At Home Telecommuting Program

Created in 2006, SanMar’s At Home program currently has 181 customer care employees, sales representatives and territory managers working remotely from home on company equipment. By the end of 2008, more than half of the customer care group will be telecommuting—removing hundreds of cars from the roadways, saving about $200 in gas a month per employee and freeing up approximately 12,000 square feet of office space.

The majority of At Home participants live within a 60-mile radius of SanMar’s Preston and Bellevue offices; however, we also have employees in the program throughout the country. SanMar is currently in the process of purchasing distance- learning software that will allow us to effectively train telecommuters on a wide range of subjects, without having them travel to a SanMar office.

Telecommuting employees say they enjoy the At Home program because of their reduced expenses and time savings. For SanMar, the benefits are twofold: we retain seasoned employees who move out of the area, and we can more effectively recruit qualified employees.