Remote working is becoming increasingly popular, especially as the recent pandemic has forced most of us to stay away from the office, but it’s something that many business owners have always been wary of. Many managers feel that having their teams in a controlled environment means that they are able to collaborate better, can support each other better and are more likely to get the job done.
However, there was a 74% increase in the number of people working from home between 2008 and 2018 and following recent world events, there are now even more. Thanks to advances in communication and collaboration technology, employees have all the tools they need in order to carry out their jobs efficiently while working remotely and managers are starting to realise that remote working is not just a current necessity but could prove valuable once the world returns to normal.
As well as working remotely, flexible working – the ability to have flexible start and finish times – also helps to improve our quality of life. This provides a host of benefits to both employees and employers.
The Benefits of Remote and Flexible Working
Here are just some of the benefits that remote and flexible working have to offer:
- It provides a greater work-life balance for employees
- With a flexible approach to working, employees can strike a more healthy work-life balance and have much more control over how they spend their time. They can do the school run, attend appointments and juggle other commitments while still committing to a full working day.
- It reduces exposure to illnesses
- A hot topic at the moment and the reason most of us are currently working from home. Working from home means that employees don’t have to commute to work on public transport, don’t spread germs in the office and can keep themselves and others illness free.
- It minimises wasted time
- In the UK, we spend hours of our lives sitting in traffic. With more people working from home or travelling at off-peak times due to working flexible hours, it vastly reduces the amount of time we waste commuting. This not only reduces wasted time but it can increase productivity, promotes wellness and is much better for the environment.
- It yields greater standards and productivity
- Research from YouGov showed that 20% of HR managers believe that staff work to a slightly higher standard when working from home with a further 7% believing that the standard is “much higher” when working from home. Overall, fewer distractions, fewer interruptions from colleagues, reduced stress from commuting and minimal office politics are all expected to lead to increased productivity.
Having the Right Tools
There are plenty of benefits to offering remote and flexible working arrangements for your employees. However, it’s essential that you have the right tools in place for your staff to communicate and collaborate effectively with each other.
Kane Communications can help you make sure you have all the tools you need in place to keep your teams working well together, regardless of whether they are in the same room or not. We provide free, impartial advice, every step of the way to help you find the best solution and can deliver the perfect cloud-based telephony and collaboration system with all the features necessary to aid remote and flexible working.
Many of the systems we offer can be deployed remotely. This means we can get you up and running quickly without needing to meet face-to-face or come into direct contact with anyone.
We understand that no two businesses are the same and use our knowledge and experience to deliver secure and reliable phone systems to help you provide your customers with an experience that is second to none, even when your circumstances can change in an instant.
Please feel free to drop us a line to discuss your needs in more detail.
