Distance work program: 64.5% increase in registered Saudis

RIYADH – The number of Saudis registered in the distance work program has increased by 64.58 percent in a year, business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported on Monday quoting informed sources.

The sources said about 98 percent of the citizens working from home in the private sector establishments are women.

They said by the end of 2018, the number of citizens working from a distance was 5,469 including 5,359 women compared to 3,323 in 2017.

The program was launched in January 2016 by the Ministry of Labor and Social Development and the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf) to provide more job opportunities to the Saudi citizens especially the women.

Under the program, the employees can do their work from their homes using all means of communications and IT methods without the need to come personally to the office.

The program is cost effective for both the employee and the employer. The first does not have to bear the cost of commuting to the company while the latter will not have to pay cost for establishing an office for the staff.

Under the program, private sector will offer jobs that will not require the personal presence of the employee at the establishment.

The jobs that can be done at home include, among others, accounting, computer programming, translation, financial scrutiny, marketing, digital media, internal designing, data entry and customer service.