Stay Home To Save Energy
A trend lately has been Virtual Fridays, in which offices shut down a couple Fridays a month, and employees are expected to work from home. They're logged in, and they take calls, so it's not a free day. The goal is the office doesn't have to run any power that day, and employees don't need to use fuel to get to work.
Telecommuting and teleconferencing are
on the rise, owing in part to high gas and airplane fuel prices. And then there are workers who find they simply
don't work well in a cubicle. If your business is the type where employees are often traveling for meetings, it could be time to rethink all that space devoted to each staff member. Come up with a rotating schedule of people reporting to the office and telecommuting. Encourage use of public transportation and carpooling.
Telecommuting is a bit more complicated than just setting up your laptop at home -- there are networking issues, for one thing. So check out "
8 Steps Of Telecommuting."
For the gear you need to telecommute, check out bMIghty's slideshows of mobile-friendly equipment like
ultraportable laptops,
smartphones,
hands-free headsets, and even
netbooks so employees can work almost anywhere.
A caveat: Before you allow your employees to
work in their bathrobes,
read this and then be sure you implement a strict security policy.
Don't Miss: Telecommuting Is NOT A Panacea
