Virtual Office Resource

Virtual Vocations recently released its 2015 Year-End Report on the latest telecommuting trends in the U.S. Rather than echo other sources that report of the rise in telecommuting and the virtual office, this report breaks down where the increases come from.

True to its name, Virtual Vocations is itself a virtual company incorporated in Tucson, Arizona. It provides hand-screened telecommuting job opportunities for its job-seeking customers through its website.

One of the more surprising findings of the report was that the job categories with the most growth were in positions traditionally performed at the office like healthcare, management, and education.

As long as you avoid Illinois and Ohio, many of the more heavily populated states are great sources for telecommuting positions. California, Texas, New York, and Florida top the list while Pennsylvania and Massachusetts recently joined the top 10.

The report also found that many telecommuting jobs pay well, require little to no travel, and give workers the flexibility they need for a great work-life balance. It’s only natural that many expressed increased job satisfaction. So, what’s not to like?

According to Dana Wilkie, an online editor for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), not every company has jumped on the telecommuting bandwagon.

Some of the more high-profile examples of major companies reducing or eliminating telecommuting positions in recent years have come from slumping businesses. After Marissa Mayer took over as CEO of Yahoo a few years ago, she terminated the company’s policy allowing telecommuting. Best Buy (News - Alert) and HP also made similar decisions.

Wilkie also points out that telecommuting works better with employees who are self-starters. Management needs to maintain contact on a regular basis to keep telecommuters in the loop and ensure they are doing the work. Training and adequate technology are needed to ensure communication and that access to company resources is available.

Assuming that a company is not in the same boat as Yahoo et al. or enacts PTO policies that are so liberal that the work does not get done as iHire LLC once did, the benefits of telecommuting usually outweigh the liabilities. With well-structured polices, telecommuting saves companies money on office infrastructure costs, reduces environmental impact, and leads to happier employees.