It is an important element in the marketing. The use of e-mail for effective connections is vital for remote working, because it delivers flexibility. Remote workers have to take on self-management. They may still be employees but they are working remotely. They have to manage their time, organise their own workspace, their own office, and this is a discipline that they haven't had to worry about before because they were in a communal office space.
Management has to change, to become based upon delivery.
Job specifications have to be much tighter, because you don't have the ability to walk ten feet to the next office to talk about it, or to meet at the coffee break. You need tight specifications and the ability to discuss remotely, by telephone, file transfer and so on. There is much greater delegation of responsibility involved in remote working. A third scenario is the freelance worker, who may perhaps have taken a redundancy package or have resigned from the company, but now the worker receives a contract to do similar work as a freelance contractor. There are issues to be worked out here in terms of the nature of the contract and the kind of benefits you are entitled to.