Whether you are an employer, an employee or you are in the process of starting up your own small business you will have doubtless considered the challenges associated with home working.
According to a recent YouGov survey on behalf of Citrix Online over 20% of UK employers are being put under greater pressure to by their employees to adopt increased workforce flexibility.
Whilst the employee’s drive is typically to improve work/life balance there are significant benefits to be obtained for the employer if they readily embrace the vast raft of personal communications tools that are available to them.
The fact of the matter is that many employers are used to working this way within specific disciplines e.g. field sales. The challenge for any employer is to gain from the benefits (cost savings, productivity & staff well-being) whilst not suffering from any of the potential down sides.
At an entry level web based technologies such as citrixonline.com and sococo.com allow effective team working through the use of multi-media (often better than you’d have in your own office anyway!) and “presence” (knowing when people are available as opposed to where).
At the opposite end of the scale Avaya Aura delivers a state of the art unified communication platform that can seamlessly link all employees of an organization wherever they are!
Andrew Millard, senior director of marketing at Citrix Online, recognizes that there is a huge change taking place in the UK workplace.
“As the boundaries between office hours and personal time become less distinct, managers are losing control of how people ‘work’,” he stated.
“Individuals want to prioritise what they do. It is no surprise therefore that there is so much resistance to work shifting, as managers have to move to evaluating performance on results over time rather than on the basis of physically seeing them working at their desks.”
The fact of the matter is that by focusing their management on results and not just “being there” there is a self-fulfilling win-win. The employees are supported in their quest for a better work-life balance and the employer is rewarded with greater overall performance.
Mr Millard said that the good news for employers is that mobile devices enable employees to take charge of their time, by “self-prioritising in an effective and controlled way”.
At Office Response we have been working with innovative home workers for over a decade now. By providing telephone answering service and more complex contact management solutions such as 24/7 order lines and 24/7 help desks Office Response has enabled individuals and companies of all sizes take control of their own work loads and work patterns increasing their productivity, profitability and their work/life balance.
If you would like to learn more about how Office Response’s Telephone Answering Service could support you and your business please contact our Business Development Team on 0845 223 7004
