Is the office dead to everyone but Yahoo?

The number of businesses allowing staff to work from home is rising, according to a report. 

Three-quarters of businesses plan to develop a structure that will allow employees to work remotely within the next two to three years, and companies claim they can boost productivity by 44 percent when staff work from home. 

But the real benefits are more long term with 40 percent of enterprises believing employees become more engaged with their work and as a result stay at the company longer.

Ian Foddering, UK CTO of Cisco which sponsored the report, said businesses are allowing their staff to work from home because they believe it can offer a more flexible, open and productive working environment.

But not all bosses think telecommuting is a good idea. Yahoo, and more recently Best Buy, told their staff that they were putting an end to working from home. 

"The survey shows there is an increasing desire for organisations to embrace remote working," Foddering told ZDNet.

However, the Cisco report is not suggesting that remote working should completely replace going into the office. 

"I think it's supplementary and the two go hand in hand. For a lot of organisations there will be a combination of the two," said Foddering. 

"I certainly don't believe that in today's technical world that there is any need for the vast majority of organisations (where the job allows it) for people to have to come into an office every single day."

The survey was based on 500 online interviews with IT decision makers in the UK and Ireland.