Top 5 Career Fields Hiring for Telecommuting and Flexible Jobs from FlexJobs

FlexJobs, the leading job service for work at home, part-time, contract, and freelance job listings, has just released its Flexible Job Index (FJI) data for September.

Boulder, CO (PRWEB) October 07, 2011

FlexJobs' Flexible Job Index (FJI) for September shows big fluctuations in the top 25 fields hiring for telecommuting, part-time, freelance, and flexible employment. Notable changes include an 87% increase in Data Entry jobs and a 32% decrease in available Writing jobs. The top five fields with the most flexible jobs include:
1.     Medical & Health
2.     Education
3.     Sales
4.     Computer & IT
5.     Administrative


In contrast, it's been a tougher month for job seekers hoping to secure flexible employment in fields that saw a decrease in job listings, including Writing (which saw a drop of 32% in available job postings as mentioned), Web Design (with a drop of 23%), and Graphic Design (with a 22% drop).
On the positive side, applicants searching for jobs in Data Entry found 87% more postings in September than in August. Additionally, the other top career fields that gained the most volume of telecommuting and flexible job postings in September were Accounting & Finance (up by 28.4%), Consulting (up by 27.8%), Business Development (up by 20%), and Customer Service (up by 15%). The increases reflect growth in the number of available jobs in these fields.


"In our recent data, we've continued to see strong growth in professional fields that people might not typically associate with telecommuting and flexible jobs," Sara Sutton Fell, CEO of FlexJobs stated. "But the truth is that telecommuting and flexible jobs are much, much more widespread than they're given credit for."


Along those lines, FlexJobs highlights some of the surprising jobs amongst their hiring for new telecommuting job listings in September, including: Marine Species Observer (telecommuting and flexible schedule), CEO (telecommuting), State Director of Nursing (telecommuting and flexible schedule), and a History & Ethnic Studies Instructor (part-time and telecommuting).


The ongoing Flexible Job Index demonstrates the growing diversity in the employment market for flexible jobs, and provides reliable data on top career fields that offer work flexibility. Data includes positions listed on the site directly by employers as well as jobs found by FlexJobs' trained staff of researchers who scour hundreds of online sources, including industry blogs, employer websites, job boards, job feeds, and more. Only professional jobs that can both be confirmed as legitimate and as having some kind of work flexibility (telecommuting, part-time or flexible schedule, or freelance contracts) are included in the job database.


The interactive Quarterly Flexible Job Trend Report can be viewed by visiting www.flexjobs.com/trends. For media inquiries, please contact Chelsea Gladden, Chelsea(at)flexjobs(dot)com or 1-866-991-9222 x 4.


About FlexJobs
FlexJobs is the leading online service for hand-screened and professional flexible, part-time, telecommuting, and freelance job listings. FlexJobs gives job-seekers an ad-free way to find legitimate jobs quickly, easily, and safely. A proud member of the Better Business Bureau, FlexJobs skilled research team provides quality job leads in over 50 career categories, ranging from entry-level to executive, freelance to full-time. FlexJobs is a green, carbon-balanced company which is leading the way to the future of work by promoting telecommuting and flexible jobs that allow people to enjoy work and life in environmentally sustainable ways.


To find out more about FlexJobs, visit www.FlexJobs.com.
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Protecting your company if you use telework

HUMAN RESOURCES

Protecting your company if you use telework

OCTOBER 8, 2011 @ 10:39AM | JULIE TAPPERO

The benefits and cost-savings of allowing employees to work from home have received much attention — it cuts down on commuting expenses for staff as well as overhead within your own office, and provides your employees with morale-boosting work-life flexibility. In my own company, we’ve allowed several employees to telecommute for a variety of reasons — physical disability, an ailing spouse who couldn’t be left alone, a new baby, a severe allergy to fragrances. In all of these instances, we were very pleased with the success of our work-from-home arrangements. But telecommuting also comes with risks — chief among them, security issues and liability issues, on top of the issues that naturally crop up when managing someone who isn’t physically in the same location as you.

One recent case, Sandberg v. JC Penny Co., in particular caught my attention. A woman who primarily worked out of her home as a custom decorator and saleswoman of bedding and window treatments claimed that when she went into her garage to retrieve some fabric samples, she tripped over her dog and fractured her wrist. Initially, a Workers’ Compensation Board in Oregon denied her claim for workers’ compensation benefits, but this ruling was reversed by an appeals court. She argued that because she was required by her employer to work out of her home, hazards within her home automatically qualified as work environment hazards. Now that her case has been sent back to the Workers’ Compensation Board, it appears she has a strong chance of winning.

