American Rural Teleworkers:
Great Employees, Lower Costs
http://lone-eagles.com/ruralteleworkers.htm
In the old days, workers worked in cubicles to allow for face-to-face interactions, but as we became more interconnected with larger numbers of peers, and more mobile, the skills to sustain virtual relationships and exercise information retrieval, synthesis and self-publishing skills, have become the ideal employee skill-set.
There is global talent shortage looming, particularly in the Information Technology field.
Talented workers are demanding lifestyle flexibility as the prime condition for their employment. From their perspective, the ability to live and work anywhere and to set their own work schedules is priceless.
Telework Goes Mainstream
Conservative IBM announced 82% of their employees will work from home, saving a billion a year (40% of previous overhead expenses.) You can bet their online collaboration skills have achieved a significant level of sophistication globally with ongoing online education and interaction.
Jet Blue hired 4000 home-workers; motivated employees who get to work from home in return for exceeding work quality measures. And the list of similar companies is growing rapidly.
The GSA - Government Service Agency will soon announce a $2 billion, ten year program to create more federal teleworkers. A congressional mandate for more federal teleworks has been in place for years, but now budget pressures are bringing them into reality. Saving 40% by not having to house workers is powerfully attractive as quality control methodologies are being resolved.
The Growth Advantages of Onshoring with Rural Teleworkers
There have been many reports of a backlash from offshore call centers where the accents are unintelligible and the services lacking in quality. Twice as many failed service calls result from offshore call centers VS onshore call centers due to cultural disparity.
If developing the skills of your employees is the future, American Rural Teleworkers offer many significant advantages. The advantages begin with 40% less overhead due to workers providing their own home-based work place. Rural teleworkers on the average have a stronger work ethic, higher education level, demonstrate far less turnover and will work for lower wages than urban counterparts. In addition they offer cultural symmetry and superior language skills. Corporations achieve status by supporting American rural heartland communities and can further develop the skills and efficiencies of their employees.
Rural Teleworker Advantages
40% less cost (no overhead) plus
Lower average wages
Higher Education Level
Stronger work ethic
Far Less Turnover
Greater Loyalty,
English Speaking,
Cultural Symmetry
Corporate status supporting Heartland America by keeping jobs in America
Software Streamlines Teleworker Training, Management, and Quality Control
Oracle has announced a software program for corporations providing training for "remote home agents" including performance measures and quality controls. You can view and listen to the Webcast “Think Outside the Call Center Cubicle: Utilize At-Home Agents to Expand Your Workforce” http://w.on24.com/r.htm?e=35929&s=1&k=A42D731C8E2D751BA54F73F21F550C20
Telework Management Companies and Citizen Skills Databases are emerging to match talented home agents with corporations seeking great employees at lower cost. Example: Anyone can learn how to become a remote home agent at Oracle’s http://contractxchange.com
The “Win-Win” Bottom Line Corporate Strategy – Leveraging Your Employees Full Potential
The above emerging trends are indisputable and fundamental to building the sustainable business models of the future. Companies which empower their employees to fulfill their maximum potential will share in their successes and retain their talents. Talented employees will be attracted to the companies offering best growth and self-development opportunities. Win-Win scenarios will define the successful corporate employee relationships of the future.
Case Study and a Look at the Future
Micro-Multi-Nationals
Home-based workers using the new tools are able to quickly establish international partners and literally set up micro-multi-national corporations from a home computer. The potential productivity of properly training individuals has not yet reached an upper limit as the tools are dramatically improving at an accelerated rate.
Case Study: Hiring American Rural Teleworkers
Tensleep, Wyoming, Pop. 350, has fiber optics to every home, church, and bar in the community. Over 20% of the locals work via Internet as professionals who brought this capability with them in their desire for a rural lifestyle. And many others are learning how they too can enjoy sustainable flextime employment as remote home agents, also called teleworkers. Eleutian, www.eleutian.com is training English speakers to be English teachers via fiber optics servicing the $100 billion/year English instruction market in Asia. $15/hour jobs using mainly self-paced multimedia instructional systems minimize training time and produce quality controls and assurances.
Shifting to a Service and Knowledge Economy
In developed countries, we’re experiencing the largest labor shift in human history, from an industrial economy to a service and knowledge economy. How we receive instructional services with ideal timeliness, efficiency and lowest cost, to meet our individual and immediate needs, will define successful services in the future.
