Sunday, March 07, 1999
SMALL BUSINESS-DIARY
Working from home is a trend
Companies expect telecommuting to grow at a brisk pace in the years to come, according to a recent survey from Management Recruiters International Inc., the world's largest search and recruitment organization.
Of 1,500 executives polled by the Cleveland-based subsidiary of CDI Corp., 41 percent acknowledged that some of their employees telecommute and 37.5 percent said they expected that percentage to grow. Only five percent said the number of employees who telecommute would shrink.
Executives in charge of sales and marketing told MRI that fully 56 percent of their staff work from home offices.
“Telecommuting has forever changed the nature of the American workplace,” said Allen Salikof, MRI President and chief executive officer. “Millions of American workers can now conduct their business outside of the office. All it takes is a computer, e-mail, fax and phone.”
The company, which places 34,000 people in jobs annually, also found that hiring levels for executive, managerial and professional positions will continue to expand through 1999 with 53 percent of 3,800 executives surveyed indicating that mid- to upper-management and professional staffing will increase next year.
Small firms grow
most in Midwest
Business was booming in the Midwest in 1999, Padgett Business Services found in its annual survey of more than 3,000 clients.
Small business revenues in the Midwest outpaced every other region in both the retail and service sectors with a 9 percent increase in retail sales and 16.5 percent increase in service sales. The boost brought employees a 7.8 percent year-to-year increase in wages, the highest in the country, according to the survey. Padgett clients are typically in service or retail industries and have fewer than 20 employees.
Non-payroll-related expenses grew at a 7.3 percent rate and the increase in the cost of goods sold was the second lowest region in the country, about 6.6 percent.
“Clearly, this year of record stock market gains and a thriving economy made prosperity a reality across the board,” said Padgett Chairman Dan Sautner.
The Padgett client base represents more than $1.5 billion in annual sales.
Business bookshelf
From Work as a Spiritual Practice: A Practical Buddhist Approach to Inner Growth and Satisfaction on the Job (Broadway Books; $25): “If you are the average American, your commute is 40 minutes each way. Nearly an hour and a half of your life, five days a week, 49 weeks a year. Add up all that time in the course of 45-year work life it comes to 16,538 hours. That's nearly two full years of our life, to and from work.”
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