Telecommuting: Overview
Telecommuting is an alternative work strategy. Allowing employees to telecommute and work from home reduces greenhouse gas emissions and facility costs. Encouraging telecommuting is a rising trend among employers looking to cut costs.
RATIONALE
For many jobs, tasks can be done as easily from home as from an office environment. By establishing telecommuting protocols, employers can ensure that productivity and interoffice communication can be preserved while reaping the financial and environmental benefits of telecommuting.
Encouraging a switch to telecommuting is sustainable for employers as well as individual employees. For employees, their commutes are eliminated, saving them time and money as well as reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. For employers, office sizes can be drastically scaled down, if not eliminated completely. Employees will also be able to own, use and maintain just one computer and printer for work and non-work purposes, rather than have two sets at home and work; this may reduce their energy usage.
EFFORT REQUIRED
Effort varies depending on the details of adapting the office to a telecommuting system. Writing new office protocols and educating the staff on the new measures is the main effort required for this initiative.
BENEFIT
Telecommuting can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while increasing productivity and quality of life for employees by eliminating their daily commute.
RISKS
Risks could include temporary missteps in the initial establishment of office communication protocols.
ACTION AGENT(S)
- Policymakers
- Employers
- Employees
- Municipal agencies
COST
The costs include those involved with outfitting employees with requisite technology to create a home office, as well as the one-time costs to downgrade the size of the existing office space, both of which will save money in the long run.
Additional costs include the education of new interoffice communication measures and the initial costs of scaling down the size of the existing office facility.
Greenhouse gases are a part of the Earth's atmosphere and are both naturally occurring and the result of human chemical processes. The most common greenhouse gases are carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone, and chlorofluourocarbons. These gases trap heat and thus contribute to the warming of the planet. See also CFCS and GREENHOUSE EFFECT.Working by using telecommunications and computer technology from a location other than the usual or traditional place of business.The ability or potential of a physical body to do work. The most common forms of energy are heat, light, mechanical (moving parts), and electrical.
