Baltimore and Maryland regional transportation experts hope the recent rise in gasoline prices will respark interest in teleworking and telecommuting among businesses and employees.
And at least one software company hopes to tap into that interest with new software that helps monitor an employee?s work load at home.
Employers in greater Baltimore region have been slow to embrace telecommuting and teleworking, said Russ Ulrich, a transportation planner with the Baltimore Metropolitan Council.
The council is a semipublic agency responsible for transportation planning in Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County and Howard County.
“It?s been a tough sell,” Urlich said. “Primarily because, for the most part, we are still a blue-collar town. We have an attitude that you show up for work everyday and do your work.”
Urlich pitches teleworking as a means for employees to cut traffic congestion and reduce real estate costs.
“National studies have shown that teleworkers can increase an organization?s productivity by as much as 20 percent. People who telework save themselves and their employers lots of money. And they are making our air cleaner,” Urlich said.
Interest in teleworking in the Baltimore region jumped after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Urlich said. Be he said he hopes rising gas prices might encourage more employees to begin asking their companies about teleworking.
Companies worried about productivity of employees working from home may be more comfortable with telecommuting if they sign an agreement with the employee that allows the workers to telecommute for part of their work week instead of the entire week, said Paula Coluzzi, acting director of the Southern Maryland Telecommuting Centers.
She said telecommuting and teleworking help companies retain current employees and recruit new ones.
The telecommuting centers are part a program run by the Maryland General Service Administration allowing workers access to office space for $108 per day or $540 per week. The employer usually pays the fee, Coluzzi said.
Employees can work at telecommuting centers near their homes and get access to typical office tools, Coluzzi said.
Federal workers and the federal government in Washington are starting to embrace teleworking, she said.
Brent Winters, CEO of First Guarantee, a software company in Florida, said his company?s new software, Suretime, tracks an employees? work hours at home. The $149 program tracks the time an employee works on a computer.
The employee must strike a computer key every 20 minutes. If they are away for the computer for more than 20 minutes, they have to account for that time in an audit report sent to the employer.
TELECOMMUTING
» Southern Maryland Telework Centers are located in Laurel, Waldorf and Prince Frederick
» Telework centers provide lockable work stations, computers, conference rooms, 24-hour access, kitchenette and paper shredder.
» Visit www.telecommutesomd.org for information about Southern Maryland Telework Centers
