Geography is no longer a border to the workforce, by leveraging the flexibility and freedom conference call services provide workers are finding the results to be quite pleasant. The modern day punch card is a password or login, and employees are willing to ‘pay’ to work from home. The current state of the remote workforce is that of robust growth, and recent statistics released by Wrike serve to illuminate some intriguing trends.
Wrike spoke with over 1,000 respondents ranging from business owners (15 percent), managers (33 percent), executives (15 percent) and team members (36 percent). Based on responses, employees are willing to pay a rather steep price for what they view as one of the top three perks to a job—the other two being salary and reputation.
Seventy-eight percent of respondents stated they would forgo free meals; 54 percent would pass on an employer-paid cellphone plan; 31 percent would take a reduction in paid vacation and a shocking 25 percent of respondents would accept a reduction in salary for the freedom of telecommuting.
According to the study, 83 percent of people work from home for at least part of the day—with higher-level executives averaging 20 hours a week. Some 66 percent feel that within the next five years their company will be run virtually.
The top three pro’s include saving time (41 percent), increased productivity (29 percent) and a greater focus on work—not office politics (10 percent). With the aid of collaboration tools such as Web conferencing, employees at all levels are able to maintain productivity when not in the office. Documents can be easily shared and if need be a reservationless conference call can seamlessly offer open lines of communication with the team in next to no time.
That said 87 percent of those surveyed believe that collaboration solutions are “mission critical or important” for virtual teams.
Conference call services and the like have come quite a ways in the past 20 years, and innovation is paying dividends in higher productivity regardless of location, cost savings and greater collaboration. Change is not easy for many, but as Bob Dylan song goes “For the times they are a-changin'” don’t get left behind.
Edited by Alisen Downey