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To answer this requires us to look a lot deeper at the changing performance you get over time as dispersed teams get used to working together and the absolute difference in cost and productivity that occurs.

The report found that multinational corporations were global shoppers for talent. The companies want to nurture close links with leading universities in emerging markets to work with professors and to hire promising graduates.

" ‘Will work for health benefits’ is important to older job-seekers, and so is the extra money to cover rising medical costs,"

Booz Allen Hamilton, Lehman Brothers, Deloitte & Touche and Merrill Lynch, among others, are working to lower the barriers with targeted recruitment, special retraining, mentoring, and new kinds of employment relationships designed to keep ex-employees tied to the firms.

Executives also say it helps them recruit and retain quality employees – such as educated, married 30-somethings who want a flexible job that allows them to stay home with their kids. The teleworker also might be a military wife or a retiree wanting extra cash.

VIP was created to help attract 5,000 new jobs to the area that pay about $35,000 a year. The new jobs are projected to add another 6,000 service industry jobs paying an average of $10 an hour, for a total annual payroll of $300 million.

When small companies outsource parts of their operations, owners and top executives find they can focus more on what really matters – building the business and serving clients and customers better.

"Telecommuting is probably consistent with the work and play [philosophy]," Flood said. "The quality of life goes up . . . if you provide different opportunities for your employees."

The development, driven by expanded broadband access to the Web, cheaper computer technology and improved call-routing systems, has opened the door to an entirely new group of at-home workers.