'Teleworkers' grow to 1.3 million
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Your support makes all the difference.AN EXTRA 300,000 employees in Britain started to work from home in the past 12 months as part of the "teleworking" revolution, according to a poll published today.
But while hi-tech companies are quickly shedding the "bums on seats" approach to work, traditionally-managed organisations are resisting, the Mori survey indicated.
The poll, commissioned by information technology group Mitel, found that more than 5 per cent of the working population - about 1.3 million people - now spend part of their working week at home, compared with 1 million in the previous 12 months.
It was found that nearly one in three "knowledge workers", especially in the financial sector, telecoms, marketing, sales, professional services and media is now teleworking or actively planning to do so.
In a booklet published yesterday by the Confederation of British Industry and Mitel, it was argued that far more jobs could be partly performed at home with the help of an on-line computer, or even a lap-top and a modem. Strategic Workstyles, an Oxford consultancy, forecast that 25 per cent of jobs could be the subject of teleworking while the Telework, Telecottage and Telecentre Association estimates that the proportion could be as much as a half of all non-manual jobs.
In nine out of 10 businesses where employees are not teleworking, however, management has no plans to take up the option. Both managers and employees simply cite "company policy" as the reason.
Paul Butcher, managing director of Mitel, said that while Britain was way ahead of Continental countries in switching to home-working, we were behind the United States.
Small and medium-sized businesses were less likely to encourage their staff to work from home. Some 59 per cent of the 1,000 biggest companies were using the method, but only 36 per cent of small organisations.
Employees seem to favour home-working, with a more than a third of "non teleworkers" indicating that they would like to have the opportunity. Four out of 10 men wanted the option, but only three out of 10 women.
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