Gas prices have doubled in the past year, reaching a national average of $4 per gallon. Of course, this not only affects consumer spending on gasoline, but also on food and other goods whose prices also are rising because of delivery costs. IT has a responsibility here.

Podcast: Gas prices got you down? Work from home

I happen to live in the Chicago area, which has the honor of being among the highest gas prices in the nation. I also have the honor of working from a home office when I’m not on the road (consuming some of those high-priced airline tickets, also driven by the higher gas prices).

Not every position is aligned with teleworker capabilities. For example, retail store workers must be in the retail store. Bank branch employees must be at the branch to server customers. Manufacturing employees must be in the plant to run the machines. Teachers need to be in classrooms. And so on.

But there are so many classes of positions that could work from home - nearly anyone who works in an office cubicle, contact center, or back office. Nemertes’ latest research shows 15% of employees at companies, on average, work from home already.

There are no shortage of stories discussing this issue - from those detailing employee complaints about their disposable income to those asking for four-day work weeks to those discussing the potential savings resulting from allowing employees to work from home one day a week.

The real issue of this column, though, is to impress upon IT the responsibility and opportunity that exists now. Visionary IT leaders must be proactive at explaining to business leaders how IT can help employees save money while at the same time helping the business to become more productive.

The only way a work-at-home program will be successful is with active involvement from IT. From a technology side, IT may get a budget for management tools and other technologies that have otherwise met the axe. It also helps develop part of a disaster-recovery plan by having an alternate place for employees to work when there is a disaster preventing them access to their official office.

From a human side, employees will gain more loyalty to their employers for this benefit, which ultimately reduces turnover and improves productivity. That leads to the business side. In exchange for an IT investment, along with some in HR and legal to develop work-at-home policies, the business ends up with happier, more loyal employees who generally become more productive by using some of that time spent on the road as time in the office.

Robin Gareiss is executive vice president and senior founding partner of Nemertes Research. Click  here for the newsletter archive.