A new study from The Creative Group says work-from-home jobs and other workplaceflexibility arrangements are continuing to be popular withworkers.

The study surveyed marketing and advertisingexecutives and found more than three-quarters (76 percent)of companies offer some form of alternative work arrangement.The most common arrangement is part-time hours, provided by roughly6 in 10 employers (61 percent). Flex time is offered by 33 percentof the companies surveyed, and telecommuting is made available by another 30percent.

"Employees value flexibility more than ever, and companiesrecognize alternative work arrangements can help attract and retaintop talent," says Diane Domeyer, executive director of TheCreative Group. "This is especially true in creative fields, wherejobs can often be done anywhere, as long as the right tools,processes and policies are in place."

The survey also found that even with telecommuting options,workers still spend time at the office: for non-managementpositions, those who telecommute work three days a week remotely.For managers in the marketing and advertising industries, thatnumber is one day a week.

Even though working from home and other flexible arrangements have been growing inpopularity, not all employers have found it works for them.IBM recently made headlines for bringing backworkers to the office after an extensive experiment with lettingthem work from home.

Domeyer acknowledges issues still exist in these newarrangements. "While flexibility can help professionalsbalance work and personal obligations, it's not withoutchallenges,” she says. “Remote team members must communicate moreactively than on-site employees to stay in the know and build solidrelationships with colleagues."

The survey asked employees which arrangements they prefer, andfound employees chose flex time first (37 percent), followed bytelecommuting and a compressed workweek (tied at 26 percent).

A separate analysis by Quartz finds those who do work from home tendto have higher salaries: “With an average annual income of nearly$80,000, people who work from home earn the highest wages of anymajor category of commuters tracked by the US census,” the reportsays.

That finding fits with a 2015 Gallup study, which found telecommutingworkers tend to have higher levels of education and income. Thestudy found 55 percent of workers who said they had worked remotelyhave a college degree, and 52 percent of households with atelecommuting worker has an average income of $75,000 or more.

Gallup has pegged the percentage of Americans who work from homeat 37 percent of the workforce, but that includes all industriesand all arrangements. The Gallup study says the average worker whotelecommutes in the U.S. does so two days a month. On the otherhand, only 9 percent of U.S. workers telecommute more than 10workdays a month (or at least half the monthly workdays).

For employers, the good news is the evidence suggeststelecommuters are productive. Gallup says the majority of Americans(58 percent) believe workers who work remotely are just asproductive as those who work in a business office.