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Number of U.S. teleworkers to reach 4.9 million by 2016

Posted on July 8th, 2011 Read time: 1 minutes

As human resources departments seek to update and improve their employee benefits administration, many are turning to teleworking as a perk to keep morale up and help workers save money on costly commutes.

According to a recent white paper from the Telework Research Network, the number of Americans working outside of the office is rising. In 2009, 2.9 million U.S. employees teleworked on a regular basis, and by 2016, this number is expected to reach 4.9 million – a 69 percent increase.

Furthermore, teleworking has been shown to have positive benefits for companies. It can save businesses as much as $13,000 per home worker and reduce abseentism by 25 percent.

"Progressive companies that have adopted flexible work strategies are already reaping the rewards in terms of lower costs, higher productivity, and a more engaged and loyal workforce," said Jim Creighton, co-founder of New Ways of Working, one of the study's sponsors. "Those that haven't, simply will not be able to compete in the global mobile workplace."

However, workers who decide to work regularly outside of the office will want to make sure they have a quick and efficient way to communicate with their employers to ensure mistakes don't occur as a result of miscommunication.

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