Kate Lister is the executive director and principal investigator of the Telework Research Network. She has over 20 years of experience working from home and researching telework. Her organization has conducted over 250 studies on telework and published savings calculators to quantify the benefits of telework for employers, employees, and communities. Telework can provide significant savings related to real estate, absenteeism, turnover, productivity, oil consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and traffic congestion. However, telework also faces challenges in management attitudes, security concerns, and costs. Models for successful telework promotion include tax credits and grants from government agencies.

1. Kate Lister
Executive Director, Principal Investigator
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TeleworkResearchNetwork.com

2. Take Your Pick

3. Definition
• Telework – any form of
• Teleworker – anyone who works remotely
• Telecommuter– an office worker who periodically (one or
more days per week) works remotely
“All telecommuters are teleworkers, but not vice versa”
-- Jack Nilles

4. Telework vs. Alternative Fuels
• Half-time Telework Would
Save 453 million barrels of oil
a year
– Equivalent of 764 tWh
• Twice what U.S. produced in:
– Biomass, Liquid Biofuels,
Geothermal, Solar, Hydro,
Marine, and Wind combined in
2007

5. My Road Less Traveled
• Just Say No To Pantyhose / Neck Ties
• 20+ Years Working at Home
– Barnstorming
– What’s Next?

6. Telework Research
• 250+ Studies
• Researchers, Advocates, Naysayers
• Employers, Employees, VC’s
Our research has been
cited in the Wall Street
Journal, Washington Post,
Harvard Business Review,
Fortune and many other
publications.

7. Telework Savings Calculator
• Used by legislators, community
advocates, and Fortune 500
companies in U.S. and Canada to
promote telework initiatives
• Available for every City, County,
Metro Area, Congressional
District, State in U.S.
• Savings
-Community: Oil, greenhouse gases,
traffic, highway maintenance
Telework Savings Calculator
-Company: Real Estate, Absenteeism,
Undress4Success.com
Turnover, Productivity
-Individual: Gas, auto, food, parking,
tolls, clothing, daycare

8. Telework Savings Calculator - Sources
• •
American Community Survey (Interim National Association of Child Care
Census) Resource & Referral Agencies
• Telework Adoption and Energy Use in • Energy Information Administration,
Building and Transport Sectors in the Petroleum Supply Annual
United States and Japan - Matthews and
• U.S. Department of Energy, Energy
Williams
Information Administration, Household
• Journal of Infrastructure Systems Electricity Reports
• U.S. General Services Administration • Federal Highway Administration Traffic
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Safety Facts - National Highway Safety &
• Travel Administration
U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics
•
Omnibus Household Survey Hewitt LCG, Nucleus Absence Overview
• The Quiet Success: Telecommuting’s and 2005 CCH Unscheduled Absence
Survey
Impact on Transportation and Beyond (
•
Reason Foundation) American Management Association
• Productivity Studies
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
•
• U.S. Telework Coalition
Collier's International Parking Study
•
• WorldatWork, Member survey: Attraction
The Internet and the New Energy
and Retention Practices
Economy (Joseph Romm ,Center for Energy and
•
Climate Solutions, Global Environment and Technology CommuteSolutions.org
Foundation)

9. Custom Savings Calculator
TeleworkResearchNetwork.com
• •
Total # of employees % Reduction in absences
• •
# Teleworkers % of employees who quit each year
• •
Days / week they will telework % improvement in retention
• •
Additionalemployees who could Assumed improvement in
work at home productivity
• •
Roundtrip miles to work Average annual earnings of
teleworkers
• Roundtrip commute in minutes
• Other company savings
• Other employee Savings
• % Who could work at home
• $ per gallon of gas
• % of people who want to telework
• % teleworker offices that are
•
eliminated % Daily travel reduction
• •
Cost per kWh of electricity Parking, Lunch, Work Clothes
• •
Cost/per office Other Individual Savings/Year
• •
Cost of losing an employee Day CareCosts
• Cost of unscheduled absences

10. San Diego County
Potential $ Impact of 472,000
San Diego Telecommuters:
- Corporate: $3 Billion
- Consumer: $5 Billion
- Community: $4 Billion
Nationally: Over $750 Billion/Year

