Telecommuting – A Key Driver to Work-Life Balance and Productivity

Abstract

The Global Workforce characteristics are changing worldwide. It is showing the growing diversity across sectors with heightened multicultural environment. The last decade had seen a remarkable change in the trend of approach of the organizations through various innovative practices. One of the growing practice is Employee- friendly policy, Work-from- Home (Telecommuting). Telecommuting has evolved and grown rapidly between 2000 and 2008. In the post- industrial economy, a growing number of jobs can be performed with few tools, basically a telephone and a computer with internet access.The popularity of Work-from-home (Telecommuting) has gained attention in the last decade with more and more employers and employees willingness to telecommute.Work – from- Home (Telecommuting) owes much of ongoing rise in popularity to the continuing improvements in Technology. Increasingly mobile and capable technology keeps at home workers connected with the main office, colleagues, customers, and the world. A 2008 IDC survey showed that 81percent of Asia Pacific executives believe that telecommuting improves productivity, up from 61 percent in 2005. The US and UK aren't the only countries that have jumped into telework.China, India, France, Brazil and Germany have all joined the global trend.The increase in a positive attitude towards telecommuting was also evident in Hong Kong, Australia and India. In this article, the effort is to understand the telecommuting with a special emphasis on productivity and work-life balance of employees and its implications on the organizations.