Support Strong for Remote Workers in Midsize US Cities
10. Mar, 2009 
10 Comments
Rankings of best midsize cities for remote workers released on anniversary of the invention of the telephone.
Support for remote working is generally strong among employers, managers and co-workers in 25 midsize U.S. cities, but adoption among employees lags, despite their desire to work remotely, according to initial findings from a survey of information workers commissioned by Microsoft Corp. through 7th Sense LP.
A growing interest in remote working has been spurred in part by rising energy costs, environmental concerns and the recent economic crisis. Remote working is widely understood to provide companies with access to a larger talent pool, improve productivity, and lower overhead for items such as workstation space, common office space, insurance, utilities, maintenance and parking. However, today’s survey results suggest business leaders need to do more to encourage adoption to realize these benefits.
Microsoft also released its rankings of best midsize cities for remote workers. Released on the anniversary of Alexander Graham Bell’s first successful test of the telephone, perhaps the world’s first remote working technology, the rankings were determined through a combination of six key characteristics:
- Employer support as reported by workers;
- Reported number of companies with remote-working policies;
- Level of managerial support reported by workers;
- Level of co-worker and peer support reported by workers;
- Percentage of workers who believe their job can be completed from home;
- Percentage of workers using remote-working programs.
Microsoft’s Best Midsize Cities for Remote Workers: Survey Highlights
The survey showed four major trends:
- Employers support remote-working programs, although only 40 percent have a formal policy.
- Bosses, peers and colleagues support remote-working programs.
- Employees identify commuting avoidance and productivity of environment as benefits to using remote-working programs.
- Most employees do not work remotely, despite having desire, supportive environments and a belief that they can work competently from home.
The top 10 best midsize cities for remote workers:
1. San Diego
2. West Palm Beach, Fla.
3. Buffalo, N.Y.
4. Salt Lake City
5. Raleigh, N.C.
6. Oklahoma City
7. Nashville, Tenn.
8. Charleston, S.C.
9. Greensboro, N.C.
10. Hartford-New Haven, Conn.
“Strategic use of a remote work force and supporting technologies can be a competitive game-changer in this down economy, especially for small and midsize businesses (SMBs) that have historically trailed large enterprise companies in adopting remote working practices,” said Michael Park, corporate vice president of the U.S. Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners Group at Microsoft. “After surveying those areas where SMBs employ a large percentage of the local work force, our findings suggest that businesses that currently leverage remote workers are enjoying an advantage over their competitors.”
The rise of widespread public demand for more environmentally sustainable business practices and the extreme volatility of fuel and energy costs have accelerated the adoption of teleworking in recent years. The trend has gained additional momentum from recently introduced security improvements, such as laptop computers equipped with the Windows Vista operating system’s BitLocker Drive Encryption, along with Network Access Protection (NAP) included in Windows Server 2008, which have better equipped IT departments to support remote workers.
Unified communications technologies now enable teleworkers to communicate and collaborate in the context they prefer, helping to reduce the barriers that have been at the root of resistance to remote working. Surprisingly, however, despite the widely understood business benefits, the survey results suggest workers need greater reliable access to systems and formal usage policies from their employers before they will embrace remote working.
Other interesting survey findings include these:
Employers
- Most employers do not have a remote-working policy; 39.4 percent actually have a policy detailing or enabling remote work(2).
- Buffalo, N.Y., had a statistically significantly higher number of companies with remote-working policies (68 percent) compared with all 25 cities polled for the survey.
- Respondents in most cities see employers as being slightly positive about remote-working programs, with a mean of 5.5 on a scale in which
- 1 equals not supportive and 10 equals very supportive.
- When compared with respondents from other cities, those in San Diego and Buffalo see their employers as being more supportive, with statistically higher means in the “supportive” range (7.02 and 6.82, respectively)(3).
- When compared with responses from other cities, employers in Las Vegas are seen as less supportive, with a significantly lower mean of 4.04. Las Vegas ranked last of 25 cities polled(3).
Managers
- Respondents generally felt that their manager (67.4 percent) was more supportive than their peers or colleagues (61.2 percent).
- Salt Lake City respondents reported significant support(3) by boss or manager, as did West Palm Beach, Fla(4).
- Compared with responses from other cities, those from New Orleans and Louisville, Ky., reported significantly less support from managers, peers or colleagues(4). New Orleans ranked 23rd and Louisville ranked 22nd.
Peers and Colleagues
- San Diego, Salt Lake City, West Palm Beach and Charleston, S.C., are significantly more supportive than the overall group(4).
- Grand Rapids, Mich., is below the average(4); it ranked 24th.
Workers
- The top three reasons to work from home according to survey respondents are to save gas, be more productive and have fewer distractions.
- The data showed a significant drop-off in response after the traffic/commuting and productivity/distractions categories were removed.
- Across the board, 77.3 percent(5) of people reported that gas prices increased their desire to work from home. New Orleans was significantly lower. Still, approximately 50 percent of respondents from New Orleans believed gas price had an effect.
- Respondents’ preferences for working remotely are influenced by weather and seasonality.
- On average, more than 60 percent of respondents in the survey favored working from home during the winter months. The only two exceptions to this were Las Vegas and West Palm Beach, Fla., where respondents favored remote work during the summer, at 72 percent and 56 percent respectively.
- Regardless of region, weather was the No. 1 reason (71.7 percent(6)) respondents gave for wanting to work remotely.
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
(1) Ranking based on sum of comparative rankings of 25 midsize
metropolitan areas across six key measurements of characteristics
indicating favorability toward remote working.
(2) Margin of error +/- 10.5 percent
(3) Confidence level of 95 percent
(4) Confidence level of 90 percent
(5) Margin of error +/- 8 percent
(6) Margin of error +/- 10.6 percent
Source: Microsoft Corp.
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Very informative…interesting to see that the top 2 cities are one that I have lived in and the other I thought about moving to.
I found it iteresting that most employers do not have a remote-working policy yet most respondants said their managers were more supportive of the idea than their colleagues were.
Interesting, this could help so much people.
I don’t think remote working is possible in some cases. For example, how can a boss tell if his remote worker is productive? Therefore, remote working would be difficult for jobs based on a hourly wage.
On the other hand, if a employee is required to meet a certain quota to get paid then remote working might be a good option.
Of course, meeting a quota isn’t the same thing as being paid only for sales. For example, a worker would be paid an hourly wage. However, this wage would not be paid if a certain quota was not met.
Whoa, im surprised I live next to the #4 ranked city, although i most definitely would prefer to live in the #1 and #2 spots, hell, even the #3 spot since im a huge buffalo bills fan
Some people are making money teaching ESL via the internet.
If your considering remote working then you might want to look into it. Often, all you need is a college degree in any subject.
Does anyone know any other popular remote jobs?
I just recently graduated and have embarked on my first job search. Your website and blog have been very helpful during that process. I created a resume in minutes last week and already have interviews lined up for next week. I think being able to forward my resume to employers as a link vs an attachment really helped. I will update you after my interviews.
My company plans to start back hiring in the 3rd qtr of 2010 – Hopefully more will be following suit.