Microsoft and 85 Broads study finds that women are working remotely

Women are working remotely, says a new research by Microsoft and 85 Broads, a global women’s network.  Microsoft and 85 Broads (a global network of 30,000 trailblazing women) have partnered for a campaign called “Your Office, Your Terms” which seeks raise awareness among women on the benefits of remote working and on how to telecommute efficiently.

To launch the campaign a survey was made to understand how women perceived telecommuting and what was their biggest challenges when working remotely.

According to the research, which surveyed the 85 Broads community, women are working on average 2.8 days away from the office (over half the week), though they feel they should telecommute a little bit more – 3.1 days on average. The survey also shows that almost everyone would rather have a regular remote working schedule and that 9% would like to be able to work remotely every day.

The most important reason for remote working was pointed out as being a better balance between work and home, which was followed by avoiding long commutes and increased productivity. The survey also found out that most women (62%) feels that remote working increases their productivity.

When asked what their biggest challenge was, 49% has answered that it was technology. 

In fact, technology is one of the biggest issues when doing remote connection. On one side there is a market where there is no shortage of technological solutions and tools for remote access, and most managers and IT managers really don’t know where to turn to. On the other there is still this opinion on the part of managers that the equipment used by the employee at home isn’t really their responsibility.

Managers must look for and deploy the right solutions and, at the same time, provide employees with the equipment they need to perform at their best from their homes. There are several solutions in the market which stand out because of their quality at reasonable prices, such as RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance.

Managers that say that their employees are working less at home than in the office should be aware that most of the time this happens because employees aren’t given the right tools to do their jobs efficiently.

The “Your Office, Your Terms” campaign will be running the whole month of November as well as in December, with a blog and several events which are aimed at showing women the benefits of telecommuting.

The top six fields for telecommuting jobs

FlexJobs, a platform that helps job seekers find telecommuting and freelance jobs, has just released the latest Flexible Job & Job Search Trend Indexes, which features September data collected by the service. According to the report, the top six fields with the most flexible jobs are Medical & Health, Education, Web & Software development, Sales, Administrative, and Computer & IT.

In the top three, Medical & Health leads the list with 9% in the 3^rd quarter 2011, a rise of 2.5% when compared to the previous quarter. Education follows with 6.9%, also rising when compared to the 4.6% registered in the previous quarter. Next comes Web & Software development which has grown exponentially, from 2.4% registered in the 1^st quarter 2011, then to 3.9% in the 2^nd quarter and finally to 5.8% in September 2011.

“In our recent data, we’re continued to see strong growth in professional fields that people might not typically associate with telecommuting and flexible jobs,” said Sara Sutton Fell, FlexJobs CEO.

“The truth is that telecommuting and flexible jobs are much, much more widespread than they’re given credit for,” she added.

According to the company, job seekers looking for jobs in Data Entry were fortunate in September since there was an 87% growth in job postings when compared to August. Other areas where there was noticeable growth in job postings were Accounting & Finance with 28.4%, Consulting with 27.8% and Business Development with a 20% growth in September.

On the other hand, job postings diminished by 32% in Writing, Web Design with 23% and Graphic Design with a 22% drop.

Still there are were some surprising job postings appearing in the FlexJobs in the latest months, including Marine Species Observer, State Director Nursing, and a History & Ethnic Studies Instructor.

Remote access server adoption has been growing steadily over the last years, with remote work increasing by 33% in companies all over the United States over the last three years. With the widening of the market, remote desktop control solutions are also becoming more and more available at different price ranges, offering different tools to address telecommuting challenges.

One example is RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance which allows for remote work as well as audio and video conferencing.

The top six fields for telecommuting jobs

FlexJobs, a platform that helps job seekers find telecommuting and freelance jobs, has just released the latest Flexible Job & Job Search Trend Indexes, which features September data collected by the service. According to the report, the top six fields with the most flexible jobs are Medical & Health, Education, Web & Software development, Sales, Administrative, and Computer & IT.

In the top three, Medical & Health leads the list with 9% in the 3^rd quarter 2011, a rise of 2.5% when compared to the previous quarter. Education follows with 6.9%, also rising when compared to the 4.6% registered in the previous quarter. Next comes Web & Software development which has grown exponentially, from 2.4% registered in the 1^st quarter 2011, then to 3.9% in the 2^nd quarter and finally to 5.8% in September 2011.

“In our recent data, we’re continued to see strong growth in professional fields that people might not typically associate with telecommuting and flexible jobs,” said Sara Sutton Fell, FlexJobs CEO.

