The Health Benefits of Telecommuting

Commuting to work can be a rather draining experience, and not just on your budget. Research from Umeå University in Sweden has shown that computing can also be draining to your health. Commuters have been found to die younger than people who live close to their job. Telecommuting provides a great solution that can extend the lives of your employees.

The specifics of this study shows that people who travel more than 30 miles to work are more likely to have high blood pressure, experience stress, and suffer from heart disease. There may be a few commutes that are peaceful, like driving on the scenic highways that you see in car commercials, but the majority of the world's commutes tend to involve the stress of battling idiot drivers who are also stressed.

Longer commutes can also affect a worker's performance. Employees who take long commutes take more sick leave and tend to pack on more pounds than their co-workers that live closer. More time on the road translates to less time exercising, fewer hours of sleep, and more exposure to pollution, not to mention an increased risk of dying in a car accident.

The best solution is for an employee to move closer to their work. This may not be in the cards for everybody, seeing as moving can be such a major expense. For employees unable to move within the 30 mile work radius, the next best solution is to try telecommuting. By working from home, employees can be spared the stress of commuting, thereby extending their lives and increasing their productivity!

A 2008 study by CompTIA Research interviewed businesses on how telecommuting has worked out for them and 67% of business owners said telecommuting made their staff more productive. It is important to keep in mind that telecommuting has to be done right with protections in place for your company. Yahoo! recently made headlines by revoking telecommuting privileges for their employees after discovering their staff was wasting company resources when working from home. Computerware can help you enact telecommuting policies and technology that will allow you to monitor your employee's use of company time in order to help keep them honest.

If you are looking to have working from home be an option for you company, then give Computerware a call at (703) 821-8200. We can hook up your network with affordable IT solutions like Voice over IP, virtual desktops, terminal services and more that will let everybody in your office access company files from anywhere. These telecommuting services will not only increase your employee's productivity, but it will also increase their longevity!