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'80% Teleworking' By 2005
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A major growth in teleworking will take place over the next two years, according to a new survey - conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit ( EIU ), for AT&T, the voice, video and data communications company.
The survey indicates more than 80% of employer organisations worldwide expect to have employees who telework or work remotely in the next two years, up from 54% today. And even though only 13% of organisations offer financial and material help to teleworkers currently, that number will rise to about 32% in 2005.
The top three drivers of this 26% jump in telework ( cited by the 237 senior executives surveyed by the EIU, the business information arm of The Economist magazine ) are better network access from remote locations (62%), better communications facilities (62%) and globalisation of business operations (48%).
Although 64% of organisations identify enhanced productivity as the top benefit of telework, more than half (56%) report difficulty in monitoring the output of remote workers as the biggest obstacle to telework. The EIU report warns that those organisations that cannot meet the supervisory and security challenges posed by remote working should be concerned, as remote working is just one facet of a larger strategic trend toward ubiquitous network access.
The EIU report also suggests that enterprises today are increasingly 'net-centric' ? organised around networks, rather than buildings. Robust corporate intranets are enabling employees to access significant amounts of organisational information electronically, through enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications.
In AT&T?s own telework survey of its management employees, one-third of managers report they work remotely at least once a week, a four-fold increase during the last 10 years. And 17% of AT&T?s management employees now work in full-time virtual offices, with no dedicated office space ? almost double the results in 2001. The company has conducted annual surveys of its own management telework trends since 1992, exploring the benefits to the company, employees and society.
Remote working also helps the environment, says AT&T?s Brad Allenby, vice president, of AT&T Environment, Health and Safety. Last year alone, the company?s teleworking employees avoided commuting over 154 million miles to work, saving approximately 7.4 million gallons of fuel and over 70,000 tons of carbon dioxide from being emitted into the air.
AT&T says that the emergence of 'Internet Protocol' virtual private networks is allowing employer organisations to extend existing networks easily, securely and cost-effectively to remote employees. Additionally, the increasing availability of affordable broadband connections in employees? homes is fostering more confidence in remote work.
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