With so many people working from home these days, the number of “office” locations has grown exponentially in recent years. In fact, 31 percent of remote workers reported being out of the office four to five days a week— up from 24 percent in 2012, according to a recent Gallup survey. And about one in five employees are working from home full-time now, the study suggests.
To be sure, employees are pressing companies to break down historical structures and policies that traditionally have influenced their workdays. And employers are accommodating, primarily for three reasons:
- The practice is seen as beneficial because remote workers not only work longer hours, they are also more productive and happier.
- It’s easier to recruit and retain talented employees when unrestricted by geography.
- Organizations now have access to technologies that enable remote workers to be more collaborative and productive than ever.
To that last point, emerging cloud technologies are transforming the way work gets done. By using technology solutions like UCx and Managed Office 365, workers increasingly are doing their jobs virtually or remotely – and at various times of the day – instead of from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. And the primary inhibitor for working at home remotely – loneliness – is no longer an issue because these technologies keep colleagues virtually connected. With these high-tech communications tools in place, mingling and collaboration are as easy – and as fun – as congregating by the water cooler.
In fact, contrary to early concerns about remote workers, employees who spend 60 percent to 80 percent of their time away from the office have the highest rates of engagement, according to Gallup. It makes sense when you think about it: a video chat or conference to share ideas and documents with a colleague is only a keystroke away.
These new tech and tools are not just being used by remote workers at home. Multilocation businesses are employing them along with private networking, Internet, SIP Trunking and SD-WAN services, among others, to support the growing business and technical demands driven by the proliferation of critical applications, cloud services and mobile devices.
Scalability and flexibility are key. To meet the unique needs, goals and budgets of our business customers, TPx offers these services through a single-source, mix-and-match approach that delivers truly customized solutions for every business scenario. Our customers reap the benefits of constant access to the latest-and-greatest technologies without the headache and expense of managing it all themselves. Small businesses without IT departments get access to the same technologies as larger firms, and larger firms can free up their IT resources for more important proprietary pursuits.
Regardless of which vendor(s) you source for your technologies, using them is becoming a matter of remaining competitive on both sides of the balance sheet. We are experiencing a remarkable digital revolution that is both transforming and distributing the workplace, with web, computing, social and mobile technologies converging to deliver an unprecedented effect on virtually every aspect of business. This convergence is creating new ways for multilocation companies – whether we’re talking storefronts or the home office – to deliver better service, enhanced customer experiences, and retain talent.
About the Author
Matt Mair is a Senior Product Marketing Manager for ITx Managed Services. His role includes marketing and communications for TPx’s suite of managed IT offerings including Managed SD-WAN, LAN Monitoring, Office 365, Workstation and Servers Management, Colocation and Server Backup solutions. Matt holds an MBA from Michigan State University’s Broad School of Business and resides in Los Angeles.