A Partnership with ARO Saves You More, as it Improves Profitability through High Productivity

From Peter Drucker's introduction of Management-By-Objectives in the mid-1950's, to Six Sigma, popularized by General Electric's Jack Welch in the 1990's, setting and measuring goals has long been held as the key to good management; regardless of whether staff are visible or working off-site.

Below is a condensed list of the advantages delivered to ARO every day by our network of distributed professionals. Those savings and benefits are in-turn, reaped by our client/partners. This abbreviated list is part of a larger one developed (and expanded over the years) by John M. H. Edwards: Founder and Executive of the TeleworkNetwork. Please note that Mr. Edwards uses the term "telework”, which perfectly describes the environment of the distributed working professional. When you encounter John’s terminology, we hope you’ll also see ours.

The Distributed Workforce Reduces Employee Attrition

• Losing a valued employee can cost an employer $10,000 to $30,000.
• Recruiting and training a new hire costs thousands.
• 46% of companies that allow telework say it has reduced attrition.
• 95% of employers say telework has a high impact on employee retention.

The Distributed Worker Has Fewer Unscheduled Absences, Higher Work Attendance

• 78% of employees who call in sick, really aren't. They do so because of family issues, personal needs, and stress.
• Unscheduled absences cost employer's $1,800/employee per year; that adds up to $300 billion/yr for U.S. companies.
• The American Management Association, which relies on a telework program, realizes a 63% reduction in unscheduled absences.
• Teleworkers typically continue to work when they're sick (without infecting others).
• Teleworkers return to work more quickly following surgery or medical issues.

Distributed Workers Deliver Higher Productivity Levels Than Centralized Workers

• Best Buy, British Telecom, Dow Chemical and many others show that teleworkers are 35-40% more productive.
• Over two-thirds of employers report increased productivity among their telecommuters.
• Sun Microsystems' telework program discovered that employees spend 60% of the time they would have spent commuting doing work for the company instead.
• AT&T teleworkers spend five extra hours a week working compared to their fellow employees who work at their AT&T office.
• JDEdwards teleworkers are 20-25% more productive than their office-based colleagues
• American Express workers produced 43% more than their office-based colleagues
• Compaq increased productivity 15% - 45%

Distributed Employee Networks Save Their Employers a Great Deal of Money

• Nearly six out of ten employers identify cost savings as a significant benefit to telecommuting.
• The workers at one prominent Call Center that uses 100% teleworkers close 30% more sales than traditional “bricks and mortar” agents the year before. Customer complaints decreased by 90%, and employee turnover decreased by 88%.
• IBM slashed real estate costs by $50 million through its telework program.
• Dow Chemical and Nortel save over 30% on non-real estate costs.
• Sun Microsystems saves $68 million a year in real estate costs.
• Average real estate savings with full-time telework is $10,000 per employee per year.
• McKesson saves over $2 million annually with its telework program.

Harnessing Distributed Workers Exponentially Expands the Talent Pool

• Over 40% of employers are feeling the labor pinch. It will only worsen as Baby Boomers retire.
• Reduces geographic boundaries.
• Provides access to disabled workers.
• Offers alternatives that would have otherwise keep parents and senior caregivers out of the workforce.
• Over 70% of employees say that the ability to telecommute is now, or soon will be somewhat to extremely important in choosing their next job.

A Distributed Workforce Reduces Staffing Redundancies and Offers Quick Scale-up and Scale-down Options

• Having access to a flexible at-home workforce allows many different industries to add and reduce staff quickly as needed.
• The need to overstaff, just in case, is greatly reduced.
• 24/7 worldwide coverage is easier to staff with home-based workers.

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