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Telecommuting Benifits

In: Business and Management

Submitted By njones24
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TELECOMMUTING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HERITAGE FURNITURE COMPANY BASED ON A STUDY OF SIMILAR COMPANY EXPERIENCES

Prepared for

Mr. Jeff Green, President
Heritage Furniture Company
Street address
State

Prepared by
Nicholas R. Jones
Business, Education, Information Technology 336
Scott College of Business
200 North 7th Street
Terre Haute, IN 47809-1902
June 30, 2011
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Item Page

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

OVERVIEW Telecommuting is working from an outside location away from a institution’s facilities through electronic communication with a centralized network database. Telecommuting works best with the companies that are routine and have easy to understand, clear goals. The term “telecommuting” was coined by Jack Nilles. Jack was an aerospace engineer working for the U.S. Air Force and NASA. (Mears, 2007) With the increase in technological advancements, telecommuting has become easier for businesses to implement the telecommuting process. As a result more and more businesses have put telecommuting into practice. In the year 2008 part-time telecommuting jobs rose to 35 percent, an increase of 9 percent from 26 percent in 2006. Full-time telecommuting jobs had only a 2 percent increase from 19 percent to 21 percent during the 2006 to 2008 period. (Claude, 2010) Many companies have seen this as a way to improve sales productivity, improve job satisfaction, and reduce absenteeism. The recent decline in the productivity of Heritage Furniture Company sales staff has caused the company to entertain the idea of telecommuting. Recently at Heritage Furniture Company employees find it difficult to keep work-life and family-life stable and balanced. The juggle between private and work responsibilities have caused absences, low morale, and a decrease in sales productivity. Sales productivity has decreased by a staggering 15 percent in the past 18 months. Also, half of employee absences are associated with family emergencies rather than the employee’s own illness. The purpose of this report is to establish if a telecommuting program for employees will improve sales productivity, improve job satisfaction, and reduce absenteeism within the Heritage Furniture Company. To determine if a telecommuting program would benefit the Heritage Furniture Company, numerous factors had to be analyzed through secondary research data. Research on the benefits of implementing a telecommuting program was conducted on other companies who have tried a telecommuting program. Companies’ numbers involving an improvement in sales productivity, improvement in job satisfaction, and reduced absenteeism. Potential benefits for Heritage Furniture Company were assessed from the research of the telecommuting businesses. An employee survey was distributed to employees at Heritage Furniture Company to gather primary data. Primary data consisted of employees’ notion on telecommuting’s potential effect on sales productivity, job satisfaction, and absenteeism. With 30 surveys distributed and 30 surveys returned, the survey was a complete success. This survey served as a partial determination of the implementation of a telecommuting program. This aids the decision making process by considering employees’ notions. The survey data showed hours already spent working at home. The survey also gathered opinions on a telecommuting program implementation including, participation, motivation to work from home, affect on sales performance, home distractions compared to at work distractions, productivity, and job satisfaction. Research was conducted to gather the secondary data on potential benefits of a telecommuting program. Research was conducted through various outlets. Research outlets include an online database such as EBSCOhost and some research was also done through the World Wide Web. This report discusses possible benefits of initiating a telecommuting program, while reviewing information generated by some of the companies who have seen positive results from using a telecommuting program, and describes the types of telecommuting programs implemented. The report will also further analyze the current situation at Heritage Furniture Company and review the potential costs with implementing a telecommuting program, the possible increase of sales productivity, and the results from the employee survey. The report then analyzes the possible benefits of implementing a telecommunication program and presenting a recommendation as to what Heritage Furniture Company should do in regards to potential telecommuting program implementation.
Productivity
Loss of productivity was the catalyst to starting the whole idea of researching possible implementation benefits of telecommuting. Most businesses implement telecommuting principally to increase sales productivity. A recent study by WorldatWork, found that companies in the United States offering telecommuting rose from 30 percent in 2007 to 42 percent in 2008. (Rhodes, 2008) Data shows an overall growth towards telecommuting as a way to help alleviate problems such as productivity.

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