3. Teleworking advantages for the company

Smaller premises

With some of their employees working from home, they do not need as much office space. Nor do they need as much parking space for employees.

Less energy

With smaller office premises comes less energy-use so reducing costs and reducing carbon footprint. Although the worker at home will offset this to some extent as the company will need to pay for some the energy used at home.

Could work around the clock

When it is 5pm in the UK it is mid day in New York and the day is just starting in California. So if you are an international company, teleworkers could be located around the world to carry on working 24 hours a day if need be. For instance, a finance company could have stock brokers working from home in different time zones to deal with the stocks and shares 24 hours a day.

Can use skilled employees far away from headquarters

Many skills are quite rare. For instance computer aided design engineers with specialist skills. Say an engineering company in the UK wants a CAD designer for a specific project. They post the job on a freelance web site. Maybe an engineer in Brazil sees the posting and offers their skill to the UK firm. Contracts are agreed, file formats and deadlines are set, and so the project begins.

Without teleworking this kind of 'virtual team' would not be possible.

Keep a skilled worker from leaving

Another common situation is that an employee may have to leave for a few months - having a baby perhaps or some maybe some medical problem. If may be possible for that person to work from home. Everyone wins - the teleworker can carry on from home and the company does not lose a valued employee.

Can use a dispersed work force

Many companies have their sales force located all around the country or even the world. It makes no sense for those people to come to the office every day. They could do their jobs just as easily based from home. For example, consider a company that has dealers in the south, west, east and north of England. They employ a 'regional manager' to look after each region. Each regional manager works from home, maybe only going to HQ once a month for a sales meeting. Meanwhile they keep in touch by phone and email.

Short summary

• Smaller premises
• Less energy use
• Work around the clock
• Use skilled labour from anywhere
• Retain staff who do not want to leave (but have to)
• Dispersed work force