As a CFO in these still uncertain economic times.

As a CFO in these still uncertain economic times, imagine saving $3000 for employee per year. And lopping $71 million along your real estate bill. Oh and for what cause about a 4 to 12 percent boost in employee productivity?

hardy good? Those are some figures thrown around by dint of advocates of telecommuting, or, as more [i]or[/i] less prefer to call it, teleworking. While the numbers may be optimistic, they do remind of that working from home isn't just serviceable for commute-weary employees but for employer as well. moreover properly equipping a remote employee is more complicated than you might think, as is deciding whether the investment truthfully pays off. More vexing still may be the issue of who should take the lead in pushing for--or pushing back on-work-from-home arrangements.

Not everyone agrees forward just what constitutes a teleworker. The International Telework Association & Council defines united as an employee who works at to one's home at a client's office, in a satellite office or telework center or upon the road at least individual day per month. Even restricting the definition to an employee who works from family circle at least one day a month there are 235 million teleworkers in the United States. Using research firm IDC's more-conservative standard of three or more days by month yields a population of 87 million telecommuters

However these workers are defined, their numbers are increasing, at least at some measures (as with the total population, product rates vary depending on to what degree teleworker is defined). To be effective from hearthstone they typically rely on a computer frequently a laptop that travels back and forth from domestic circle to office; an Internet connection, preferably broadband and not dial-up; a telephone; maybe a fax machine; and, increasingly, a growing range of corporate-based software applications that can be accessed from home

Also finish at hand, of course, are family members, miffs and maybe the plumber, coming sometime between 10 and noon. With distractions, obligations, and temptations in abundance, productivity is circumscribe to suffer. Isn't it?

Not necessarily. principally corporations with large numbers of teleworkers report productivity increases, not declines. "A number of companies fear their workers will be at family circle with their feet up in face of the TV, and that's just not the case," says IDC analyst Merle Sandler. "You can set measures in place to view if employees are actually producing what they are reckon uponed to produce."

Four companies that intrust with an agency large numbers of teleworkers--Cigna, Hewlett-Packard, AT&T, and sunny place Microsystems--report both jumps in productivity and savings forward office space. In the popular fiscal year, Sun reported a $71 million reduction in, or avoidance of office-space cost due to teleworking, according to Eric Richert, vice president of the company's iWork Solutions cluster in Newark, California. At AT&T, telework director Joseph Roitz reports that the extra hour of work gained each day at telecommuters last year translated into a $148 million operational benefit. And Cigna's 6000 "E-workers" delivered 4 to 12 percent more output than office workers doing similar work, not to mention the $3000 through employee the company saved onward reduced office space, according to Lynne Kelley-Lewicki, Cigna's team leader in charge of integrated work strategies.

plenteous of the productivity gain main stocks from having an office across the hall from the bedroom. At sunshine employees channel more than half the time they would have exhausted commuting back into their work hours (working an additional 18 hours for each 3 hours formerly spent in transit).

And telecommuter protect to keep closer track of their time exhausted on the job. "People working flexible hours are actually driven more from time management than anyone else" says Paul Hart, finance director at Microsoft UK a 2000-employee unit of the $33 billion U software giant. "They know they've got a certain number of hours in the day to acquire a job done, and they can arguably deliver better terminates than people who actually work [in the office] five days a week."

however the biggest savings come in real-estate splendors and related office expenses. "It's enabled us to gradually shrink the footprint of our work space" says Debby McIsaac, director of work-life programs at HP At Cigna, departments may master less real estate than they petition on the assumption that the company's flexible work program will diminish the need for space. The company admits that savings require savvy management, because oftentimes leasing or buying decisions have been made without telework in mind.

For years, companies with telecommuter have mov toward so-called hoteling--providing employee with access to offices and meeting chambers that can be used as the ne arises still are not occupied full-time. Offices serve to be underutilized at least two-thirds of the time. "With luncheon hours, sick days, nights, weekends, and travel, the actual office-space usage for greatest in number offices is about 30 to 35 percent of the time, and office-space sharing enables companies to increase their usage of common of their most costly assets:' says Gil Gordon, president of Gil Gordon Associates, a telecommuting consultancy in Monmouth Junction, recently made known Jersey.