InnoVisions Canada Telework News

Sept 30	Dispatch from D.C., Part 1 -- Telework gains strong support from some pretty powerful people. Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) issues formal call to the Bush administration to see telework as an opportunity to reduce the country's dependence on foreign oil; and to the Department of Homeland Security to fashion telework into its facilities planning
Sept 30	TOKYO � NTT Communications Corp plans to offer support services for "stay-at-home" workers utilizing its Internet technology, company officials said Monday
Sept 30	Software Productivity Consortium: Despite gains in technology the two biggest barriers to widespread telecommuting are the lack of pervasive broadband options, particularly in residential areas, and the unwillingness of many US agencies to take new telecommuting mandates seriously
Sept 30	How will Kyoto change our lives? Canada's Pollution Probe urges employers to allow staff to work at home one or two days a week to reduce car use, especially on smoggy days. Pollution Probe reports survey results that show 55% of Canadians would like to "telework"
Sept 28	Buckle Up To Telecommute -- Amidst the real estate reports in this issue of Washington Techway and the local election campaigns focusing on the transportation crisis, it's time to ponder the perennial promise of teleworking
Sept 27	Number of telecommuters in Virginia increases slowly -- Officials are optimistic that employees will adopt at-home work strategy
Sept 26	Alcatel - one of the world leaders in broadband - launches major website dedicated to telework in France, on the occasion of the 9th European Assembly on Telework, held in Paris from September 25 - 27, 2002
Sept 26	REMINDER/ ITAC Members Conference, Thurs. Sept. 26, St. Bart's and Waldorf-Astoria, New York City
Sept 25	Working Mother Magazine names DuPont as Best in Class for its flexible work & work life benefits. Aside from being offered other flexible work arrangements, some 12,000 data lines have been installed in employees' homes for regular telecommuting use. This represents 30% of DuPont's workforce
Sept 24	American Association of Retired People survey finds older workers value work flexibility such as telecommuting
Sept 23	Two companies from the New York region win award for "Best Companies for Workers over 50." They are Manhattan-based New York Life Insurance Co. and Adecco Employment Services Inc. of Melville. They made the list because of their flexibility of hours, telecommuting and work-from-home options, retirement benefits, as well as the overall treatment of workers
Sept 23	The Society for Human Resource Management, which represents 170,000 HR professionals, says changing demographics and a "24/7" economy and changing demographics is forcing U.S. companies to offer work-life benefits such as telecommuting, flextime, adoption assistance and dependent care
Sept 23	The EPA's Commuter Choice aims to reduce pollution while providing cash incentives. For example, one of the benefits provides cash payments for workers to give up free parking or a significant telecommuting program.
Sept 20	New York Times Job Market Roundtable: The success of work-life initiatives depends on corporate culture. Even for companies who establish programs such as telecommuting etc, their ultimate success of companies depends upon employees' perceptions that it is okay to avail themselves of these initiatives without feeling they will fall off the company's fast-track to promotion
Sept 20	Telework Story: Mississauga teleworker wouldn't give up telework for any gold in the world
Sept 20	Fort Detrick water restrictions continue indefinitely - Telecommuting as the mission allows to save the post's water supply
Sept 20	Georgia Republican gubernatorial hopeful Sonny Perdue a big proponent of telecommuting. Goal is to identify 25,000 Atlanta state jobs for telecommuting
Sept 20	Perks for regular workers still in style - Despite widespread pay freezes and cutbacks in the last year, companies bidding for talent were willing to offer flexible work schedules, telecommuting benefits, extra vacation time and even the occasional bonus
Sept 19	Computing Canada: I'm Not Wearing Any Pants - Telecommuting is more feasible than ever, but still a vaguely exotic idea to many firms
Sept 19	HP sponsored survey recognizes National Work from Home Week (Oct. 6-12) reveals top distractions for telecommuters. Here are some of the findings: "family needs" and "personal chores and errands (60% of respondents); unexpected assignments (21%); meetings (10%); problems with office equipment (6%) and the television (4%)
Sept 19	BBC News: Are you fed up Are you fed up with battling through traffic to get to work? Well there is another option. Around 7 million people in the UK spend part of their working week at home, and it's estimated that by 2003 that figure will have risen to 8.3 million
Sept 19	San Jose's The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has declared Thursday a Spare The Air Day. The group is asking the public to voluntarily reduce activities that produce air pollution, especially driving. Taking public transit, carpooling, or telecommuting are all great ways to reduce trips and limit the buildup of ozone
Sept 18	CIO Magazine: "Telecomputing", as a medium of human communication, will rank right up there with the invention of the alphabet, the printing press, the telephone, the television and the PC itself, according to some futurists
Sept 18	San Francisco's bid for the 2012 summer olympics puts Bay Area in race for transit funds. With an expected 10,000 athletes, 5,000 coaches and officials, and more than 1,000,000 spectators will visit the host city during the 2-week games. Extensive telecommuting for workers is part of the plan to reduce traffic congestion and increase mobility for visitors and residents during the games
Sept 18	Don't trust politicians? -- With employers, employees and governments appearing anxious to increase the use telecommuting, shouldn't we be increasing funding to facilitate telecommuting rather than spend it on old-fashioned solutions like adding more roads?