11. Corporate Bottom Line Impact
• Real Estate Savings $1.2 B
- IBM slashed real estate costs by $50 million
- Dow Chemical and Nortel save over 30% on non-real estate costs
- Average real estate $10,000 per employee per year
• Electricity $54M
• Absenteeism $212M
- 78% of people who call in sick aren’t.
• Turnover $22M
- 95% of employers say telework has a significant impact on attrition
• Productivity $1.9 B
Total Corporate Impact: $3.4 B
+ Carbon Taxes, Access Taxes, Clean Air Initiatives

12. Teleworker Impact
• Vehicle Savings $1,980
• Parking, Food, Clothes, Misc.
$2,558 to $11,222
• Daycare $1,500 to $4,000
Total Consumer Savings:
$4,500 to $11,000/Yr
- not including daycare
+ 2-3 extra weeks of free time

13. Community Bottom Line
• Imported Oil Savings $4.2 Billion
• Accident Costs $172 Million (1,400 people)
• Higher Productivity
• Better Emergency Responsiveness
• Fuller Employment
• Highway Maintenance $29 Million
• 15,000 Homes Powered
• Reduced Human Congestion
• Beautifies Cities

14. Environment
• Barrels of Oil:
– Locally: 4.3 million barrels / yr
– Nationally 57% of Gulf Imports
• Greenhouse Gases:
– Locally: 793,000 tons/yr
– Nationally equivalent to removing
15 million cars

15. Other Great Reasons To Stay Home
• Continuity of Operations • Improve Work/Life
Balance
- Pandemic, Terrorism, Natural
disaster - A third of people surveyed say
they’d take working from home
- 75% of teleworkers feel they
could continue to work in the event over a pay raise
of a disaster (compared to 12% of
non-telewokers)
• Slow Brain Drain
- 75% of retirees want to work
• Expand Labor Pool past retirement, but they want
- part-timers, retirees, rural to do it on their terms
workers, disabled, caregivers
•Gen Y Motivator
• Increase Productivity
- 20-45% increase in productivity - Flexible work scores high
- 30% increase in sales

16. Playing in Traffic
San Diego: 16% fewer cars on the highways
“For every car
you take off
the road,
there’s a 3x
reduction in
congestion.”

17. Ripple Effect
• Less Travel
– Teleconferencing / Video Conferencing
– Remote Training / Webinars
• Less Construction
• Less Office Equipment / Toxic Waste
• Less Paper
– 10% could power 228,000 homes
– reduce emissions equiv to 279,000 cars
– reduce waste by 44,000 garbage trucks
– reduces 16,000 Olympic pools worth of
wastewater
– save 13 million trees

18. Road Blocks
• Management Attitudes
• Security Concerns
– Over 90% of IT managers say
telework isn’t the problem
• Costs
-Average cost : $300 to $3,900 / first year teleworker
(compared to $7,900 savings)
- GSA shows 300% ROI
- NCR and Lucent: savings double the costs.
- Nortel: costs offset by the reduction in absenteeism alone
• Not for Everyone

19. Green Light
• Business Leadership
• Political Leadership
– Relax Zoning Laws
– Avoid Double Taxation
– Health Insurance
– Ubiquitous Broadband / WiFi
• Cost per highway mile = $44 million
• Cost per information highway mile = $20k

20. Models for Success
Federal Highways
Authority /
Congestion
Mitigation & Air
Quality
(2.2 billion
allocation not
spent. Expires
2012)
• Telework.gov – Tax Credits:$20k for feasibility,
Tax Credits: $1,200 per
• Telework VA
employee
– Grants up to $3,500 per
• Oregon
employee ,$10,000 for
– Up to $30,000 tax credits
equipment, $25,000 for
consulting • AZ, CT, Seattle, Denver,
• Georgia LA/Orange/Ventura Counties

21. Undress For Success: The Naked Truth About
Making Money at Home (Wiley, April 2009)
• “You could spend years with focus groups assemble cross-functional teams to
study and recommend organizational changes, or simply read Undress For
Success.”
– Jack Heacock, co-founder of the Telework Coalition
• “The best collection of telework how-to’s and why’s I’ve seen anywhere.”
– Jim Ware, co-founder of The Future of Work
• Bob Fortier, President of Canadian Telework Association
• Marcia Rhoades, WorldatWork
• Laura Vanderkam, USA Today Reporter
• Cali Williams Yost, Fast Company Expert

22. Make the Road Less Traveled
the Way to Work
Undress4Success.com
TeleworkResearchNetwork.com