Work From Home Trends Up

In the not so long ago past if you were browsing Monster.com for a job (more on some dramatic downturn news on monster at the end of this blog), you probably noticed a myriad of work-from-home (what I refer to as) scams. You remember… the make your own hours and earn six-figures working from home in your pajamas. The perfect job where all you had to do to start was merely send $395 for a CD to indoctrinate you on exactly what to do?

With the increasing costs of gas, electricity and other utilities, it turns out that many corporations have been moving in the direction of allowing employees to work-from-home a day or two each week for a while now. And some companies are allowing total work-from-home positions moving forward. Good companies are all about keeping quality talent. If your job is an hour away from home, the price of gas nowadays may be prompting you to look for a new gig. Allowing you to work from him a few days a week may help with this encumbrance.

With the connected world we live in, working from home actually makes good sense. We have everything we need to work in many cases, right from home. Computer, Internet, electricity, our cell phone, printer, online chat, email, etc. Many companies deploy a virtual-private-network from your computer right into the company’s network so that you can access all of the company software you need to fulfill your job requirements.

Today in an article I read on MSN.com – “Fastest Growing Work-at-Home Jobs”, I have found the top 10 work-from-home jobs:

1. Advertising Sales Agents
2. Administrative Assistants
3. Computer Software Engineers
4. Court Reporters
5. Customer Service Representatives
6. Meeting and Convention Planners
7. Market Research Analysts
8. Paralegals
9. Personal Financial Advisors
10. Technical Writers

I am inclined to add an 11th – Job Recruiter. We at JTL have developed a system that allows recruiters to work from home. They can actually be more productive working from home than from an office. We have used the Internet as our backbone to manage and capture most of the recruiting process digitally/electronically. The system is greatly appreciated by our clients, candidates and recruiters alike. In fact, we are looking for other recruiters to add to our staff nationally.

So in the future, as you peruse through online job boards you will notice a growing number of open work-from-home positions. Do not disregard them. They are no longer (for the most part) scams and worth reviewing.

And as far as Monster.com – I promised at the beginning of this post that I would share some more negative news on the not so giant monster. Evidently, there was a 21% decrease in job postings on Monster for May 2008 from May 2007. On a year-over-year basis, postings are down 18%. That is pretty significant.

Monster.com needs to change their business strategy and do so quickly. For years they had much of the market share and a great client/usage base. But in today’s technology driven business world, you have to constantly be thinking about how to change your business to meet the growing technical demands. They, in my opinion, just haven’t done that. And worse, I don’t see any supporting evidence to suggest they are even realistically working on this. Maybe upper management should consider working from home themselves? :)