Sep
17
WRITTEN BY:
Andrew Latham
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Companies have resisted home-based workforces in the past due to budget, communication, productivity and technology constraints. The technology is now available and it provides a range of solutions to fit many budgets.
There are now a number of communication options available to make working from home viable. This enables more flexible working hours, and that means a more favourable work–life balance, more family time and improved quality of life … and it benefits the environment at the same time (no commuting!). This also opens the door to a whole new workforce: those who can’t get to the workplace due distance or disability reasons, and those who want part-time work like carers and mums.
Home-based workers may actually have a positive impact on your organisation’s bottom-line, saving you money on real estate and office facilities, increasing productivity of your staff, and potentially providing a healthier environment with less sick days across the organisation as staff can ‘soldier on’ at home!
Here are some of the communication options for home-based workers and small offices:
Desk phones at home. It is now possible to have a corporate handset at home connected securely to the business’s network via the internet.
Advertise just the office number. A person’s office number can now be used as a single point of contact. Staff can receive calls on their mobile or home phone redirected from their office phone, as well as make calls using their office number from their mobile or home phone. This makes contacting those working from home transparent to your customers.
The virtual office. Workers can access their business’s network using either a wireless or wired network from home. Plugging-in a wireless access point to their home internet connection means they can use their wireless laptop and IP phone as if they were in the office.
Collaboration. Workers can collaborate on documents and presentations with each other, whether they’re in the office or at home. Collaboration tools can be also used for remote ICT support to workers at home.
Presence management. Presence management tools allow workers to stay in touch with the rest of the office, communicating via instant messaging and being able to see if others are available. This helps businesses with monitoring if their workers are actually working or if they’re down the beach.
Video-conferencing. A wide range of video-conferencing products are available to provide face-to-face communications between home-based workers and those in the office. This is also available for home-based contact centre agents! The age of HD webcams means a quality solution is inexpensive.
Using these tools and making the most of their features requires careful planning. And it’s essential that home-based workers are properly trained in using the tools. But the technology and its cost now mean that working from home is affordable and can have positive impacts for your organisation and its success.