What’s the fastest way to reduce highway gridlock during rush hour?
What cuts down on highway maintenance costs?
What reduces the demand for gasoline?
What reduces accidents and may save lives and reduce the cost to the public for police and ambulance services?
Have people work at home.
According to the Virginian-Pilot these are the goals of Virginia’s new Telework VA program. It’s a public-private partnership designed to achieve the above goals and improve employee morale and retention for businesses whose employees must traverse some of the busiest traffic lanes in the nation.
If you live in the target area, maybe this is YOUR chance to work at home as a telecommuter? Don’t laugh, this is one of those “government grants” you might actually get - Virginia has committed about $3.2 million to Telework Va. Most of the total state money available - about $2.6 million - is unspent! The governor of the state also recently reaffirmed the state’s plans to have 20% of the workforce telecommuting by 2010!
Telework Va goes a step further than the ride-sharing programs, though, and tries to make managers comfortable with the idea of employees working at home and out of sight.
As an incentive, the program offers qualifying companies money to lease equipment such as fax machines, computers and high-speed Internet connections.
Qualifying companies can receive $10,000 toward the cost of leasing equipment, while equipment for home use can be reimbursed up to $3,500. The program also offers incentives of up to $25,000 for technical consulting.
Image courtesy Telework VA
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