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Most of the employees at banking giant Citigroup's CitiMortgage office in Frederick will soon be able to work from home, a growing trend in the industry.

Citigroup announced last week plans to close the office by the middle of next year, which will affect all of the 940 employees there. About 900 workers will be shifted to the company's Hagerstown offices or will telecommute from home, said Citi spokeswoman Janis Tarter in an e-mail to The Gazette last week.

About 630 to 720 of the workers will work at home, with the rest going to the Hagerstown office.

"Approximately 40 positions won't be transitioning to work at home or [to] Hagerstown, and we're working with the employees in those jobs to help them explore open jobs within Citi and outside of Citi," Tarter said in the e-mail.

Tarter expects Citi employees whose jobs will not be retained will begin receiving their 60-day notices in the next several months, depending on the timing of the transfer of the work to other Citi offices with those departments.

Citi has about 5,000 employees in Maryland, including 2,100 at its Hagerstown site, according to Tarter. The Frederick office, at 5280 Corporate Drive, offers mortgage loan services.

More banks and mortgage companies have shifted to having employees work from home, especially since the Great Recession began in 2008, said Carol Kaplan, spokeswoman for the American Bankers Association of Washington, D.C.

"Some banks are looking for ways to cut costs and this is one area where they can do that," she said.

Tarter said that Citi has "had flexible workplace programs in place for several years" and "they have worked well for the employees and the company, so the programs are growing."

CitiMortgage employees who work from home will be loan service providers, using phones and computers, Tarter said. Citi "provide[s] equipment to employees whether they work at home or in Citi offices."

The decision to shutter the Frederick location was part of an ongoing Citi evaluation to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of its consumer banking operations while providing work flexibility for employees, Tarter said.

"The changes are designed to help us meet our customers' expectations while remaining competitive and giving employees as many flexible work options as possible," she said.

In an e-mail to The Gazette, Richard G. Griffin, director of the Frederick Department of Economic Development, and Heather Gramm, the department's business development specialist, said "we are always concerned when a major employer like CitiMortgage chooses to close a facility and lay off workers here in Frederick."

"In this instance, the fact that the company is giving most of the individuals an option to remain employed through a remote work-from-home arrangement or work in the Hagerstown office is positive," Griffin and Gramm said. "For those who choose to work remotely, the flexibility and reduced commuting time may be preferable to the current arrangement."

Griffin and Gramm added that the Citi employees who do not have the option of working from home or transferring to the Hagerstown office can receive "terrific support and services" from Frederick County Workforce Services, including "retraining, resume writing and access to job opportunities in the region."

Laurie Holden, director of Frederick County Workforce Services, said in a previous interview that the announcement of the Frederick office's closing is a "challenge" for the county's employment picture but said this week that she has spoken to Citi officials and was told the 40 employees whose jobs will not be retained will keep working until the middle of next year. The county's unemployment rate was 6.5 percent in June, the most recent month for which state data are available.

"I'm hoping this will be a layoff that wasn't," Holden said.