By Anne-Marie Rolfe

Work from home: scam or opportunity? That was the question that clients posed. We did not have an answer, so we clicked, emailed, live chatted, and Skyped our way to an answer. Yes, there are legitimate opportunities for remote employment.
The opportunities available include telephone-based work, transcription services, virtual assistant services, online tutoring and teaching, careers in e-learning, technology, design, editing and writing, to name a few. What we did not find was the ability to make a living playing video games, or any legitimate opportunities to stay home and get rich quick!

What we did find is real businesses, with legitimate human resourcing needs, looking to work with those who have a self-directed work style. Some businesses do take you on as an employee, some as an independent contractor, and in some cases you set yourself up as a freelancer. The distinctions have implications for income tax and other deductions, however there are plenty of resources to help understand and set those up.

These opportunities are of tremendous benefit to those living in rural areas with available Internet infrastructure, or those with disabilities who need to manage their own environments as part of their wellness. Add to that caregivers with a need to be home for little ones, or aging loved ones, this is a trend that will continue to rise. All of these job seekers have skills and abilities to contribute to the Canadian labour market; remote employment connects the workers to the work, without all the bother of heading to a physical location.

However, remote employment is not for everyone. The truly social and gregarious amongst us may find the isolation of working from home daunting. Reality is there is nothing between the employee and the temptations of home life but the motivation to get the work done. To be successful, self-discipline is required. The reward is a work schedule that allows flexibility for other commitments while earning money.
There are benefits for both employees and employers in remote employment. According to the Teleworkresearchnetwork.com, the following are the benefits to employers:

• Save money
• Reduce employee work-life conflict
• Increase employee engagement
• Increase employee loyalty and reduce turnover
• Attract and retain talent
• Reduce absenteeism
• Increase productivity
• Reduce healthcare costs
• Slow the brain drain associated with retiring Baby Boomers

Interested? Go ahead and do searches on terms like “remote employment”, “work from home” and “virtual work”. Numerous sites will be available but proceed with caution and research those of interest carefully. If the site asks you to send money, don’t. If it asks you for too much personal information up front, do not provide it. If it offers the opportunity to get rich quick, do not believe it. Bottom line, where there are legitimate opportunities, there are also those willing to prey on the unsuspecting. So suspect everything! Research and validate the links you find. You can use tools such as the WHOIS database to validate website registration or do a search on the particular company and check with the Better Business Bureau online to see if there are complaints.
So while no legitimate positions to get paid to play video games all day panned out, there is a labour market ready for willing, entrepreneurial spirits yearning for an independent lifestyle.

Anne-Marie Rolfe is the Manager of Special Projects at the Employment and Education Centre, where she works to identify creative ways to connect employers and employees. She is currently working on her MEd with a specialization in distance education. She loves doing high-quality research and sharing it with others.

Interested in learning more about remote employment? Check out Polly Smith’s article on self-employment. Also, stay tuned for the CERIC webinar “Remote Employment 3.0: Legitimate Opportunities to Work from Home”, facilitated by Anne-Marie Rolfe, on February 26, 2013. More information available on cericwebinar4.eventbrite.com.