New legislation in Costa Rica has created an opportunity for employees to work remotely from their homes instead of traveling into their offices each day. This legislation has been created as a method to create more jobs, and more job opportunities, for those that live in progressively rural areas throughout the country. In this regard, employees that work digitally or in IT related services are no longer required to live and work in large, urbanized areas.

Up until this point, some employees in Costa Rica were able to work remotely, however it was extremely unregulated. Most employees throughout the country were required to commute to their offices for every workday. Now with the new legislation, specific “working from home” policies have been created as a way to regulate the remote working terms for both the employees and the employers involved in these situations.

The unemployment rate in Costa Rica has been observed for the last 4 years at between 8-9%. This legislation has been created in order to work towards reducing the current unemployment rates of the country. Many countries have also observed that an increase in telecommuting or remote working has also amplified the productivity of many employees and creates more available working time by reducing the amount of time spent commuting daily to and from work.

Telecommuting is also beneficial for financial and environmental reasons. Organizations are finding that by offering telecommuting opportunities, these companies are able to save hundreds of dollars annually, per employee. Employees are more productive, and therefore get more work done in a lesser amount of time. Additionally, the pollution that commuting creates can be drastically reduced by providing more employees with an opportunity to telecommute to work at least once per week. For example, by increasing the instances of telecommuting available, some reports have stated that a large urban area may save up to 48 million liters of fuel in a single year. The increases in telecommuting in Costa Rica also open up the country to newly modernized employment practices in both private and public sector organizations.

Overall, regulated and legislated telecommuting opportunities in Costa Rica will benefit the country in a number of ways. Organizations will have the opportunity to employ more efficient and modernized working practices. Additionally, this will create more working opportunities throughout the entire country, not just in the urbanized areas, and will also generate financial savings both for the employer and the employee involved. Finally, telecommuting will create less traffic and pollution throughout the country if less people are constantly commuting to and from work. Not all employees will want to work from home, but having the opportunity to legally do so creates more opportunities and inspires a modernized and innovative culture for organizations throughout the country.