What"s the Question?

Bank of America launches telecommuting program

By Joe Rauch

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Atlanta Business Chronicle

updated 4:00 a.m. ET, Wed., July. 9, 2008

Bank of America has a new request for some local employees: Stay home.

The metro area's third-largest bank, and the nation's biggest, is introducing a sweeping telecommuting initiative designed to allow employees to work without a regular office.

Dubbed "My Work," the voluntary program allows qualifying Bank of America employees to forfeit their office or cubicle space, and instead work "wherever, however," said bank spokesman Lawrence Grayson.

Those employees will have access to shared office space and other Bank of America facilities, but are otherwise detached from the company.

The program has existed since 2004, but it isn't pervasive throughout the bank, only gaining steam among the bank's employees within the last year -- as gas prices have soared and commute times continue to worsen across the country.

Only 5,500 of Bank of America's 157,000 employees are currently enrolled in the program. It has remained largely confined to the bank's Charlotte, N.C., employees, where the bank has 2,000 employees -- the most of any market -- that use the program.

Metro Atlanta is the first Bank of America market outside Charlotte where My Work is being rolled out across the bank's business lines with widespread eligibility.

As many as 1,000 local employees are eligible for the program, and 172 have elected to participate.

Only specific employees are eligible -- back-office processors and tellers, for example, cannot use the program while lenders and those who deal with clients generally qualify. Those who can enroll require a manager's approval to do so.

The program is coming to the forefront as a souring economy is impacting both the bank and its employees.

Internal interest in My Work increased last year, Grayson said, in part because of the economy, with particular interest from Atlanta-area employees.

"As a company, we foster open dialogue with our associates, and this is certainly an area in which they have expressed their preferences," said Milton Jones, Bank of America's Georgia Market president and head of My Work's local rollout.

Both the bank's employees and business have been pinched by the economy.

In a city notorious for long commutes, Atlantans' wallets have been emptied by skyrocketing gas prices, which now average $3.998 per gallon of regular unleaded in Georgia, according to AAA's July 1 Daily Fuel Gauge Report.

As the country's largest bank, Bank of America has been hit by the housing downturn and credit crisis.

In first-quarter 2008, the bank's net income was cut in half -- from $3 billion in first-quarter 2007 to

$1.2 billion during the same period this year -- because of rising loan losses.

The program would allow more employees fewer fill-ups at the pump, and may factor into the bank's Atlanta real estate holdings, since it could reduce office space.

As Atlanta Business Chronicle first reported June 9, Bank of America is re-evaluating its Atlanta real estate holdings, including its local headquarters at Bank of America Plaza in Midtown, the city's largest office building.

Jones declined to discuss how the new program will impact the bank.

But Grayson said real estate cost savings are not a primary motivator for the program.

The program may force the bank to expand its local office footprint.

Part of the My Work rollout includes opening satellite offices around the city for those employees to use, which will add to the bank's Atlanta presence.

Those yet-to-be-opened satellite sites will be positioned near MARTA and main traffic arteries to speed access for My Work employees.

Bank of America is not alone in the push for more telecommuters.

The Clean Air Campaign, a local nonprofit focused on reducing traffic congestion and improving air quality, estimates 10 percent of metro Atlantans telecommute at least once a week.

Gov. Sonny Perdue wants 6,000 state employees to telecommute by 2010. Georgia also offers a corporate tax credit for companies that enact telecommuting programs, and are worth as much as $20,000.

But the program isn't without pitfalls, according to organizational experts.

Telecommuting can increase feelings of detachment and toughen communication between managers and employees, according to Deborah Butler, a Georgia State University assistant professor who specializes in organizational management and behavior.

"There is no cookie-cutter solution," she said.

"But companies have to pay attention and address it in a meaningful way."

'My Work'

Bank of America is introducing a comprehensive telecommuting program for Atlanta employees, the first outside Charlotte to use it.

Qualifying employees sacrifice their office space for full-time freedom to work wherever they see fit.

Employees requested the program be implemented more broadly because of rising gas prices and worsening commutes. So far, 172 employees have signed up locally; about 1,000 are eligible.

Souce: Bank of America

© 2007 Atlanta Business Chronicle

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25598519/

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NEC TO LET 90% OF WHITE-COLLAR STAFF TELECOMMUTE

Monday, June 30, 2008; Posted: 11:19 PM
  
TOKYO, Jul 01, 2008 -- NEC Corp. (TSE:6701) will give nearly all its white-collar employees the option of working from home starting Tuesday, becoming the latest Japanese electronics company to allow telecommuting.

Some 20,000 employees -- 90 per cent of NEC's work force, excluding new hires and factory staff -- will be able to telecommute one day a week with their supervisors' approval. The at-home workers will link up to company computers and servers over the Internet and will have to check in with their bosses via webcam at the start and end of the workday.

To lower the risk of information leaks, the telecommuters will get computers stripped of data storage capabilities. State-of-the art encryption technology will keep data as safe as if it were being transmitted over a proprietary line.

NEC has been experimenting with telecommuting since July 2006. More than 70 per cent of workers participating in the trials responded that working at home improved their productivity, prompting the firm to implement a full-fledged program.

The trend toward telecommuting has been sweeping the electronics industry. IBM Japan Ltd. introduced the option in 2001. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. (TSE:6752) did the same for 30,000 employees in April 2007 and now has around 3,000 working from home.