Telecommuting is catching on worldwide in a big way because of the benefits that come with it for both the employer and the employee. It is no longer confined to women with young children or people with disabilities; rather, it is being embraced by people of all ages.
In fact, the Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey shows that a typical telecommuter is college graduate in his or her late 40s, earns about $58,000 a year, and works for a company that has 100 employees or more. Further, one in every five employees worldwide or 20 percent of the world population telecommute.
This telecommuting trend has changed the idea of the workplace for employees because it is no longer about plush offices; rather, it is about the most advanced hosted phone systems that help an employee connect to the company's network in a secure way. Taking advantage of hosted services for telecommuters helps small and startup companies save on costs as they no longer have to shell out enormous amounts for rent and utilities, as well as on-premises hardware. Moreover, employees with the option to work remotely tend to be more productive and will even work for longer hours.
The benefits to a hosted phone system are great for startups, and will help them save money that can instead be invested in attracting top talent from a pool unhindered by geographical location. But not only do businesses save money by offering telecommuting to employees; the employees themselves will save money too. A study by Stanford shows that employees can save about $2,000 per employee by choosing the telecommuting route. A related advantage is that telecommuting opens up the entire virtual world, which means, start-ups can hire skilled people from any part of the world.
Due to these advantages, startups stand to benefit a great deal from offering telecommuting through a hosted phone system.
Edited by Alisen Downey