not needing as much employee parking, smaller office space, less utilities, etc.? I am interested on what the “technological set up and maintenance” entails. Perhaps, installing a server at work (which would be done even if the employee came to the office to work), cell phone and other phone service, fax machine and printer.

I don’t know about you, but just because you give a study a fancy name like “Runzheimer International” doesn’t really make it more reliable and trustworthy. If so, then I just conducted the “Gugenheim Intergalactic” study that found that most studies with “International” in their name are faulty.