The OLS Blog

Telecommuting As A Retention Tool; Does It Work For You?

I have a friend who works for a PR company in a large Midwestern city.  Her Friday Facebook posts are enough to make most working people green with envy.  A few weeks ago, she posted that an ice cream cart showed up handing out popsicles to company employees.  Last Friday, the beautiful fall weather was making for low motivation around my friend's office. As she and her coworkers lamented not being outside, a mobile Hawaiian-themed drink cart showed up.  Grass-skirt wearing servers moved around the office offering tropical cocktails and playing Hawaiian music.  "My office is awesome," my friend posted.  

You'll notice I said that's enough to make most working people green with envy.  That's because recently there's been a lot of talk that makes telecommuting sound like the most coveted perk for employees today–even over popsicles and tropical drinks at work. Companies are cluing into what their valuable employees want in order to retain them and saving money in the process.

An CNBC article on last week reported that Cisco Systems has saved $1 billion in the past 2.5 years through virtual initatives like video conferencing and has experienced additional payoff in retention.

Gordon Feller, a director with the company’s Internet Business Solutions Group, said in the article that for Cisco Systems, “the primary driver for a remote workforce is to retain and attract talent, and keep that talent fulfilled and creative,” he says. “It’s a lot easier to increase happiness and productivity than to add another employee.”

The article also reports that sixty-six percent of Cisco Systems employees say they’d accept a lower-paying job with more flexibility than a higher-paying office-based position. And in another article last week on the Wall Street Journal's blog, reported that the a recent survey said that nearly 80% of people would prefer to work at least part of the time from home even if it meant less income.

It sounds like most people would choose working at home at least some of the time even over fun perks like  tropical drinks and popsicles (though it isn't very likely you're going to get those at home unless you run out to your corner when you hear the song of your neighborhood ice cream truck).

We'd like to know, what would you give up to work at home?  What challenges do you think you're team might face in setting up virtual offices?  Or what challenges do you already face?

Please check out our Dynamics of Virutal Teams programs for ideas that might help your company, and send an email to socialmedia@ols1.com if you'd like further details about how we might help you.  Also, we'll be offering complimentary preview (a half day overview, mini-training of all of our virtual progams) this fall, date TBD.   If you'd like to receive an email when we finalize that date, again please email socialmedia@ols1.com, and we'll send you details as soon as we have them.

Or, in the meantime, let us know by posting a comment here, on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or by email: what would you give up to work at home?  Or do you already, full or part-time? What challenges do you think you're team might face in setting up virtual offices or what challenges do you already face?