Telework is an innovative and flexible working practise that delivers many business benefits.

In 2004 the Australian Government established a telework taskforce to advise on the options and impediments to the development of telework for employees and businesses. This taskforce, the Australian Telework Advisory Committee (ATAC), had it's final meeting in February 2006 at which it recommended that Government encourage the growth of telework.

In support of the recommendations made by ATAC, the Telework Australia resource centre has been developed to help promote the benefits which telework can deliver to business and to provide implementation guidelines.

So what is Telework? At it's simplest, Telework 'work from a distance' but it covers a wide range of work forms and can have many names. It is about people; how they work, how they interact and how they prepare for an increasingly changing world. And it's about flexibility: flexible work locations and work times, flexible management structures and flexible responses to the challenges of change.

In this session, Telework's Bevis England will clarify many of the misunderstandings surrounding telework and explain just why there is such a need for flexibility in the workplace as well as discussing the the role that telework can play in providing that flexibility. He also presents the many benefits telework offers to organisations, including reduced carbon emissions, business continuity and the direct financial benefits.