by Rebecca Walker — July 14, 2010—Businesses that let 100 employees work half of their time from home can save more than $1 million a year, according to a study of telework programs and their benefits from Telework Research Network (TRN).
TRN looked at more than 250 case studies, research papers and other documents on telework (also called telecommuting and workshifting), and combined that with interviews with companies, researchers and more to figure out how telecommuting benefits employers, employees, the environment and communities.
In “Workshifting Benefits: The Bottom Line,” TRN says letting one employee work half time out of the office saves the company about $10,000 per year and the employee up to $6,800 per year.
While 80 percent of workers want to telecommute and 30 percent would take a pay cut in order to telecommute, less than 2 percent of employees work from home the majority of their time and at least 40 percent have jobs that are compatible with telecommuting.
About half of the $1.1 million that a company would save ($576,000) with 100 workers telecommuting halftime would come from increased productivity from fewer interruptions, better time management and employees putting in more hours by working when they would have been commuting.
Companies would also save $304,000 a year in electricity, real estate and related costs from parking lot leases, furniture, supplies, maintenance and space consolidation, says TRN. About $113,000 would come from fewer unscheduled absences, less sick time and from employees working while sick or waiting for personal appointments (cable installation, delivery, etc.) that would normally result in a full day off of work. Lastly, $76,000 would be saved due to lower employee turnover.
Employees would save from $2,000 to $6,800 and about two work weeks worth of time due to using less gas, and avoiding parking, food, clothing and other costs. Gas savings would total about $360 per year, collectively adding up to $15 billion across the U.S. and result in greenhouse gas emission reductions of 53 million metric tons.