Some of the benefits of allowing employees to telework lose their appeal when weighed against the fact that employers lack the control over employees’ environments and activities that they have when people work in-office. It is clear that risk management is an extremely important element of any successful telework set-up. Telecommuting truly is an excellent option for companies and their employees, but only if a business takes the proper steps to protect itself.

If possible, it’s best to only allow employees you know well and who have an established history at your company to work from home. After all, trust is a huge component of any telecommuting set-up. You must trust your employee to maintain a safe office environment, to complete tasks unsupervised, and to accurately report their hours. While there are obviously measures you can take to ensure that these things happen, you’ll protect yourself from potential fraud or other problems if you only offer this privilege to staff who’ve proven you can rely on them. Additionally, if you allow hourly workers to telecommute, make sure you have a program in place that they can log into while working to track all of their time, to prevent fraudulent overtime and hours claims.

It’s not uncommon for companies to offer a telework option only to long-term or high-performing employees. Keep in mind, though, that if this is the case, due to the Americans with Disabilities Act, you may have to provide this option to workers who do not meet the long-term/high-performing criteria, if they are disabled and request accommodation.

It is critically important that an employee’s home work space is located in a safe, clean, controlled environment. You should be directly involved in selecting the space where a telecommuting employee will work, and in setting up that area so it is as ergonomically correct and safe as your normal office space. It should be well-lit and ventilated, large enough to comfortably accommodate your employee and any equipment they will be using, and free of clutter and physical obstructions. It should have enough electrical outlets to safely power all of the equipment they need to work, and all wires and electrical cords must be kept secured and out of the way. Once the workspace has been set up, thoroughly document it with photos.

As with almost all employment-related issues, clear policies and guidelines are your best protection. You should have a detailed and very clear outline of your expectations for telecommuting employees, and guidelines that address any potential safety issues — all in writing. Employees who work from home should be required to sign these documents to indicate that they understand and will follow your safety and security requirements. This agreement should state that home workers will be covered by workers’ compensation laws only if they are injured during the course of performing their job duties. As an additional step, you should periodically reassess your telecommuting employees’ work spaces (and document your assessments, preferably with photos) to ensure that they continue to meet your safety requirements.

Some companies go so far as to make telecommuting employees sign an agreement that they will not allow children, family members and pets in their home workspace. Creating a policy of this type is a very good idea, as it further reduces risk of injury, as well as security risks — which we’ll address next.

Technological security risks are a major concern when you allow an employee to work outside of your normal office space. Protecting the privacy and integrity of company data and networks is a high priority when employees are working outside of the office.

For starters, you should always have a detailed acceptable use policy regarding the use of computers, company data and online media, whether or not you have employees who work from home. If you do have home workers, this becomes even more important. Your staff needs to sign this policy, and it is important to update it yearly, or whenever you implement new technology, or new ways of using technology.

You should provide telecommuting employees with company-issued equipment, rather than having them use their own computers or personal technology for work. Have an IT expert ensure that their network is properly secured, and their machine is protected by firewalls, antivirus software, failed log-on lockout settings, etc. If your company blocks employees from accessing certain sites from work, block those sites on your telecommuting employees’ work machines too. Additionally, telecommuting employees should not be set up as administrators on their work computers, to prevent them from installing non-work related programs or otherwise harming the machine. Instead, have your IT staff remotely handle updates or changes.

If you’re providing employees with laptops, you may also want your policy to prohibit the use of that equipment in unsecured environments, such as wireless networks available at public locations like coffee shops (unless that interferes with the work they need to perform).

According to data released by the Nemertes Research Group in 2009, as many as 71 percent of U.S. companies offer full-time or part-time telecommuting options to their employees. As the pressure of an uncertain and struggling economy continues to bear down on us for the foreseeable future, the flexibility and cost-savings offered by telecommuting will ensure it remains an appealing option for businesses to pursue. My own experiences with providing work-from-home arrangements in my company were all extremely positive. But part of the reason that was the case is that we made sure to implement all of the measures necessary to protect ourselves and ensure the safety of our employees and data. The chances are high that if you do the same, you’ll enjoy an equally positive experience!

