Telecommuting Reduces Stress and Increases Productivity According to PGi Survey

ATLANTA, March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- As businesses approach Telework Week 2014, employers and employees will make commitments to increase telecommuting and productivity, while decreasing commute times and stress. A survey of U.S.-based customers and knowledge workers by PGi (NYSE: PGI), a leading global provider of collaboration software and services for more than 20 years, found that telecommuting employees see improvements in stress level (82 percent), morale (80 percent), productivity (70 percent) and absenteeism (69 percent).

PGi's survey showed that telecommuting is widespread among businesses with knowledge workers:

• 80% of respondents report that their office allows telecommuting.
• 71% participate in the telecommuting program.
• 50% telecommute one day per week.
• 22% telecommute five or more days per week.

Technology powers telework, with 91 percent of telecommuting respondents using a company-issued laptop. Other popular technologies issued by employers are:

• 76% VPN access to company data.
• 75% web conferencing tools.
• 62% cellphone or smartphone.

"The findings confirm what we at PGi have always known to be true: Telecommuting provides important emotional benefits for employees, while at the same time delivering meaningful operational improvements for businesses," said Sean O'Brien, EVP of strategy & communications for PGi. "Instead of insisting on 9-to-5 hours in an office, our customers are increasingly adopting virtual collaboration technologies, like iMeet® and GlobalMeet®, to provide rich online engagement and to empower their 'anywhere workers' to work smarter and be more productive. We expect that this trend will continue as companies worldwide understand the value and benefits of adopting flexible work models."

The survey findings come one year after several notable announcements signaled the end of prominent companies' telecommuting policies. While the decisions set off a firestorm of discussions about telecommuting, interestingly, 89 percent of respondents stated their telecommuting policy did not change during the past year. For those who did report a change, only six percent stated that their company ended an established program.

About the Survey
PGi conducted an online survey of U.S.-based customers and knowledge workers in February 2014, securing responses from 933 individuals.

About Premiere Global Services, Inc. │ PGi
PGi has been a leading global provider of collaboration software and services for over 20 years. PGi's cloud-based software applications let business users connect, collaborate and share ideas and information from their desktop, tablet or smartphone, enabling greater productivity in the office or on the go. PGi has a global presence in 25 countries, and its award-winning solutions provide a collaborative advantage to over 45,000 enterprise customers, including 75% of the Fortune 100™. In the last five years, PGi has hosted more than 1.1 billion people from 137 countries in over 250 million virtual meetings. For more information, visit PGi at www.pgi.com.

Statements made in this press release, other than those concerning historical information, should be considered forward-looking and subject to various risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements are made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and are made based on management's current expectations or beliefs as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. A variety of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in PGi's forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the following factors: competitive pressures, including pricing pressures; technological changes and the development of alternatives to our services; market acceptance of our cloud-based, virtual meeting solutions, including our iMeet® and GlobalMeet® solutions; our ability to attract new customers and to retain and further penetrate our existing customers; our ability to establish and maintain strategic reseller relationships; risks associated with challenging global economic conditions; price increases from our telecommunications service providers; service interruptions and network downtime; technological obsolescence and our ability to upgrade our equipment or increase our network capacity; concerns regarding the security and privacy of our customers' confidential information; future write-downs of goodwill or other intangible assets; greater than anticipated tax and regulatory liabilities; restructuring and cost reduction initiatives and the market reaction thereto; our level of indebtedness; risks associated with acquisitions and divestitures; indemnification claims from the sale of our PGiSend business; our ability to protect our intellectual property rights, including possible adverse results of litigation or infringement claims; regulatory or legislative changes, including further government regulations applicable to traditional telecommunications service providers and data privacy; risks associated with international operations and market expansion, including fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; and other factors described from time to time in our press releases, reports and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the "Risk Factors" section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012. All forward-looking statements attributable to us or a person acting on our behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary statement. We do not undertake any obligation to update or to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking statements contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances occurring after the date of this press release or the date of the statement, if a different date, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Media Contact:
Blakely Thomas-Aguilar
404-262-8429
[email protected]  

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SOURCE PGi

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