[This note is cross-posted from the Future of Work blog]

There’s a great new story just published today in Business Week detailing how some organizations are turning to “telecommuting” and flexible work programs as a way to reduce costs and retain employees in these difficult times.

The article (“Telecommuting: Once a Perk, Now a Necessity“), by Michelle Conlin (editor of BW’s Working Life Department), highlights how SCAN Health Plan, BDO Seidman, and Capital One are using flexible work options to cut real estate costs significantly.

The really encouraging side of the story, though, is how many employees relish the reduction in commute times and the rebalancing of their lives (no surprise to us, but still a benefit that’s not widely enough recognized).

Here’s the story at SCAN, featuring Eve Gelb, a project manager for the Long Beach, California-based HMO:

Eve Gelb’s life was once a blur of hour-and-a-half commutes on the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles. What memories: The NPR fatigue. The stale minivan air. The deep identification with the characters in Waiting for Godot. But that’s all in the past. Gelb, a project manager at a giant HMO, SCAN Health Plan, has given up her Ethan Allen-style office, yanked down the family photos, and moved into her home office. Members of the professional class normally have to beg their managers—or at least delicately negotiate—to allow them to work remotely. But in Gelb’s case, it was her boss’s idea.

SCAN is one of a growing number of companies encouraging workers to toil from home. Sure, employers have been doing this for years. But as the recession bites and companies look to save money on real estate costs, what was once a cushy perk is now deemed a business necessity.

What the article doesn’t mention is that at SCAN (an active client of ours) the biggest block of flexible workers are non-exempt employees – a bit of a rarity because of the many legal requirements surrounding working conditions and time reporting for non-exempts.

But to SCAN’s credit the company has worked through those issues (with a little help from you-know-who) and now has a thriving program (called AWESOME, for Alternate Workplaces Engaging Staff and Office Management Efficiencies). Our good friend and colleague Diane Coles (with active support from her boss, CFO Dennis Eder, and the rest of the executive team) has led SCAN into the future of work.

And Diane, Charlie Grantham, and I will be “going public” with all the details about the AWESOME project at IFMA’s Industries Forum/Corporate Real Estate Council meeting in Vancouver, BC, at the end of March. Stay tuned for an incredibly compelling story. The business case is very positive – and the employees (like Eve Gelb) love it.

It’s the future of work – no doubt about it.