(Editor’s Note: Julie Tappero is the President and owner of West Sound Workforce, a professional staffing and recruiting company based in Poulsbo and Gig Harbor. She can be reached at julie@westsoundworkforce.com. View her LinkedIn profile atwww.linkedin.com/in/jtappero. The recommendations and opinions provided are based on general human resource management fundamentals, practices and principles, and are not legal opinions, advice, or guaranteed outcomes. Consult with your legal counsel when addressing legal concerns related to human resource issues and legal contracts.)

MTA President meets with DEED

Brent J. Christensen, President and CEO of the Minnesota Telecom Alliance met with Minnesota DEED Commissioner Phillips this morning, September 21st.  They talked about the telework summit and asked them to look at adding a “Statewide Telework” location field to their jobforce website, which DEED agreed to look into.  They also talked about the white paper the Center for Rural Policy and Development is doing on the economic impact of telcos in MN and how the FCC is working on changes to USF/ICC that will significantly impact what and how we do business.  The meeting will be followed up in November with a meeting between DEED and the Minnesota Telecom Alliance Economic Development Committee to discuss mutual areas where we could promote economic development in rural Minnesota.

Broadband in Faribault County

The following is a video that highlights the use and benefit of broadband in Faribault County, Minnesota. It’s a nice display of broadband use and adoption in the area – focusing on the BEVCOMM as the provider.

It was created by Save Rural Broadband. Here is a description of the organization from their web site…

Save Rural Broadband was created by the National Telecommunications Cooperative Association, Organization for the Promotion and Advancement of Small Telecommunications Companies, and the Western Telecommunications Alliance to educate Americans about Federal Communications Commission (FCC) proposals that could profoundly affect rural America. Our goal is to show Congress and the Obama administration how the proposals the FCC released in February 2011 are detrimental to efforts to upgrade broadband Internet networks in many rural communities – and how it would result in loss of jobs and decreased economic development in regions of America that need them most. We are working to convince the FCC to instead move forward to adopt the landmark “consensus framework” that has been submitted by a unified group of small, mid-size, and large carriers. This framework is the product of many years of discussion, representing an important step forward by the telecommunications industry to reach tough compromises that will restore regulatory certainty.

Virtual Companies Keep Running Through Irene. Is That Good?

As Hurricane Irene breaks NYC rainfall records, attention seems to be turning to what its final cultural and economic impact may be. An interesting little lesson, which many of us who work from home will already know, is the role telecommuting can play in creating a more resilient, stable economy. In fact that is one of the reasons cited on the radio this morning for why markets seemed relatively buoyant, despite Irene shutting down much of NYC. Many folks were simply able to work from home.

But if you're working from home temporarily, and would like to make it permanent, how do you make that shift? And, on a wider note, should keeping our economic machine rolling through every storm even be a goal of ours? Snow days are kind of important too...

Virtual Organizations Keep Running

From telecommuting reducing emissions and saving money to 5 innovations that make working from home even greener, we've given telecommuting a lot of love over the years. And it's not surprising. Most TreeHugger contributors work from home at least some of the time, and while we don't get to play hooky on snow days, we do rest safe in the knowledge that we can avoid traffic jams or inclement weather hazards, and our well-oiled green machine keeps running despite what Mother Nature may throw at us.

Telecommuting Creates a more Resilient Economy

The fact is that while our age of hyper-mobility may have left us more vulnerable to inclement weather, we are also living in an age of virtual mobility. Those of us who work from home anyway may take it for granted, but today there will be thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands, of workers who can carry on as normal while never having to leave their houses. Take this report from a fellow Treehugger when I broached the subject at our virtual water cooler:

On the anecdotal side, we've got a full house here of people working from home, as downed trees have shut down trains running into Manhattan.

So while in days gone by we would have seen many days of lost work until travel was once again possible, many companies and organizations today find themselves reluctantly thrown into a virtual organizing world—and the chances are they will do just fine in it.

Forced Telecommuting as Teaching Moment?

This isn't just a powerful stabilizer for our economy—it has the potential to be a teaching moment for reducing our environmental impact too. So if you happen to be a regular commuter forced to work from home for the day, why not start thinking about how you can make it a regular occurrence? It may be that you yourself were nervous to take the plunge, or your boss was reluctant to let workers telecommute. Whatever the barriers were, look on today as a test day—pay attention to how well you work from home, and draw attention to that fact when you get back into the office. And then think about how much better it would work if you had systems already set up to do so.

