Whether you work from home or from a local coworking center, telework extends the the workplace beyond the walls of the traditional office. Although telework is not for every employee or every job, working remotely can have a multitude of benefits such as increasing productivity, morale, and recruitment, reducing business related travel, and maintaining business continuity during a disaster. Not to mention the time saved and environmental benefits that come from reducing or eliminating vehicle trips altogether. The beauty of telework is that it can be done on a regular or periodic basis — either one day a week or one day a month or only when an emergency preventing travel to the workplace arises.

Working from home

For succesful teleworking from home, we recommend the following:

• Basic business tools such as a computer, a phone, an internet connection, and secure remote access to your company’s servers via a VPN (or to the files you will need to work on)
• Agreement with your supervisor regarding frequency and method of checking in and clear expectations regarding work tasks and goals
• A safe and organized workspace that fosters productivity

Working from a telework center

Typically telework centers offer high-speed internet connections as well as many of the amenities of a traditional office such as meeting and conference rooms, copy machines, scanners and a sense of community. Local telework centers include:

• The Satellite Telework Centers – Felton
• Next Space – Santa Cruz
• CruzioWorks – Santa Cruz