Recent studies revealed that more employees work remotely than ever before. Businesses are allowing their employees to work remotely, but employees are actively choosing to work remotely too. The Office of National Statistics (ONS) also revealed that younger workers place the ability to work remotely as one of the determining factors when choosing a job.
These statistics are even more interesting when you consider the fact that more than 90% of workers who have tried working remotely are less eager to return to spending eight hours at the office. Add the fact that remote working can be incredibly rewarding for both employees and employers, and you have a winning formula for faster growth.
HOME ALONE
You may have difficulty in keeping an eye on employees effectively who work remotely when they seldom have face-to-face interactions. You might find it difficult to keep them not feeling left out and engaged. This is true especially with your fully remote workers who don’t have normal ways to interact with their co-workers on a daily basis, compared employees who balance time in and out of the office.
Good for Employers
It’s not like corporations are unhappy about their employees working remotely either. Remote work arrangements are actually beneficial to the employer in different ways. For starters, the ability to work remotely is now seen as an added benefit that makes a position more valuable in the eyes of potential candidates.
At the same time, companies can tap into a larger pool of candidates by not limiting their search to a specific location. When employees don’t need to come to the office to be effective, they can be based in any part of the world.
On top of that, there is the higher return on investment (ROI) offered by having remote employees. More employees working remotely means less office space is needed. Fewer employees at the office also leads to lower overhead costs and more efficient operations. All of these are the kind of benefits that businesses are eager to enjoy.
Making It Work
Of course, remote working is something that needs to be approached with care. There are multiple systems and approaches to choose from. Some companies opt for 30-minute briefings at certain times throughout the day. Others go with solutions that allow the office to monitor the screens of remote employees and supervise their work.
The most effective way to ensure effectiveness when allowing employees to work remotely is by maintaining constant communications. More importantly, the company needs to make real efforts in providing a suitable platform for communications in different forms. That platform acts as a virtual work environment.
It is also necessary to understand a few things about remote employees and their productivity:
- Remote employees are employees. You still have to make an effort to connect with them, provide necessary resources that support their work, and maintain constant communications, particularly during critical moments.
- It is also important for remote employees and team members to interact with each other. Many companies still make the mistake of using two-way communications (employee-office, office-employee) without allowing employees to communicate with each other. This is a mistake that can be easily fixed through the use of a good communications platform.
- Remote employees also have requirements. It is equally important to treat them as employees with career goals, obstacles, and personality. It is up to superiors to connect with remote employees at a more personal level.
Yes, there are challenges to overcome, but those challenges can be mitigated by using a good communications platform or solution. That brings us to Vision Voice Communicator.
Remote Work Arrangement, Supercharged!
As part of a unified communications suite, Vision Voice Communicator is the perfect platform for enabling remote employees and boosting their productivity level. This is a suite that contains tools suitable for personal and team communications, with features such as text messaging, phone calls, and IMs available on one platform.
A web-based client acts as the interface for using Vision Voice Communicator. Employees can access the platform from anywhere and at any time, as long as they have a web browser and a working internet connection. Once connected, they can communicate as fluidly as they would if they worked
in the office.
Among the features and benefits that can be accessed via Vision Voice Communicator are:
- Call-related features, including access to company directory and cloud-based phone book
- Make calls from business phone number for branding purposes
- Active caller ID for all incoming calls
- Push notifications for incoming calls, text messages, and IMs
- Text and group text messaging supported natively
- Integrated IMs for team communications
- Archiving and communications history
Vision Voice Communicator works out of the box with other services such as Cloud PBX and Unified Communications. It can be integrated with products such as the Virtual Call Centre, giving you endless possibilities when it comes to creating a collaborative platform for remote employees. It is also very scalable. Vision Voice Communicator and other solutions from Vision Voice are designed for small and medium enterprises who want to stay lean. These are tools that will grow alongside your business while remaining cost-efficient and effective every step of the way.
For enabling remote work arrangement and helping employees maintain productivity while working remotely, Vision Voice Communicator is the solution to use.
So, if you employ remote workers today or plan to in the future, we’d be happy to send you more information about Vision Voice Communicator. Reach out to your Vision Voice representative or call us at 020 3078 9900.
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