When an HR professional or recruitment firm hires an employee, it is usually implied that the new hire is starting work in an office setting. However, office work is slowly moving away from becoming the norm due to different reasons.

One of the reasons would have to be the advances in technology, though it needs to be pointed out that it also comes with consequences. There are a lot of cars on the road to take you wherever you need to go, but that also means heavier traffic jams, especially during rush hours when people commute to work.

It is also because of technology, though, that you can now do telecommuting, which is a model of work that allows employees to do their job outside the office.

This trend that started out in 1970 has since made work a lot easier to manage for many employees. They didn’t have to spend their days and nights on the road due to traffic jams, they can save their commuting budget or use for something else, or even find the right place to work where they can be most productive.

For companies, telecommuting is also beneficial because it cuts costs from renting or buying office spaces and other fees that accompany such. When their employees are more comfortable with where they are doing work, they yield out better results that can help with company growth.

Out-of-office work usually denotes that an employee is a freelance worker or someone who’s been contractually obligated to work for just a specific time or project with a company because they usually do not work in the office of the company that hired their services.

However, there are a lot of organizations nowadays that are open to implementing telecommuting even with their regular workers. Some of the notable names include Dell, Volkswagen Group, Wells Fargo, Colgate-Palmolive, Hilton, Ernst & Young, Walgreens, General Electric, and 3M.

As there are several gains to implementing telecommuting in your enterprise, so do the pitfalls that you need to consider. In addition, thorough preparation is required if you want to put this idea forward to the company executives and have it approved. This infographic can help you determine if telecommuting is right for your business.