WHAT A PANDEMIC HAS TAUGHT US ABOUT REMOTE WORKING CAPABILITIES
Besides learning what good hygiene actually means, how much respect we should have and show more frequently towards our amazing teachers, educators, first responders, and medical staff and how our society values toilet paper more than food. We have also learned the true value of technology, how far it has come, how it is probably being underutilised and what it truly means for the survival of our organisations.
Throughout this unorthodox time we are experiencing, there seem to be two types of services organisations – ones that are grateful for remote working capabilities that allow them to be just as productive and efficient throughout this pandemic lockdown as what they were before, and those that wish they were.
But the reality is that it shouldn’t take a pandemic to make us realise the importance of remote capabilities in this day and age, as it provides us so much more than just operationally getting us through the chaos of COVID-19.
Yes, remote working capabilities allows your business to operate as normal through things like flood or fire emergencies, office moves or renovations and most recently a pandemic, but ensuring your staff are fully able to do their work remotely provides you with the opportunity to offer more flexible working arrangements and in turn, ensuring higher staff retention and attracting the best talent, gives your employees the opportunity to be more productive by working at times that are more convenient to them whilst ensuring deadlines are met and collegiality is retained and most importantly, promoting a more flexible offering to your clients.
According to a Forbes article by Career Coach and Author, Ashley Stahl, “your employees’ hours shouldn’t matter, but the work product should. If the end result is high quality, it shouldn’t matter when or where an employee completed it.” According to Stahl flexibility is the way of the future…”If you care to stay relevant as a company, jump in’.
But what does working remotely entail from a technology point of view? Ideally, the following points should be addressed to allow you full access as if you were working from the office:
- Accessing your systems and applications remotely – This can be achieved via cost-effective yet secure deployments such as Terminal Services or cloud-based solutions such as Office 365 for your email and data storage requirements.
- Telephony system that allows mobility. Some VoIP systems allow you to install an app on your mobile device, giving you the ability to make and receive calls anywhere at any time. This includes your reception function. It also provides an omnipresence feature whereby you can chat, see your colleagues’ availability at a glance and more importantly have integrated video and teleconferencing facilities for both your staff and your clients at no additional cost.
At CT Group, we are proud to say that throughout this lockdown, 99% of our clients are fully capable of operating exactly as if they were in the office with the remaining 1% have chosen not to be able to do so.
The only thing that should currently make a services organisation less productive than what they were a few weeks ago is the fact that so many employees are struggling with the impossible task of homeschooling whilst working. Besides that, your organisation’s technology should be set-up in such a way that your employees can be just as efficient as they have ever been. And if you’re not and you would like to be, then don’t hesitate to get in touch – because, like our clients, we are still very much working and able to service our clients as we have been before this dreaded COVID-19 had caused the havoc it has.