VirtualVocations

With the traditional work environment the company is responsible for creating and maintaining the workplace. The larger the workforce the larger the workplace has to be in order to accommodate them, and the larger the maintenance cost to the employer. When a company can shift a substantial portion of their work force out of the workplace and into their employee’s individual homes, the savings on building upkeep can be significant. Not only is the size of the building directly affected by how many employees work within it, but it also has an effect on the cost of maintaining necessary building insurance to cover those that work there. The fewer people actually on site can drastically reduce a company’s overhead.

Before the arrival of the internet, the pool of employees that were available to a company at any given time was limited by two main factors; 1) accessibility of qualified individuals to the workplace (where they lived in relation to where the company was located) and 2) the number of qualified employees available for the job.

Typically when an employer found a non-local, highly qualified individual for a specific job they would have to either have them relocate (often incurring part or all of the relocation cost) or find another person who was just as qualified (which in some specialty fields is very difficult). Now even those fields that are highly technical or specialized can be done from the home. Many universities now offer on-line education where the students (and sometime even the instructor) are participating from their homes.

Studies have shown that employees that work at home even a portion of the time are more productive than those that report to the workplace of a regular job. One of the reasons given is the lessening of their stress levels because of their working environment.

The at home worker need not follow the usual pre-work routine of getting ready for work by grooming; choosing the correct attire, then having to start the often long commute into the workplace, with each event adding a certain amount of stress at the beginning of the workday.

Being able to work at their own pace and without the usual distractions of the average workplace environment, the work at home job provides the employee with a relatively stress free atmosphere, keeping their production, over time, at a higher level.