Globalization

Technology and the new global workforce There are some 200 million highly educated and skilled workers overseas, who have attended universities we've never heard of, and who are willing to work for a few dollars a day. With the continued and seemingly unstoppable worldwide penetration of technology and telework, this represents some serious competition for North American jobs, and ought to be a wake up call to all of us.

The Gartner Group has estimated over 137 million global teleworkers. It's not surprising that the number-one reason people come to most telework sites is to look for telework jobs. This growth will mushroom as companies learn more about telework benefits and its highly advantageous return on investment, and the proliferation and use of online job boards and virtual hiring.

Some countries see telework and a key to economic development and prosperity and as a way to help them compete globally for the best workers. As outlined in the section on jobs and telework, telework can help organizations hire better, cheaper and more responsive talent from anywhere without fewer relocation, accommodation or labour problems. This works both ways. Increasingly, North American firms engage foreign teleworkers who work from other countries.

This new global workforce will spawn many new issues and problems that we will all have to deal with. For example, there will be immigration and cross-border; legal and employer-employee issues. In addition, we will need to look at many issues including social, cultural, health and 'brain drain' issues. With respect to the latter, unless we recognize this and take appropriate action, many of our own workers will lose their jobs to global teleworkers. On a more positive note, by offering telework to their own employees, Canadian companies can avoid problems, save money and become more efficient.

Relevant articles & information
	Cross border telecommuting: IT Business Canada: Telecommuting brings big benefits to companies, staff
	April 05: Gartner Group Paper: Teleworking: The Quiet Revolution (2005) "Compared with the major U.S. teleworking states, Canada has maintained a relatively cautious approach to this trend despite a similarity to the United States with regard to traffic congestion problems in major cities. According to Canadian teleworking studies, a large gulf remains between the desire of employees to telework and their ability to do so. But as Table 3 shows, while starting from a relatively low base, the growth for teleworking in Canada to 2008 mirrors the worldwide trend — with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.6 percent for those teleworking at least one day a month and a CAGR of 8 percent for those teleworking one day a week.  While the trend in Canada is not as widespread, those Canadians who do telework tend to do so for a greater proportion of their working week compared with those teleworking in the United States and parts of Western Europe."
	Using offshore teleworkers ethical says NYC Bar Association
	Tax Court of Canada Rules that Tuition Credit for “Commuting” or telecommuting does not apply to online courses
	Considerations and Impacts of Teleworking outside Canada - Policy paper written by the Canadian Federal Treasury Board Secretariat
	Indians breaking new ground on job front
	US loses thousands of jobs monthly as new wave of outsourcing benefits foreign countries. Telecommuting cited as a vulnerability-producing job attribute
	UC Berkeley study: "Ferocious new wave of outsourcing of white-collar jobs sweeping the US". As many as 14 million white-collar, office jobs at risk. India, China, East Asia, Russia, Israel, and Ireland top outsourcing destinations
	Geographical ambivalence - While every manager will have to address the work at home issues, the geographical ambivalence of work has implications far larger than telecommuting. It is fueling the growing trend towards offshore outsourcing
	The trend of moving as much work as possible to countries with the lowest wages growing with telework
	Virtual call centers fight to keep jobs in the US
	Telework and Globalisation
	Resource for people overseas