Instructive studies appear periodically on employer trends, higher gas prices, analysis of effective telecommuting and compressed schedule initiatives, trip reduction strategies and R&C communications. A selection of recent pieces is highlighted and archived in this section.

Rupert & Company
Soaring Cost of Fuel Drives Flexible Work Schedules

HR executives at major U.S. companies are reluctant to adopt the compressed work week even in the face of soaring fuel costs for their employees’ daily trips to the office, a new survey shows. This view contrasts with widely reported adoption of these schedules in the public sector.

Rupert & Company, a Washington-based consulting firm, surveyed 39 HR executives to arrive at the results.  Half represent large companies employing from 5,000 - 100,000 employees in finance and banking, healthcare, telecommunications, computer services and pharmaceuticals.

Rising gas prices are fueling the rapid growth of demand for a 4-day work week and telecommuting. Many government offices, universities and small businesses have been quick to respond with various plans.  Yet the corporate sector has been much slower to respond, the survey documents.

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Undress 4 Success
Work-At-Home Programs Could Reduce Gulf Oil Imports by Almost 75%

We covered the pros and cons of telework in an earlier post, but we’ve developed a telecommuting model which shows that if the 40% of U.S. workers that studies show could work from home actually did, the U.S. could reduce Gulf Oil imports by 74%, and reduce gas consumption by 11.5 billion gallons a year. Collectively the 50 million new teleworkers would save consumers $52 billion and reduce greenhouse gases by 101 million tons. If those 40% worked from home half the time—roughly the national average for existing teleworkers—the savings would be $40 billion and 78 million tons of CO₂.

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Media across the country have chronicled the rise of gas prices, growing employee demand for telecommuting and compressed workweeks, and local employer responses. A selection of recent articles is featured and archived here. (All links will open in a new window.)

August 13, 2008 - TGIT: 17,000 state workers move to four-day weeks
Carolyn Dennis, mother of a 5-year-old, initially wasn't too keen on Utah's decision to move her to a four-day workweek. Dennis and 17,000 other state employees this month began working four 10-hour days per week rather than five eight-hour days. (CNN.com)

August 12, 2008 - Four-day workweek gets A+ at college
Ask just about any college student, and they'll tell you they'd jump through hoops to avoid taking a class that meets Fridays.  So, it was welcome news to students when Brevard Community College in Cocoa, Florida, decided to experiment with a four-day workweek. (CNN.com)

August 12, 2008 - Employers work to ease commuting costs to offset gas prices
High gas prices have done more than suck away consumers' cash. They also have led many bosses to approve four-day workweeks, telecommuting options, flexible schedules and mass-transit subsidies. Call it sticker shock. (AZCentral.com)

July 28, 2008 - High Gas Prices: A Plus for Employers
All the talk about pain at the pump misses an important point: High gas prices can work to a company’s benefit, if the company uses them as an opportunity to initiate or expand flexible work arrangements such as a compressed work week or telecommuting. (Harvard Business Publishing)

July 24, 2008 - Telecommuting: the way of the future
Telecommuting - It should be a very credible answer to many of today's woes. If it weren't for so many outdated attitudes in management circles, we'd have a lot more of it. (OakvilleToday.ca)

July 23, 2008 - Commuters going without to get to work
Every day, Jennifer Bonchak commutes 64 miles round trip from her home in Raleigh, North Carolina to her job at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. As gas costs go up, Bonchak, like many American workers, is seeing her paycheck go right into her gas tank ... so she can get to work. (CNN.com & CareerBuilder.com)

July 23, 2008 - Telecommuting: Who Should Set Strategy?
More workers are telecommuting, and businesses may increase remote work even more in the near future. If that happens, shouldn't IT play a central role in putting together a plan? (CIOInsight.com)

July 19, 2008 - Four-day workweek a good first step
Everybody loves a three-day weekend. Fishing, hunting, relaxing by the pool, working in the yard, there are so many ways to enjoy that extra day. (DesotoTimes.com)

July 14, 2008 - A Shift in the Workweek
Beth Vessey lives 36 miles from her Howard County government job in Ellicott City. And although her Toyota Camry gets a healthy 29 miles to the gallon, commuting four days a week instead of five sounds appealing. (BaltimoreSun.com)

July 14, 2008 - Cutting the cost of commuting
With gas prices jacking up the cost of the daily commute, some Michigan employers are helping workers cut their burdensome fuel bills. (DetroitNews.com)

July 14, 2008 - Alternative scheduling a hit at Clarksburg FBI center
Alternative work schedules are new to some government agencies but they're standard operating procedure at the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division. (Charleston Daily Mail)

July 13, 2008 - As gas costs keep rising, look at ways to fight back
With gas prices hovering above $4.50 per gallon and with the growing likelihood that those prices may rise to $7 or more in the near future, the time has come for America to declare war. (SignOnSanDiego.com)

June 23, 2008 - Gas Price Crisis Could Revolutionize U.S. Workplace
Soaring gas prices top economic and political agendas, so it’s natural that they also are a topic of conversation at the Society for Human Resource Management Annual Conference & Exposition in Chicago. (Workforce Management)

June 14, 2008 - Fuel for thought: Gas prices changing commuters' attitudes
If gas prices continue their sustained gallop upward, many San Diegans will go the way of the Finns and the French. Europeans already pay double or even triple what Americans fork over for gas. (SignOnSanDiego.com)

June 11, 2008 - Flexible Work Gains Attention of Lawmakers
The U.S. is behind the majority of developed nations when it comes to having statutes in place to allow for flexible work arrangements. Of the 21 “high income” countries examined in a recent study, the U.S. finished last. 
(Workforce Management)

June 10, 2008 - High gas prices have little impact on telecommuting
John Abbott works for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency in St. Paul. He lives about 90 miles away in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. And when he comes in to St. Paul, he usually drives a thirsty minivan. But he only has to make the three-hour round-trip drive once a week. Abbott has been telecommuting for about eight years. (Minnesota Public Radio)

June 8, 2008 - Employers offer workers gas-saving options
Brent Cranfield can thank his boss for saving him money at the pump.  With gas prices so high, Georgia House Speaker
Glenn Richardson is letting staffers telecommute one day a week this summer. (KnoxNews.com)