Creative Class

Andrea Coombes of the WSJ (sub req’d) wrote a piece last week highlighting a recent survey that found, "workers who telecommute from home or elsewhere, while still a very small portion of the work force, report the highest levels of satisfaction with their jobs and loyalty to their employers." The article has some great insights and mini-cases. Longer snippet below.

posted by David

From the WSJ…..

"In the poll of about 10,000 U.S. workers, 73% of remote and home-based
workers said they were satisfied with their company as a place to work,
compared with 64% of office workers.

In addition, 70% of the telecommuters said they were
"proud to tell people I work for my company," while only 64% of office
workers agreed with that statement. The survey was conducted by the
Kenexa Research Institute, a unit of Kenexa Corp., a recruitment and
retention consulting firm.

"When companies allow employees to work remotely or
from home, they are explicitly communicating to them that ‘I trust you
to be dedicated to the accomplishment of the work, even if I’m not able
to observe you doing it,’ " says Jack Wiley, executive director of the
institute, which is in Minneapolis. "It boils down to respect," he
says. "I respect you and I have confidence in your commitment to the
work — to do this under the conditions and at the time you feel will
be most productive for you."

That rings true to Scott Berry, a senior mutual-fund
analyst at Morningstar Inc., in Chicago. Mr. Berry has worked for the
firm for eight years. For the past six, he has telecommuted from his
home in Rochester, Mich., going into the office just two or three days
a month.

"I always had a good perception of the firm, but
obviously it enhances my perception in that they’re willing to trust
their employees to get their job done without any direct supervision,
that they’re willing to allow somebody like me to move for family
reasons and not business reasons," says Mr. Berry, who started
telecommuting when he and his wife started their family and wanted to
be closer to relatives in Michigan.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 10:27 am and is filed under Creative Class, Lifestyle, Talent. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.