For many industries, discussions among executives when considering remote work and work-from-home arrangements for employees invariably conjure up outdated tropes and misconceptions like these:
Remote work is only for tattoo-covered creative types who play around on Photoshop while sipping
macchiatos at the local hipster coffeeshop.
·Working from home is a rite of passage for Silicon Valley coders who can’t afford office space while they
develop the next killer app.
· Employees who don’t work from the office squander their time, are difficult to supervise and can’t
communicate effectively with customers or collaborate within teams.
The telecommuting evolution in modern business began long before the coronavirus pandemic forced stores, studios and offices to shutter their doors and send their employees home. While some workers simply cannot do their jobs from home – dog walkers, airline pilots and ER doctors are three groups that immediately come to mind – many other businesses can migrate to mostly or entirely remote work arrangements without sacrificing productivity or results.
In fact, many businesses have achieved lower costs and greater employee satisfaction and retention through work-from-home arrangements. The key to unleashing telecommuting’s potential is a good communications platform.
Benefits to Employees
Numerous recent surveys support one clear conclusion: Most employees prefer to telecommute. In fact, 85% of millennials are willing to work remotely and one-quarter of respondents surveyed by Global Workforce Analytics were willing to accept a lower salary in exchange for a work-from-home arrangement.
Likewise, recent surveys of telecommuting professionals find that four in five feel less stress and report better morale. Reasons for this include:
· Less time and money spent on commuting, eating out and dry cleaning.
· Better work/leisure balance, producing a healthier lifestyle.
· Fewer distractions and greater flexibility to work when most productive.
In short, most remote employees are happier, healthier, and more productive.
Benefits to Businesses
Happier employees stay with their employer longer: 50% lower turnover according to one study.
Healthier employees miss fewer workdays: 70% of remote workers missed fewer workdays compared to in-office personnel in a recent study.
More productive employees create greater output for your business: 70% of remote worker respondents in a recent poll reported greater productivity after switching to a work-from-home model.
The general formula that emerges is straightforward: Happier, healthier, more productive employees reduce a business’s costs and improve outcomes. In even more immediate and concrete terms, employers that transition some or all of their employees to remote work arrangements save significant sums on rent, office furnishings, electricity, stationary and other consumables.
How Phone Systems Help
The coronavirus pandemic has created an unprecedented urgency, forcing nearly all office-based businesses to quickly retool for telecommuting in order to survive. Moreover, as difficult as it can be to appreciate silver linings while standing under the rainstorm of COVID-19, even the most traditional office-based businesses will benefit in the long run by equipping themselves to offer full or partial remote work opportunities to their employees after this storm blows over.
The key to unleashing your employees’ fullest potential through a work-from-home arrangement is an effective unified communications solution that enables the essential tools that businesses and remote-based employees need:
· Outbound call routing to make business calls from their personal phone wherever they are
· Documentation of customer interactions so that information is available to all members of the project
team
· Integration of voice, chat, video and screen-sharing functionality to enable seamless collaboration
· Remote access features so that managers and supervisors can enter employee’s virtual workspaces
and monitor interactions with customers
In this moment of confusion and urgency in particular, a cloud-based phone system is the best way to quickly deploy these essential features across your newly dispersed remote workforce while also ensuring top shelf cybersecurity.
Importantly, because cloud providers operate on a monthly or annual subscription model you won’t be locked in forever and you won’t need to make substantial upfront investments at this moment when you need to conserve capital. Moreover, many cloud platforms are offering free extended licenses or at substantially reduced prices during the coronavirus response period.
The Support You Need to Choose Wisely and Deploy Quickly
Gregg Communications is a long experienced and entirely neutral communications provider that works across all major unified communications platforms and contact center vendors to:
1. Choose the best solution for your specific needs
2. Onboard quickly and tailor the tech to your business processes
3. Train your staff to get the full measure of communications performance
We achieve these three essential goals by doing two fundamental business practices better than anyone else:
Firstly, by delivering unrivaled customer service, which we describe as Gregg’s e3: experience excellence from experts on every interaction.
Secondly, by guiding and supporting our clients throughout the entire project lifecycle and beyond with our White Glove service rather than disappearing once the sale is closed.
Most businesses didn’t enter the coronavirus pandemic with the communications tools necessary to survive it, but some businesses will adapt and, consequently, be in a far greater position to thrive in the business ecosystem that emerges after the crisis.
Give us a call (630-706-8222) or email us and let’s get your business set up for remote work right away.