Telecommuting
In India, with the recent advancement in telecom and Internet technologies, telecommuting is fast attracting popularity as employees become proficient with remote management practices. There are distinct advantages for Indian employers as well in the form of increasing employee retention, better attendance and enhanced productivity. Not to mention, a significant savings on work space and office infrastructure given the escalating rentals for office spaces in Metros and Tier 1 cities.
Work is something we do, not something we travel to — this looks to be the new catch phrase among Indian organizations these days. With urban centres such as Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad getting more congested, corporate sector is presenting its employees flexible work options that facilitate them cut down on travel time and boost productivity. With the advent of a local village in the true sense of the work and work following the sun around the globe, employees find telecommuting the best option to deal with deadlines and spend quality time at home with family. For a rising number of businesses, telecommuting has proved to be favorable to both employer as well as employee. When the needs of the trade do not necessitate workers to be physically present in order to carry out their work, or where the availability of adequate suitable space is otherwise a problem, telecommuting is the answer.
The creation of high-speed connectivity and the explosion of hand-held devices occurred during the early 2000s and have become a mainstream way of working for many employers and employees.
This trend toward more telecommuting likely is due to a combination of factors, including:
1. The proliferation of high-speed and wireless Internet access (which has made it both less expensive and more productive to work remotely)
2. Rising fuel and commuting costs, and
3. The trend by employees to embrace work-life balance concepts
SMBs (Small & Medium Businesses, SB are defined as organizations with less than 99 employees and MBs are defined as organizations with 100 to 999 employees) are gradually moving from Wave I (basic infrastructure) of the technology ladder to Wave III (advanced infrastructure). AMI closely tracks SMB demographics & IT purchase behavior & telecommuting is one of them. Our numbers show telecommuting penetration is on the rise across Indian SMBs, for SBs it has risen from 3% in 2006 to 11% in 2008 whereas for MBs it has risen from 8% to 27%. These figures itself point out the growing importance of telecommuting among Indian SMBs.
Telecommuting 2006 2007 2008
SB MB SB MB SB MB
Telecommuting Penetration 3% 8% 10% 15% 11% 27%
% of employee that Telecommutes 0.2% 0.5% 0.7% 0.9% 0.5% 1.8%
Among SBs, although the number of telecommuting employees per organization has risen from 2006(0.2%) to 2007(0.7%) but has dropped in 2008(0.5%). This trend can be explained by the fact that around 2006, SBs had just started to feel the need to consider telecommuting as a more serious option which gained further significance and popularity among them during the period of 2007 economic boom fuelled by lack of abundant office space/escalating real estate prices and increased competition.
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