But Forced Downtime is Important Too

There is, of course, a word of caution to be had too. Because economic productivity is not everything. About a year back a realtor friend/client of mine sent me an email about snow days. In response to a "what you can do to remain productive on a snow day" email that was circulating realtor listserves, my buddy and his colleagues had compiled a list of "what you can do to get maximum enjoyment from your snow day." From day drinking to sledding to building snowmen, the list was as fun as it was important. Just as workations risk derailing our already limited downtime, losing our snow days and hurricane days to telecommuting means losing an occasional, temporary and in some ways healthy forced pause on our juggernaut of "productivity".

I suspect the secret lies in embracing the best of the virtual economy—but also adapting our working patterns to fit the modern environment. In a world where we can be reached by our bosses 24/7, year-round, it becomes increasingly important to ask whether we should be so accessible. By all means let's learn how temporary telecommuting can free us up from the hideous daily commute, and make our companies and organizations better able to cope with disruption. But let's not forget that we all need to play more too. After all, slow business is good business.

The next workplace: Tips, tricks and testament for telecommuting

Sometimes we stumble onto ideas. Last week, as I was trying to come up with an idea for what I’d write about this week, I stumbled onto the fact that I was doing a pretty decent amount of traveling in the next 30 days, and someone asked me how I was going to continue working while I did. That gave me the idea that there were surely some interesting stories about people who had given up on the idea of a traditional office, and in doing so had come up with some unique insights about that fact.

Fortunately, I wasn’t disappointed when I went searching for the people or the stories.

To start, let’s talk about Christian Faller. He’s a freelance business development guy, for lack of a better term. Christian and I had been trying to get together via Skype for a chat, but my schedule kept preventing that. Finally though we were able to talk for a bit and Faller had some interesting things to say about his recent move to Singapore and what having the globe as his office has provided him.

Faller frequents CouchSurfing and has done a significant amount of travel both through and unguided by the site. I asked Faller where his favorite “office” was so far and surprisingly the German native stated that he liked living in Canada and the US the best so far. That “so far” list? In the past 2 years, he’s worked from over 20 countries.

Whether it’s the matter that Faller “really [doesn’t] know whether [he] wants to do this forever” or if it’s that “feeling that [he] might miss out on something”, he continues to travel as much as he can and he works from everywhere.

But where is the business advantage? In Faller’s case, he states that his travel has allowed him to pitch to companies that his biggest asset is the ability to have cross-cultural thinking. With the global, no-walls economy that we have today, it’s an invaluable asset.

The whole idea has hit close to home for us here at TNW, as well. Zee, our esteemed Editor-In-Chief, has plans to move to leave his London flat for Dubai in the very near future. Whether you understand his reasons or not, the interesting thing is that his ability to perform the scope of his job absolutely won’t change because of the move.

We’ve talked at length before about the ways in which technology has enabled us to work from near anywhere. The question then rises as to whether or not it’s the right solution for more businesses. It should be a telling fact, however, that many job search websites have included the filter option of “Telecommute” to their offerings, as demand for “work from anywhere” jobs continues to rise.

There are a number of factors that come into play when you’re considering the idea of a telecommuting employee. Without going into too much detail on each of them, the basic idea is that you need to find the right person to do the right job and provide them with the right equipment. While this isn’t different from an ideal in-office situation, the added freedom for the worker can adversely affect someone who isn’t fitting that “right/right/right” scenario.

I spoke at length to a business coach who works with companies that are transitioning toward a virtual office setting, and here are some points that I was given for both sides of the employer/employee equation.

For Businesses

Set the criteria — Obviously you will likely have some positions that require the work to be done from your company’s office. For those positions that you are considering a telecommuting option, make sure to clearly set the criteria that is expected in order to take them. From eligibility of employees to the performance expectations, all of these should be plainly laid out before the first work day happens.

Tracking time — It’s imperative that you’re fully paying your employee in the same way that you would if they were working in your office. If your standard employees have paid lunches or breaks, so too should your ones working from Starbucks. The same is true for those employees when computer problems or power outages happen. If you’d have to pay them if they were working in the office, you have to pay them when they’re not.

Prepare to pay — While it might seem to be a great idea to take your 5-year employee to a home office setting, you have to consider the resources that are available to them. Do they have the right computer to do the job? What about a phone system? Is their home’s dial-up connection sufficient for doing the work that needs to be done? If not, be ready to dish out those expenses from company funds in order to get the most out of the work-at-home setup.

