Each day millions of people commute to work by train or car. This not only causes significant logistic problems but also results in people being stressed out when arriving at their workplace. On their way home they experience exactly the same again. A communications’ representative of the Swiss railway company SBB says that it would be better if people were to commute at different times of the day and not all at once.

In 2010, SBB, Swisscom and Microsoft initiated the Home Office Day. Last year more than 908 working days were gained and more than 9’000 tons of CO2 saved.

But there are not only environmental and efficiency reaasons to work from home. A study performed by the University of St.Gallen has shown that people who have to work at the office five days a week have twice as many absence days than their counterparts with flexible workplaces. Also, the risk of a burnout drops from 48% to 5% if flexibility is permitted with respect to the workplace.

When looking at the “Next Generations”, namely the millenials and the internet generation, flexibility is among the most important issues they raise when applying for a job. Most employers, especially the larger ones, do not allow for flexible workplaces and thus cannot fully accomodate the needs and desires of the future employees. This results not only in increased recruiting costs but also a higher fluctuation among the employees due to externally-seeked flexibility.

While not all professions are suitable for a home office approach, many are. Watch this short promotional clip:

There are well known approaches how to handle virtual teams and manage the remote working situation. The book “Virtual Teams” is recommendable for those who want to establish virtual team structures in their organization.