Telecommuting is becoming increasingly attractive to U.S. employees, according to the third annual telecommuting survey by Staples.
Roughly 71% of telecommuters say it’s an important benefit when considering a new job, while 10% of respondents even say they’re willing to take a salary reduction to keep the telecommuting benefit. Why? Achieving a better work-life balance was the No. 1 reason employees liked it, with 74% of respondents naming this as a top reason. Transportation savings (69%) and green benefits (47%) were also cited as major factors in the decision.
However, the Staples survey also showed that companies are generally doing a poor job of educating their telecommuting employees on security and could also stand to improve equipment policies so that employees have appropriate furniture. Only 25% of employees responding to the survey have been trained on data backup and other best practices for security. Connectivity is a continued problem, with 58% of employers reporting connectivity problems for telecommuters several times per month or more and 64% of employees naming poor VPN connections as their biggest IT challenge while telecommuting. As for furniture, only 10% of employers in the survey offer furniture services to new telecommuters.
