Employers opt for remote working to gain competitiveness

The way that people work and where people work is transforming! Some great evidence of that here in this article which describes the significant increase in the use of teleworking (or remote working) in businesses of all kinds.

According to the article, some 59% of UK employers offered teleworking to staff in 2011, compared to 46% in 2008 and just 14% in 2006. The article goes on to describe some of the business benefits of remote working. For example:

“giving the employee more control over their working hours improved employee morale, but also helped green-conscious businesses to achieve targets for a low-carbon footprint by not making workers commute unless they really had to.”

Remote working is just one part of the broader topic of flexible working - a topic which is pretty poorly covered in business textbooks, but which is increasingly seen as an intrinsic part of competitive HRM & operations management. Well worth making sure that students develop their awareness of this.