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Week to encourage
working from home
The Federal Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is to convene Australia’s first National Telework Week later this year to promote the benefits and advantages of working from home.
National Minister for the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy said the opportunities presented by increased telework were exciting for both employers and employees.
“An increase in telework can lead to benefits across the economy and community, from big business through to individual workers and families as well as the environment,” Senator Conroy said.
| New move to increase ‘teleworking’ |
“These benefits include cost-savings and productivity gains, increased workforce flexibility, expanded supply of skilled labour, reduced impact on the environment, reduced stress from traffic congestion and increased time available to spend with family and the community.”
He said for the next generation of employers and workers, IT connectivity would need to be seamless to allow work from any location, be it at home, in the office or at their local cafe.
“Australia currently lags well behind the leading nations for telework rates.”
He said the Digital Economy Strategy had set a goal to double Australia’s telework rate by 2020.
Senator Conroy identified cultural barriers as some of the factors contributing to poor telework rates and said it was important to address them through education and awareness of telework’s benefits.
He said initial partners in National Telework Week included the Australian Human Resources Institute, the Australian Industry Group (AIG), Australian Information Industry Association (AIIA), the Australian Network for Disability and the Local Government Managers Australia.
“Cisco, the Australian Sustainable Built Environment Council, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Unity4, Telstra, BlackBerry, Polycom, Infrastructure Australia and the Green Building Council of Australia have also agreed to become partners,” Senator Conroy said.
He said the National Telework Week would be held in November and more information was available from this PS News link.
Edition 201, 26 January 2012
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