In simple terms, telecommuting is an employment structure where you work from home rather than driving to work each day. Depending on the company, the employee may do all their work from home or may alternate between home and the office. Telecommuting has been around for a long time, but has recently become very popular and is increasing in popularity all the time.
Telecommuting is great for people who prefer to set their own working schedule and manage themselves, without their boss or co-workers watching them all the time. It’s also great for companies because they can cut down on many costs by allowing some employees to telecommute, and it allows certain parts of their company to be open during unusual hours of operation.
Telecommuters can be full time or part time employees of a company permitted to do their job from home, or freelancers doing work on a project-by-project basis. For the most part, telecommuting jobs are found in the same ways that you would find any other job.
You will often see telecommuting job listings under their own category in the classifieds, or an employer’s ad might state a willingness to hire a telecommuter. Alternatively, would-be telecommuters can also find numerous websites devoted specifically to bringing together telecommuters and employers looking to hire them.
There are some people who have always wanted the opportunity to work from home; Moms with young children, people with long commutes, those who hate office politics, etc… But now, even employers are starting to recognize the value of telecommuting to them.
Hopeful telecommuters these days are finding a much greater willingness among cost-conscious companies to hire independent contractors for jobs instead of bringing on a full-time on-site employee. This is largely because more and more businesses that have offered work at home opportunities to their employees are discovering that they can gain an advantage over their competitors who do not allow their employees to telecommute.
One benefit to companies is that having employees telecommute usually reduces their overhead costs by a significant amount. Another benefit is that employee satisfaction tends to be much higher in telecommuters, and most business people know that productivity is highly dependent on employee satisfaction. Plus they can often find better talent for positions when it is not depended upon them being close enough to come into the office each day.
A person considering making the move to telecommuting has several factors they need to take into consideration when determining how feasible working at home might be for them. Supervision is a huge factor because telecommuters have nobody there to keep them motivated to get their work done. They have to be self-motivated, very reliable and not easily distracted away from work.
With computers and internet in a large percentage of homes nowadays it is much easier for more and more people to work at home telecommuting to their jobs. There are a lot of benefits of telecommuting for both employer and employee alike. But there are also some challenges, and it is not for everyone or for every company so the decision to work at home should not be taken lightly.