Telecommuting Can Attract and Keep Talent

There was a recent Globe and Mail article that talked about telecommuting and flex work options that ties in nicely with hereiam™. Over the last few years, particularly with the recession, there has been a rise in telecommuting and other flexible work options to ease economic pressures[1]. The good news is that for both employees and employers, telecommuting is proving to be very successful. What may have been grown in part as a cost savings measure is quickly becoming a talent recruitment and retention tactic:

• Telecommuters say they have better work/life balance than their cubicle-dwelling colleagues.
• Telecommuters work longer without feeling stressed[2].
• 86% of workers would take advantage of telecommuting if it was offered to them.
• 84% of employers surveyed found flexible work arrangements boost employee morale.
• 78% of companies say that flex-work options bolster retention rates.

One challenge found was in communications. Employees needed to know how to reach someone if there’s something urgent. And there were questions on how regularly you need to check emails or voicemails. These concerns were raised as perceived problems with working remotely and how senior managers would perceive their employees who worked out of the office.

This is where hereiam™ can provide real value to the organization. The power of hereiam™ is that you have all the communication tools available to you that you have while working in your office. For example, with hereiam™ you can call your associate or client and if they don’t pick up for whatever reason, you can email them in the same session. And when calling into hereiam™, you can ‘listen’ to your emails and reply by voice which is converted to text and emailed. By giving your hereiam™ number, the Find Me/ Follow Me feature will track you down; if you don’t pick up, callers can leave a voicemail and this is automatically emailed to you.

When travelling, you can use your personal Contact List for calling clients using voice dialing, listen to and reply to emails by voice, conference anytime with no limit in the number of attendees, etc. Plus, you can save in long distance while using your cell over traditional cellular charges as hereiam™ has some of the best wholesale long distance rates in the industry.

Almost half of Canadian workers say their workplaces offer flexible working options. Globally, 31% of executives identified flex working strategies as one of the top three talent management initiatives they plan to implement this year[3].We believe that telecommuting with hereiam™ is a productivity tool that can be very effective in a company’s overall recruitment and retention potential. There is tremendous efficiency of working while mobile and out of the office with hereiam™- a win/win for employer and employee.

____________________

[1] Harris/Decima/Telus 2010 online survey of 1,013 employed Canadians; Institute for Corporate Productivity 2009 survey of 306 organizations; Workplace Options 2010 survey of 997 U.S. workers,; Aon Consulting 2010 of 477 companies

[2] 2010 Brigham Young University Study analyzing data from 24,436 IBM employees in 75 countries

[3] 2010 poll of 340 executives by Ernst & Young