High gasoline prices are putting the squeeze on companies and their workers. People are leaving their jobs due to the high commuting costs. The New York Times reports that a resume service received "14 calls last week and 9 of those named high gas prices as their No. 1 reason for leaving their job."
And by my count, the Times presents seven ways that companies are changing to relieve the pressure:
- Encourage more telecommuting. The Times describes how "Citigate Cunningham, a public relations company, now encourages workers to stay home whenever possible, providing laptop computers and BlackBerrys to enable telecommuting, and reimbursing them $40 a month for high-speed Internet connections in their homes."
- Give employees money to pay for gas. Since June, OperationsInc., a human resource consulting firm, gave employees up to $100 a month on an American Express (NYSE: AXP) card "to offset rising gas prices."
- Rent offices closer to workers' homes. Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) recently "leased three large office complexes far from its headquarters" to cut 7,000 employees' commutes.
- Cut work week from five to four days. Rejuvenation, a Portland, OR lighting maker, put employees on a four-day 10-hour per day work week.
- Give away a free bicycle each month. Rejuvenation also "gives away a free bicycle to an employee every month."
- Create a van pool. Bayless Engineering and Manufacturing, based in the Santa Clarita Valley of California, has 12 employees who live 50 miles away from the office. In 2008 Bayless rented vans from Enterprise to transport those employees "to work and back."
- Replace workers' cars with smart cars to do deliveries. To combat a problem of pizza drivers not wanting to use up the gas in their cars to make deliveries, HotBox Pizza, a four-store Indianapolis chain, is buying five Smart cars that get 40 miles per gallon which will be painted with HotBox's red and black logo.
It doesn't pay to bet against the ingenuity of the American entrepreneur. If you have other ideas, post them below.
Peter Cohan is President of Peter S. Cohan & Associates. He also teaches management at Babson College and edits The Cohan Letter
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-07-2008 @ 1:19PM
gumbo koontz said...
Our government can instead help companies do the same things that Microsoft just did by leasing satellite office complexes closer to worker's homes in the sprawling suburbia! This is much more sensible than throwing money at solar power or other "inconvenient energy". Why commute 50 miles to the metropolitian centers and back home if the biggie companies can "telecommute" office space out in the boonies , too. I am sure many workers would rather live in the mountains or deserts or canyons.... This will eliminate much "needed" widenings of highways as many recently widened highways are already at full capacities... There is so many towns without any office complexes and would be smashing proud to have one or two of its own.
8-07-2008 @ 1:20PM
gumbo koontz said...
Our government can instead help companies do the same things that Microsoft just did by leasing satellite office complexes closer to worker's homes in the sprawling suburbia! This is much more sensible than throwing money at solar power or other "inconvenient energy". Why commute 50 miles to the metropolitian centers and back home if the biggie companies can "telecommute" office space out in the boonies , too. I am sure many workers would rather live in the mountains or deserts or canyons.... This will eliminate much "needed" widenings of highways as many recently widened highways are already at full capacities... There is so many towns without any office complexes and would be smashing proud to have one or two of its own.
8-07-2008 @ 1:21PM
gumbo koontz said...
Our government can instead help companies do the same things that Microsoft just did by leasing satellite office complexes closer to worker's homes in the sprawling suburbia! This is much more sensible than throwing money at solar power or other "inconvenient energy". Why commute 50 miles to the metropolitian centers and back home if the biggie companies can "telecommute" office space out in the boonies , too. I am sure many workers would rather live in the mountains or deserts or canyons.... This will eliminate much "needed" widenings of highways as many recently widened highways are already at full capacities... There is so many towns without any office complexes and would be smashing proud to have one or two of its own.
8-07-2008 @ 1:24PM
gumbo koontz said...
Also public transporatin is too expensive much expensive than new office complexes hooked to headquarters by fiberoptics and video conferences...
Public transporation works well in crowded inner cities where buses comes every 5 minutes instead of 20 to one hour commonly found in the suburbia....
8-07-2008 @ 1:28PM
gumbo koontz said...
Alternate or inconvenient energy NO! Energy conservation YES!!!! Energy conservation is the champion , Al Gore is not the champion no more, greenies!
8-08-2008 @ 2:45PM
JAME DUNLOP said...
In view of the gas crunch why is the highway speed not 55MPH? It has been not only proven but advertised widely that slowing the speed limit to 55MPH would be a considerable gas consumption tool. People can not turn in their gas guzzler for a new car, but if the speed limit were reduced as it was in the 70's everyone would win.