Be flexible — It might seem second nature to many of us, but established companies often times have difficulty transitioning to a flex time system of work. If your employee’s job is not dependent upon their ability to pull information from other people then allow them to work their scheduled 8 hours at any point during the day. So long as the quality of the work is not affected, keep that schedule open.

Keep talking — Even if an employee is on a flex time schedule, it’s imperative that an open line of communication is maintained. Whether that is accomplished by mandatory office time or pre-scheduled meetings, make sure to stay in touch just as you would with an in-office employee.

For Workers

Be a professional— We’ve heard lots of tips about how you should still wake up, shower and get dressed for a day at a home office. Beyond that, though, there’s a level of professionalism expected from you that even office workers might not have. Showing up to a Skype meeting in your bathrobe? Bad idea. Treat your home office as you would any other professional environment.

Stay in place — Oh sure, the door is open for you to take on any number of jobs while you’re working from home. The fact is though that an established record of long-term business relationships will look good to future employers, freelance or otherwise.

Get social — It might seem small, but it can lead to larger problems. The practice of working remotely can be a lonely one. That office camaraderie is likely more important than any of us give it credit for. As such, make sure that you don’t go hermit-style. Make a concerted effort to go to a local office occasionally, if possible. At the very least, get out of the house and work from a coffee shop or bookstore for a day. Having people around you can be a very good thing.

Be mobile — Faller brings up some great points in my talk with him about traveling with a bare minimum of things to keep him productive. You should work to find the ways that you can minimize your required equipment so that you can still be mobile when it’s necessary. From plumbers to noisy family members, a lot can happen in your house. If all you need is a laptop and a mobile phone, you can work from far more places.

Get balanced — We’ve talked about this before during our week on productivity, but it bears repeating: Balance your work and your life. For most of us, it’s hard to quit at 5pm when our office is in our living room. Find a workspace that isn’t your living space, and leave it there when it’s time to quit for the day. Your family…and your sanity…will thank you.

Maybe it’s not the right idea for every job or every person, but telecommuting is increasingly popular. If you’re going to do it, or you’re going to offer it, do your homework and you’ll see the payoff. After all, wouldn’t we all like to visit 20 countries while still doing our job every day?

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About the Author

Brad is a music and tech junkie who calls Nashville home. While he writes across many channels on The Next Web, he has a particular interest in startups located in the Southern US. Find him on Twitter @BradMcCarty.

A tally of telecommuting: Tons of pollutants avoided

By SANDY BAUERS

The Philadelphia Inquirer

Just stay home.

That might be a good mantra for those who want to see a major drop in greenhouse gas emissions.

In a new study about working from home - also called telecommuting, or telework - a Widener University professor and a colleague have determined that greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by about 588 tons over the next 10 years, if just another 10 percent of the workforce did it.

Key to that is developing widespread access to broadband services, said Joseph P. Fuhr, an economics professor at Widener, and Stephen Pociask, president of the American Consumer Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Washington, D.C.

In a paper published in the journal, Low Carbon Economy, they said that about half of U.S. homes lack a high-speed connection to the internet. But otherwise, the potential for telecommuting is high.

U.S. government workers are a case in point. According to the federal Office of Personnel Management, 41 percent of federal workers are eligible for telecommuting. Oddly enough, only about 19 percent do.

Fuhr and Pociask outlined the many benefits - a reduction in rush-hour traffic (and a reprieve from costly road projects); less oil use and perhaps fewer cars needed overall; a way to expand employment opportunities for the handicapped and the elderly. There's the potential for fewer auto accidents and, as a result, lives saved.

There's more. "Telecommuters save money by eating out less, decreasing daycare needs and spending less on work wardrobes and dry cleaning," the authors noted.

Firms "will need less equipment, office space, parking spaces ..." Telecommuting could lead to what they call "homeshoring," as opposed to "offshoring" jobs overseas.

Bosses always worry about productivity, but additional studies have shown an increase in worker output, coupled with higher morale.

The researchers say more studies are needed, but their breakdown of the environmental benefits in a single year of additional telecommuting show 45 tons of greenhouse gas emissions saved from less driving, 4.8 tons saved from the effects of congestion, 28.1 tons saved from office space not built and 56.8 tons saved from energy not used in office spaces.

They conclude: "Encouraging the development of technology such as broadband services, which will facilitate the use of more telecommuting, could become one of the most important economic public policy initiatives because it helps the environment while augmenting economic growth."

Visit Sandy Bauers' blog at http://go.philly.com/greenspace.