[nabs-l] Companies that hire people working from home

[Joe Orozco]

Who Hires Home-based Workers? 

Patrick Erwin, CareerBuilder.com writer 




In the last few years,
<http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Keyword/work/from/home> working from home
has gone from being a rarity to a reality. With advances in technology, more
people are able to link to work from their home computers or laptops. And as
employees continue to crave flexibility and yearn for a better work/life
balance, more people are working from home for at least part of their
workweek. 

Home-based companies

While many companies are allowing existing employees to transition to
various  <http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Keyword/telecommuting>
telecommuting options, some companies are also building work forces that are
made up solely of employees
<http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Keyword/work/from/home> working from
home. 

Here is a sample of 10 companies that only hire at-home workers: 

.          <http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/company/alpine/access> Alpine
Access is a call center company that uses customer service representatives
that work from home. Employees use their own telephones and computers. The
company provides representatives for clients like Office Depot and J. Crew.


.          <http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/company/convergys> Convergys
hires home-based call center agents who provide support in customer service,
and also supplies sales agents or help desk staff for companies. 

.          <http://www.extendedpresence.com/> Extended Presence provides
their clients with outbound sales agents and marketing support staff who
work from home. 

.          <http://www.internetgirlfriday.com/> Internet Girl Friday
provides information technology support as well as administrative services
for clients nationwide. 

.          <http://www.liveops.com/> LiveOps  provides customer service
support for a variety of major corporations. 

.          <http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/company/spheris> Spheris
provides support to medical professionals. Their services include medical
transcription and clinical documentation.

.          <http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/company/staffcentrix>
Staffcentrix supplies virtual assistants for business clients, including
CEOs and upper management of major corporations. 

.          <http://www.careerbuilder.com/jobs/company/vipdesk> VIPDesk
provides call center support and also offers a home-based concierge service
to clients.

.
<http://www.bsgclearing.com/riskmanagement/voicelogthirdpartyverification>
Voicelog provides representatives to perform verifications for transactions
done online or by telephone. Many states require changes to telephone
service and other remote transactions to be verified by a third party, which
VoiceLog provides. 

.          <http://www.westathome.com/> West At Home also hires home-based
customer service agents. They cater to a specific range of industries,
specializing in health care and pharmaceutical support, as well as the
hospitality industry. 

Employees need to meet some basic requirements, including having a telephone
and access to a PC. Although the work is conducted from home, interviews for
the job aren't always done remotely. 

Working at home is a growing and legitimate opportunity, but workers should
still beware of any job that asks you to invest money, provide access to a
bank account or give up a great deal of personal information up front. These
are indicators of a possible scam. 

Traditional companies with home-based workers

Some traditional companies also have home-based workers in the mix as part
of their overall staffing strategies. Companies as diverse as American
Airlines,  <http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Company/TDS> TDS Telecom,
1-800-FLOWERS,  <http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Company/sprint> Sprint
and  <http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Company/xerox> Xerox have programs
that enable traditional workers to transition to
<http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Keyword/telecommuting> telecommuting or
hire workers specifically to work at home. 

 <http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Company/aetna> Aetna is one of the
companies that has developed and implemented such a program. "Our telework
program started as a grassroots initiative to keep talented employees when
there were site consolidations." Aetna Telework Program Head Eileen Levin
explains. The program, which started only a few years ago, has become very
popular with employees. Levin notes that since the inception of the program,
participation has jumped 300 percent. Around 10,000 Aetna employees, or 27
percent of the company's work force, now work from home.  

Levin says that the company looks at several factors before transitioning a
job or task to be done at home. Aetna ensures that the employee is an
appropriate candidate to work at home. It also confirms that the home office
is a stable, business-friendly environment. And most importantly, Aetna
carefully considers whether the job is an appropriate choice to be performed
by home-based workers. 

 <http://www.choa.org/> Children's Healthcare of Atlanta is another company
that is mixing traditional workers with employees who work from home. These
home-based employees include medical transcriptionists and nurses who
operate the hospital's Advice Line, a hotline where Laurie Peterson, one of
the Advice Line nurses, has been working for CHOA from home for 11 years.
She takes calls that vary from minor questions to emergency situations, and
provides callers with a recommended course of action based on their
conversations.

Peterson says, "I really enjoy being able to use my nursing judgement and
experience right here in the convenience of my own home. We get inquiries
from people both locally and all over the world seeking help with their
child's health problems. At the end of a shift, it's very fulfilling for me
to know I've helped allay a parent's fears." 

If you're a worker who wants to transition from commuting to the office to
working at home, talk to your company. Think about these discussion points
before approaching your boss:

.         Talk to the company about how offering this option to you and
other employees will benefit them. Money talks, so be sure to refer to any
potential savings the company will see by implementing this program. With
gas prices at a record high, you should also  underscore your savings, as
well as the environmental benefits of working from home.

.         Not every job or every process can be done from home, so be ready
with a plan. Identify jobs and transactions at the company that can be done
easily, safely and securely from home

Patrick Erwin is a writer and blogger for CareerBuilder.com. He researches
and writes about job search strategy, career management, hiring trends and
workplace issues.