Culture in the workplace is extremely important. When a company has a strong culture, three things happen: employees know how top management wants them to respond to any situation; employees believe that the expected response is the proper one; and employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organisation’s values.
Culture in the workplace can make a big difference to an employees happiness. A big part of culture comes from informal conversations; when everyone is in an office there are regular chances for employees to have chats they might not otherwise have. That’s why even quick catch-ups while the kettle boils should not be underestimated.
In order to maintain that type of environment when working remotely, it’s important to make sure everyone still feels like they are part of a team. Collaboration and communication is key to preserving any kind of company culture and just because one or more of your employees are working from a different location, it doesn’t mean they should be out of the loop. In fact, when you have employees working remotely, there should be more emphasis on keeping in touch and communicating any updates or changes.
Trusting Your Employees
Managing autonomy and productivity is one of the biggest challenges we face with remote working. Many business owners worry that remote working will affect the quality of their employees’ work and that the business will suffer as a result.
There is a somewhat outdated opinion shared by some employers that staff need to be supervised in order for them to be productive. However, in reality, trust is often strengthened when employees are given the freedom to work autonomously.
Giving them the power to work in the way that suits them best can improve results. Obviously, no two workers are the same and different styles of management suit different individuals, but empowering your employees by trusting them to work without constant supervision can often show the benefits.
Furthermore, make sure you recognise the efforts of your employees and give praise where praise is due. If you find that standards are slipping, don’t just assume it’s because they are working from home. Instead, find out if they need any additional support or assistance and make sure they have the right tools in place to carry out their job effectively.
Have the Right Tools
As we said, communication and collaboration are an essential part of maintaining organisational culture. If your employees can’t communicate effectively, then your business will suffer.
Thankfully, there are a range of tools readily available for companies of all sizes to keep communication and collaboration at the forefront of their strategy when remote working.
Cloud communication and collaboration services give us all the tools we need to keep lines of communication open and help teams to collaborate, regardless of whether they are in their homes, the office or anywhere else, all bundled into a flexible package to suit the needs of each individual business.
The Benefits of Cloud Communications
- Mobility
- With cloud communications technologies, your work phone number can be accessed from any device. Your desk phone at home, your mobile, your phone in the office, tablet or laptop can all be used to access your calls.
- Omnichannel Communication
- Emails, chat facilities such as WhatsApp, Webchats and Facebook messages can all be accessed from one piece of software giving staff the ability to have fluid conversations through whichever communication channel each individual client prefers.
- Collaboration
- Some cloud communications packages also give agents the ability to access all the information they need to deal with customer enquiries quickly and efficiently. They have access to client information, past conversations and intelligence and real-time data is made available to help your staff deliver more relevant content, product and service information to each customer.
- Flexibility
- Cloud communications systems are very flexible. They can be deployed remotely without face-to-face contact with any engineers, users can be added and removed quickly and easily, and getting everything set up is a walk in the park.
Kane Can Help
Kane Communications are here to help. 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.
