The 25 best employers for people who want to work from home

Published Tue, Mar 14 20175:59 PM EDT

Increasingly, workers will have more freedom to work where they want to live, instead of living where they have to work.

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Heavy snow has kept many workers in the Northeast confined to their home offices this week. As they head back to work over the next few days, a few may be wondering how to make telecommuting a permanent lifestyle.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, about a quarter of American employees did at least some of their work from home in 2015, and companies are finding that providing workers the opportunity to work from home can help persuade a candidate who's weighing one job offer against another.

Earlier this year, job search site FlexJobs released its annual list of the top 100 companies with the most postings for "remote friendly" jobs — those that offer the potential for partial or full telecommuting — in the past year.

Employers in healthcare, information technology and customer service dominated, though companies in industries like education, sales and finance were also well-represented.

Sara Sutton Fell, founder and CEO of FlexJobs, argues that the diversity of industries represented on the list should help "to dispel the common myth that remote jobs are only available for computer-related fields or for customer service positions."

If you want to attract and retain the best talent, it's time to get flexible.
Sara Sutton Fell
founder and CEO of FlexJobs

She also notes that the increasing types of opportunities for flexible work, including remote options, flexible schedules, part-time professional work, and freelance, reflects the changing nature of remote work. Companies now see flexibility as a perk they can offer to candidates.

"More companies are publicly discussing their remote and flexible work programs as strategic, long-term programs directly tied to business objectives and company values."

Behemoths like Amazon, Hilton, Xerox, Dell and Humana all appear in the top 25, as well as a broad range of smaller companies and even the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The message to employers, says Sutton Fell, is clear.

"If you want to attract and retain the best talent, it's time to get flexible."

Here are FlexJobs' top companies for people who want to work from home:

1. Appen, Kirkland, WA

2. LiveOps, Scottsdale, AZ

3. Amazon, Seattle, WA

4. TeleTech, Englewood, CO

5. VIPKID, Beijing, China

6. LanguageLine Solutions, Monterey, CA

7. Working Solutions, Plano, TX

8. Kelly Services, Troy, MI

9. Sutherland Global Services, Pittsford, NY

10. UnitedHealth Group, Minnetonka, MN