Sept 17	Perplexing decision to cut US Patent Office telework program makes little sense
Sept 17	Employers growing flex time, telecommuting. Almost all of the 1,000 companies recently surveyed by the Alliance for Work/Life Professionals reported they were either maintaining or increasing spending on at least one "soft" benefit such as flexible scheduling or an on-site personal service
Sept 16	Battle to survive on home front -- New technology promises freedom from the office workstation, with employees able to "tele-work" from home, remotely tapping into central computers. But as British local councils, in particular, embrace teleworking, is the experiment working for the employees?
Sept 16	Home-office maven offers excellent pointers on teleworking. The Miami Herald reviews Jeff Zbar's latest book on teleworking and gives it the thumbs up. I am not surprised -- I am currently reading the book and find it a wonderfully comprehensive yet easy read
Sept 16	Working moms, flex-time and telecommuting are all a good match
Sept 12	Something stinks at the Department of Ecology -- literally. Face masks and telecommuting help Olympia government workers overcome foul office air
Sept 11	Technology to the rescue: Telecommuting an unexpected resource to many American businesses as a result of the terrorist attack upon the World Trade Center. Moody's Investor Services is a good example of how a traditional corporation can adopt a decentralized way of doing business
Sept 11	Going totally VO - AT&T's telework director offers a peek into his virtual life
Sept 10	Bob Fortier no longer flies to Washington, D.C., on business as he used to, several times a year, prior to last Sept. 11
Sept 10	As businesses go from an 'under-one-roof' workplace culture to a multi-site, "telework way" of conducting business, they still need ability to instantly communicate with employees and facilitate worker-to-worker contact in the same way as if everyone was still together
Sept 10	Making `Family-Friendly' More Than A Slogan -- Many companies may already have policies on the books for part-time hours, telecommuting, etc, but employees fear being penalized
Sept 9	Amendment to UK Employment Bill to give British parents with young or disabled children the right to request a telework arrangements. Employers must respond to the request within two weeks
Sept 6	Australia's National Bank commended for flexible work practices including the development of a formal telecommuting policy
Sept 6	CIO Magazine: The Architecture of Home-Work: From Computer Armoires to Digital Walls
Sept 5	New York (Ontario) mother with a baby and a sick child prays for telework
Sept 4	Teleworking is becoming an increasing feature of Irish business life
Sept 3	Telecommuting an increasingly popular way for disabled to "get to work"
Sept 2	Telework, done right, is almost a poster child for the triple bottom line: it offers a number of economic, social, and environmental benefits which are documented, and challenged, in detail elsewhere. However there are some counterintuitive and unexpected environmental nuances
Sept 2	Big Brother takes a telesupervisory job -- teleworkers might have added reason to get out of their pyjamas and comb their hair as experimental monitoring technology now allows employers to capture photo images of employees in their home offices. However just because such monitoring can be done does not mean it should be done say researchers from the University of Toronto and Queen's University
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