July 28, 2003—Businesses will see a major growth in teleworking over the next two years according to a new AT&T survey conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit.
The survey indicates more than 80 percent of companies worldwide expect to have employees who telework or work remotely in the next two years, up from 54 percent today. And even though only 13 percent of companies offer financial and material help to teleworkers currently, that number will rise to about 32 percent in 2005.
The top three drivers of this 26 percentage point jump in telework cited by the 237 senior executives surveyed by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the business information arm of The Economist magazine, are better network access from remote locations (62 percent), better communications facilities (62 percent) and globalization of business operations (48 percent).
Although 64 percent of companies identified enhanced productivity as the top benefit of telework, more than half (56 percent) reported difficulty in monitoring the output of remote workers as the biggest obstacle to telework. The Economist Intelligence Unit report warns that those companies that cannot meet the supervisory and security challenges posed by remote working should be concerned, as remote working is just one facet of a larger strategic trend toward ubiquitous network access.
The Economist Intelligence Unit report also suggests that enterprises today are increasingly “net-centric”-organized around networks rather than buildings. Robust corporate intranets are enabling employees to access significant amounts of company information electronically through enterprise resource planning and customer relationship management applications.
In AT&T’s own telework survey of its management employees, one-third of managers report they work remotely at least once a week, a four-fold increase during the last 10 years. And 17 percent of AT&T’s management employees now work in full-time virtual offices with no dedicated office space—almost double the results in 2001. The company has conducted annual surveys of its own management telework trends since 1992, exploring the benefits to the company, employees and society.
The emergence of Internet Protocol virtual private networks is allowing companies to extend existing networks easily, securely and cost-effectively to remote employees. Additionally, the increasing availability of affordable broadband connections in employees’ homes is fostering more confidence in remote work.
For executive summaries of AT&T’s internal telework research and the Economist Intelligence Unit’s global survey, as well as the Top Ten Telework Tips, visit AT&T.
