How to Maximize Communication for Remote Employees
The modern workforce is not only becoming more mobile, it’s becoming more remote as well - remote from the corporate office space, that is. While still occurring amongst a minority of workers, telecommuting is on the rise and has been for some time. A study by FlexJobs and Global Workplace Analytics found that instances of remote work in the workforce has grown 44% in the last 5 years, and 91% over the last 10 years. Much of this ability to work from a home office, communal office spaces, or in the field comes from advances in business communications technology, especially business phone systems. An effectively deployed cloud based phone system for a company can provide a number of tools that maximize the communication capabilities between employees located on- and off-site as well as communication between field-based employees and clients.
Single Line, Anywhere Access
Before widespread initiatives to transition business telephone systems to a cloud-based system, employers had to consider how employees would stay in touch with the main office and with clients and sales leads if they weren’t working from the office. Employees would have to make themselves available on personal phone lines, and figure out a way to effectively communicate this to clients and coworkers who might need to reach them while they were away from their desks. Alternatively, companies decided to pay for both an office-based system of landlines as well as the expense and management of multiple mobile device plans for employees working in the field.
Cloud-based systems provide a unified single communication platform that can be accessed with ease across multiple devices per user. Want to be reached at the office? Your line can be routed to your desk phone. Working from home for the day? Download software to your mobile phone and your business line will ring to the app. Broken mobile phone? Load up your laptop, grab your headset, and log into your company’s web-based interface to get reconnected and not miss a beat.
More than a Phone Line, Your Full Communications Suite
Deploying your business phone system to a cloud-based platform does more than allow your employees to route calls to any device and take calls from anywhere. Doing so frees your employees from the confines of their office desks. Voicemail systems are virtualized, so there’s no more delay in either having to wait to return to the office or remotely logging in to check for voicemails. Because everything takes place across your company’s secure business platform, email and internal instant messaging programs remain useful without limitations. The secure remote access also allows off-site workers to use and leverage your company’s CRM tools and other internal network databases and programs, so working remotely doesn’t limit what business tasks remote workers can accomplish or how they communicate with each other and with clients.
Keeping Your Remote Workers Productive
Several factors have prevented remote work arrangements from being completely embraced by companies across industries. One of the major obstacles for remote workers is the disconnect working outside of the office can create between team members and with clients. Cloud-based telephone systems from service providers like North Carolina-based SafeCall eliminate the perceived disconnect by providing remote access to your company’s phone system regardless of where your employees decide to work from on a daily basis, as well as a robust platform through which they can remain productively engaged with team members and clients on active projects in real time. Our team of experts can help you identify the tools and services necessary for ensuring your employees can transition seamlessly into remote work arrangements and achieve work life balance without negatively impacting your productivity.