Telework
Businesses of all sizes accept telecommuter, but tech support faces a challenge,
study says
Telework was defined
as "working at home, away from an employer's place of business, using information
technology" at least one day a week. By that definition, estimates show
that roughly 19 million workers currently engage in telework, up from 4 million
in 1990. A study by Sage Research reported that 70 percent of U.S. businesses
with more than 5,000 employees currently have or plan to have telecommuter.
In this case, supporting telecommuter could become a significant challenge for
IT departments.
The related
challenge for businesses with telecommuter is to provide technical support for
these home-based workers, and to ensure secure access to company information
when necessary. "Location doesn't matter anymore," says Janice Miholics,
vice president of Global Telework Strategies at Merrill Lynch. "Results
matter."
Thirty-six percent of job seekers said they hope to telework at their next job; 31 percent said they'd consider it. These ever-larger numbers of telecommuter reflect a change in work attitudes as well as technological advancement, the research firm notes.
Telework gains are attributed to improved communications technology and a decline in technology costs. The spread of current and emerging technologies makes it even more attractive. Voice over IP (VOIP), unified messaging, greater bandwidth, improvements in online teleconferencing, less expensive wireless access, and virtual private networks were all noted as tools that give telecommuter better ways to share the resources of an organization's internal network.
Proponents of telework see it as providing important benefits to both employers and telecommuter. For businesses, it offers financial savings through reduced facilities costs and happier, more productive workers.