This isn’t your grandfather’s workforce anymore…thanks to advances in technology, work no longer needs to be tethered to a specific time or place. With laptops, smart phones and iPads becoming more sophisticated, and advances in the quality of video conferencing that make meetings as effective as they would be in person, almost anyone can work remotely.

The changes over the past 10 years for telecommuters have been subtle but noteworthy, as they reinforce the idea of telecommuting as a reality for many Canadians. According to Statistics Canada, there were 1.4 million employees who worked at home in 2000. By 2008 that number increased to 1.8 million employees working from home.

Leandra Harris, executive vice president of HR for Randstad Canada, says employers are increasingly offering this option to workers in order to attract and retain top employees. “Some companies have already taken steps to make work flexible; to manage their salaried, hourly and contingent workforce by what they do, not where, when or how they do it; and they’ve adopted the tools and technologies that make flexible work possible.”

According to the calculations of a WorkShift Canada report commissioned by Calgary’s Telework Initiative earlier this year, telecommuting twice a week could save Canadian companies, employees and the community over $53 billion dollars a year.

“By offering workplace flexibility and measuring performance based on results rather than presence, where employees are not constrained by where and when work is done, people have the opportunity to be more productive, more creative, and more successful,” says Harris.

But it’s important to remember that with more flexibility comes greater responsibility and not every employee is suited to work from home. According to Harris, “The decision to work from home should be made jointly between an employee and his or her manager, based on the feasibility of performing the work from home and by assessing if the employee is best suited for telecommuting based on their performance and skills.”

As the workforce continues to shrink, businesses must find creative ways to leverage the skills of talented, productive employees. “With a well planned system in place, telecommuting can bring value to a company if they take the time and precautions needed to do it right,” says Harris.