Free web tools has proved to be a successful business strategy through viral marketing (virtual word-of-mouth) attracting tens of millions within months to peer-sharing sites like http://MySpace.com and http://Youtube.com , resulting in sales of 2 year old companies for 1.6 billion to 2.6 billion for http://Skype.com
Companies and organizations can capitalize on the desire and ability of individuals to make a major impact on world conditions by making it easier for them to do so, and in sharing in the glory of their accomplishments. By learning how to share what we know by contributing to peer networks - we can keep each other up to the same instant of progress and save valuable time.
Positioning Your Business in a Web 2.0 World
The Internet has fueled a global explosion of entrepreneurial innovation from which we can learn what works and where to begin ourselves. Evolution of ideas and sharing information has been accelerated by the open source and open knowledge movements.
While the first billion online were from developed countries, the next several billions will be from developing countries.
Basic Access to Essential Information Services
Broadband infrastructure will soon carry literally all media; TV, phone, Internet and whatever other medias are soon to evolve. How well we all learn to use the most beneficial social and economic applications will decide our corporate survivability and ability to compete in a global marketplace amid a world of accelerating change largely fueled by communications and information technology innovations. The U.S. is 25th in the world in broadband penetration.
Ecommerce Update from Economist Magazine
The world Internet population will hit two billion by 2011, mostly from developing countries such as India, Brazil, Russia, Indonesia and China. In 2007, the number of Chinese with broadband will equal the number of Americans, 79 million. Business to consumer online sales will grow from $172 Billion in 2005 to $329 Billion in 2010, 14%/yr. European online shopping will grow from 100m to 174m and average yearly internet retail spending will grow from around $1,250 to $1,800/year.
By 2010, European marketers will spend $88 billion on emarketing. Mobile commerce via cell phones will be worth $88 billion by 2009. Europeans will make 28 million mobile transactions a year by 2009, fuelled by growing volumes of mobile micropayments.
From a profit-oriented standpoint, fundamentally new dynamics and opportunities have emerged:
Follow the Money
95% of the global market exists outside the U.S and the prospects of billions of new consumers has caused many companies to focus on doing business outside the U.S. Half the global population is under the age of 20. Half the global population lives on less than $2 a day. But within five years, cell phones more powerful than PC’s coupled with WiMax or similar wide area wireless networks will allow billions to interact with self-directed distance learning tools, and engage directly in the global economy. Workable language translation software will soon resolve basic language barriers. The new gold rush in very literal terms will be mining raw human potential worldwide.
Source: A Review of the Open Educational Resources Movement (OER) Achievements, Challenges, and New Opportunities
http://www.oerderves.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/03/a-review-of-the-open-educational-resources-oer-movement_final.pdf Start at page 31.
The New Philanthropy and Social Entrepreneurship
Mohammed Yunus and the Grameen Bank have been awarded the Nobel prize for their third world micro-loans innovations which allow people to pull themselves from poverty while making a profit for the loan bank. Their new model has created a well-spring of interest in how positive global change can become good business and grow new markets rapidly. 30,000 cellphones in one project allowed their owners to create sustainable businesses selling services via their single cellphones.
Doing Well by Doing Good
Green Businesses which address support for global environmental issues as good business practice are doing well by doing good as the transparency of businesses demonstrating social responsibility has won the loyalty of a growing base of environmentally concerned consumers.
The Extensibility of the Individual
Repeatedly we’re hearing stories about one or two individuals making a huge impact on the lives of thousand or millions of others by sharing their innovations online. Online instructional resources created by individuals can become essential learning tools for an almost unlimited number of persons.
Companies and organizations can capitalize on the desire and ability of individuals to make a major impact on world conditions by making it easier for them to do so, and in sharing in the glory of their accomplishments.
The Power of All of US
No one can keep current on their own anymore. There is too much going on, but by sharing what we know and contributing to peer networks we can keep each other up to the same instant of progress. We have found a new interdependency that can buy us back the time in our days to live life and not be continuously overwhelmed. Cisco coined the term “coopetition” for the corporate world.
Story-MarketingAt http://kiva.com , one of many peer-banking sites, one can loan $25 to a baker in Afghanistan allowing him to employ four people and open a new bakery – to the benefit of all concerned, including the person that loaned the $25. As 2-way video and language translation becomes more common, making a difference in the lives of others can quickly become both gratifying and intensely motivating. Consumer loyalty to companies who really care enough to lead with such extensibility programs can expect to do better than their non-attentive competitors. The power of a good story (story-marketing), with good people making a positive difference, is easier to realize than ever before with today’s connectivity of people and ideas.