“The truth is that telecommuting and flexible jobs are much, much more widespread than they’re given credit for,” she added.

According to the company, job seekers looking for jobs in Data Entry were fortunate in September since there was an 87% growth in job postings when compared to August. Other areas where there was noticeable growth in job postings were Accounting & Finance with 28.4%, Consulting with 27.8% and Business Development with a 20% growth in September.

On the other hand, job postings diminished by 32% in Writing, Web Design with 23% and Graphic Design with a 22% drop.

Still there are were some surprising job postings appearing in the FlexJobs in the latest months, including Marine Species Observer, State Director Nursing, and a History & Ethnic Studies Instructor.

Remote access server adoption has been growing steadily over the last years, with remote work increasing by 33% in companies all over the United States over the last three years. With the widening of the market, remote desktop control solutions are also becoming more and more available at different price ranges, offering different tools to address telecommuting challenges.

One example is RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance which allows for remote work as well as audio and video conferencing.

Remote work is expected to continue to grow in Europe

According to a European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions survey, remote working is extremely attractive for most employees.

The survey, which investigated how European companies are providing flexibility to its employees to balance family and work, has found that 73% of the staff benefiting from more flexibility at work finds that more flexibility gives them a higher job satisfaction, with 61% of managers stating that they were feeling the benefits.

Remote working is one of the most important ways to provide a greater flexibility at work allowing employees to better manage and balance their family and work life. As such, the survey found that remote working is becoming common practice in the European countries, with the numbers rising exponentially over the last ten years.

In 2000, only 5% of European employees were working remotely, while in 2005 this number rose to 7%. In 2011 these numbers range from 24% in countries such as the UK and Italy, to 51% in Sweden, which shows that the technological developments in these last five years have led to a significant growth in the adoption of remote working technologies by European companies.

Research has shown that remote working has several benefits for companies and employees alike. On one hand telecommuting allows companies to save money and time, on the other employees save the trouble of travelling to and from work and allows them to work from home, increasing satisfaction and productivity, from which companies benefit as well.

Surely, remote working is not without its faults. Some might say that decreases communication between the employers and the management or that employees might become distracted more easily since they’re not working on the office.

In the end, it is always about technology. For telecommuting to work effectively companies must implement that right solutions to connect remote workers to the office. Today there are very good choices in the market, such as RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance which allows employees to work remotely while, at the same, they can be contacted and assisted remotely at any time using the video conferencing and web conferencing tools implemented in TurboMeeting.

Nevertheless, remote working is expected to continue to grow dramatically over the next ten years and become common practice in companies all over the world.

Truck company’s video conferencing system impresses their customers

 With video conferencing being adopted by companies all over the world, it is only normal that more and more news stories are being told in the media about how web conferencing technologies are changing the business landscape.

There have been many lately, such has how the Christian Union has adopted the technology to provide counseling to the students in the Ivy League universities, or how telemedicine is revolutionizing health care, with doctors using video conferencing to provide consultation to patients at home and in rural areas.

Last week, the Central Wisconsin Business website has published an article on how video conferencing has enabled V&H Inc. Trucks, a truck supplier based in Marshfield, to increase productivity and save time and money on travels.

The truck company, which has offices in Wisconsin, Kansas and North Carolina, used to fly employees across the country to attend training seminars but now those days are over. The company, which has recently deployed a web conferencing system, has found in the new technology a valuable tool, allowing them to launch video conferences and webcasts connecting employees and offering extra services to their clients.

The company created its own studio dedicated to video conferencing and webcasting. It has purchased two high-definition cameras, four mixing boards, a green screen, a teleprompter and several servers. Though purchasing and deploying the studio wasn’t cheap the company is already monetizing it by allowing customers to rent and use the equipment.

“We can help them communicate with their customers and employee. No more travel time, no more airport hassle. We see it as a money saver,” stated Cindy Gudgen, V&H Inc. Trucks system administrator, to the Central Wisconsin Business.

The studio is already starting to impress customers which think of it as a great opportunity to deploy webinars and train employees without having to lose time and money on travelling and accommodations.

But companies don’t need to spend thousands of dollars and deploy a web conferencing studio to take advantage of everything that video conferencing has to offer. Today there solutions in the market which deliver video conferencing, webcast and remote access tools in one appliance at very good prices, such as RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance. Companies can adopt web conferencing without sacrificing their budgets.