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Telework is Home Based Work

Home based work is not a new concept. Two hundred years ago, ninety-eight percent of the citizens of the United States worked successfully from home. The United States then entered the Industrial Revolution. People relocated to cities to work in the factories. The policies, business models, and work habits that are used today evolved from the needs of factories that manufactured products. In order to be successful in doing "Information Age" technical Telework, MDS has had to reconsider existing business practices and work habits.

We found the practices and habits developed for 19th and 20th Century manufacturing to be out of alignment with the needs of a 21st Century work force. The majority of U.S. citizens are no longer employed in the manufacture of products. In the US 2000 Census, over eighty percent of US citizens made their living in service industries. It has been estimated that more than forty percent of US workers could Telework. Currently the systems do not exist for this to happen. It is not easy for a nation that has a two hundred year history of success with policies and practices to adopt new ways.

As a business, MDS has been successful because we did not consider home based work as a new concept. We looked to see how our forefathers were successful. We studied their methods and implemented them in to today's systems. We learned that there are challenges that have to be considered in Telework. Visit the Seven Telework Challenges article listed in the Telework Menu to see these challenges.

Properly instituted Telework can simultaneously benefit workers, business, and society. Companies that successfully transition to Telework will be the dominate companies in the 21st Century.