50 of the Best Companies Hiring Remote Workers

By Meredith Lepore

Who actually sits in an office these days? Everyone knows that being a remote worker is where it’s at. New data shows that 6.1a million individuals in the US can be categorized as remote workers, whether self-employed or employed for organizations on a full-time or part-time basis. Working from home, a coffee shop or a communal workspace in pretty much anywhere you desire is becoming the norm.

And if people want to say only lazy people work at home (in their pajamas), I would tell them to think again. These remote workers are actually saving companies billions! Gallup estimates that active disengagement costs the U.S. $450 billion to $550 billion per year. In their study on remote work arrangements, they found that ALL degrees of remote work options showed higher levels of employee engagement than without remote work options. Plus, remote workers are cheaper for companies and not limiting yourself to people who live within an hour of your office puts the company at an advantage.

Not every company has realized this awesome secret but many have. Here are some of the best ones across various industries. Many of these are from data compiled by FlexJobs.

The work culture at Dell is based on the company’s “Connected Workplace” initiative, which offers flexible work options including remote work, flextime, job sharing, part-time work, and compressed work weeks.

Headquartered in Hartford, Connecticut, Aetna has membership of over 50 million in health, pharmacy and dental combined and a healthcare network that consists of more than one million health care professionals and 5,400 hospitals.

The work culture at American Express is based on a belief that “a career should be the pursuit of what you love, a way of making things better in the world around you, and the foundation for a successful future.”

The values that guide Xerox include customer satisfaction, quality, excellence, leadership, and corporate responsibility.

The company offers telecommuting and in-office positions available in areas like marketing, operations, human resources, finance, engineering, sales, and retail.

Humana has won a number of awards, including the Computerworld 100 Best Places to Work in IT mention and the Best Employer for Healthy Lifestyles award from the National Business Group.

ADP has offered full-time, flexible scheduling, and remote job opportunities in the past as well as on-site part-time work arrangements.

CyberCoders helps IT professionals find work through their extensive job search database and a resume writing service.

The US DOT is headed by Ray LaHood, the Secretary of Transportation. He works closely with the presidential officers to develop programs that will create more jobs.

IBM has several full-time employment opportunities available with the ability to telecommute internationally or from the United States

From 2009 through 2011, Salesforce.com has been recognized as one of the “Best 100 places to work” by FORTUNE.

The writers who work for About.com have the ability to work a flexible schedule from their home offices anywhere in the United States.

Microsoft is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.

With 403 operations around the world, Thomson Reuters is headquartered in New York, New York and practices corporate social responsibility in the areas of community, the environment, the marketplace, and the workplace.

Red Hat has telecommuting opportunities for software developers and remote sales representatives to work with high level clients.

Kaplan was started in 1937 and over the decades has grown into a global educator with over 300 locations in more than 30 countries.

Mozilla has offered flexible work options in the past, including freelance and full-time remote job opportunities.

Novartis is an international health care products research and pharmaceutical development firm.

Lockheed Martin offers full-time and part-time opportunities, with telecommuting options, at its U.S. locations in 14 states.

Nielsen employs 34,000 people in over 100 countries in full-time, part-time, and telecommuting jobs.

It is one of America’s largest and most successful non-profit organizations.

Founded in 1853 with headquarters in Rochester, NY, Bausch & Lomb has since grown into a multi-billion dollar company whose products are sold in over 100 countries.

SAP is a German company with U.S. headquarters in Pennsylvania, and it specializes in enterprise software and related services. Remote jobs are key to this company’s strategy, with jobs in the United States, Europe, China, India, Australia and Africa.

Forest Laboratories was named one of the 50 most Fertility-Friendly and Adoption-Friendly Workplaces in America by Conceive Magazine and it is one of the Top 15 U.S.-Based Pharma Companies according to Pharmaceutical Executive magazine.

Patch jobs have offered job seekers a range of flexible employment options including part-time schedules, flexible schedules, and remote work-at-home arrangements.

In 2010, Adobe was named by FORTUNE as “100 Best Companies To Work For”.

Appen Butler Hill is headquartered in Australia and has offices in the U.S. and the Philippines, with remote employees all over the world.

The services offered by Kenexa include employment branding, assessments, surveys, recruitment technology, onboarding, performance monitoring, compensation guidance, and leadership development.

GE Gvalues innovation, leadership, training, integrity, and diversity.

Teradata has more than 10,000 employees in 42 countries.

This company is best known for WordPress.com. “It allows you to get the best and brightest people in the world,” CEO Matt Mullenweg says. Automattic gives its employees a monthly stipend of $250 to get a co-working space if their home office situation isn’t great.

Cisco’s telecommuting policy — as of 2011, almost 85 percent of Cisco employees worked remotely on a regular basis — has resulted in an estimated productivity savings for the company of about $277 million.

Rackspace offers many remote positions, from Lead Web Developers to Senior Software Developer, according to its job listings site.

The company has a whole jobs page devoted to remote positions.

Of QualComm’s approximately 18,000 employees, 18 percent telecommute regularly.

About 50 percent of its employees worked remotely more than 20 percent of the time. There’s some math for you.

I mean would you expect anything less from this awesome company? Though would you want to work remotely if you worked at Google?

Thirty percent of employees work remotely at least part-time.

Accenture has 36 offices with videoconferencing facilities and is among the top 10 companies with the highest percentage of regular telecommuters, according to Fortune.

Weyerhauser, which develops sustainable industrial products from trees, writes in its company FAQs that flexible work arrangements depend on the specific case, but it does include several flexible work arrangements including telecommuting.

Publishing companies like Gannett are known for offering some of the best remote jobs.

Another great tech company.

This company offers a number of remote jobs.

This airline is known for embracing remote workers. It allows all of its flight agents to work from home.

UA is similar to JetBlue.

Remote workers help support the initiative to move healthcare records into electronic formats.

A Gartner Group study lists the banking and finance industry as the second top sector for telecommuting.

This company embraces remote workers.

It’s true! Who thought a company so old would be so forward-thinking when it comes to remote hiring?

Wendy’s offers a number of remote jobs, and they don’t involve griddles.