The Rise of The Remote Worker and Hosted PBX
By Meghan Huerta
With the introduction of the cloud and mobility to enterprises, there has been an increase in the number of individuals working from home in the USA in recent years. In the last decade alone, the number of people who work remotely or telecommute, either part or full time, has increased by almost 115% in the past decade.
It is important to note that technology has contributed a lot to the current state of affairs. Not long ago, workers who were looking to make work more flexible had to set up VPNs, or rely on consumer-grade, poor-quality VoIP, or have a separate telephone line set up for work.
However, this has all changed, with the only thing that could block people from to working from home being the trust between them and their employers.
Well, some businesses will not allow employees to work remotely since they think that they will be less productive; but this, more than anything, suggests very unhealthy company values.
Researchers have found that remote workers are more productive compared to office-based workers.
Furthermore, a recent Stanford study found that workers working from home are happier with their work, are more productive than those based in offices, and are less likely to abandon their positions.
The study focused on call center workers allowed to work from their homes for nine months.
At the end of the period, the study found that the company not only saved revenue on office furnishings and space but also employees working from the comfort of their homes:
Flexible Working is a Great Business Strategy
Consider the above; it would be sagacious for any company to allow employees to perform their duties at home. Not to say that they should work from home full time. It is healthy for employees working remotely to visit the office several days a week.
Doing this will ensure that they offset anything they could have missed while working alone like the social aspect of participating in an office environment and team meetings.
Any business looking to ensure that their remote working efforts are successful will need to get organized and should do its best to source all the tools that it may need to do so.
Some of these tools may already be available on the office’s network; and if need be, the business could invest in more updated tech such as cloud storage services.
The Remote Worker and Hosted PBX
For companies looking to try out remote working and the benefits it has to offer, then hosted PBX is a cost-effective option to consider.
Hosted PBX offers all the functionalities a legacy, a wired-telephone system provides plus so much more.
Some of these extras include:
Call Forwarding – allows customers to reach the company’s employees via the same work phone number, wherever they are.
Lowered Costs – with regards to maintenance and installation. Companies could also save revenue in the office by assigning shared workstations and desks. Opting for a hosted solution could also eliminate hardware costs. Hosted PBX often uses a monthly payment system, meaning that there aren’t any capital expenditure costs.
Easier deployment – removing and adding users to a hosted PBX is easy. Once you have added user details, an allocation link that can be copied onto a handset is generated automatically.
Conferencing – call conferencing, a crucial element of any telephony option, allows two or more users to participate in a single call all at one go.
Voicemail – with hosted PBX, companies can set up personalized voicemails that can be sent as text via email.
The above are just some of the few functions you will find in a world-class hosted PBX system.
The great thing about these systems is that it is easy to implement parameters for remote workers while offering powerful telephony solutions that may be used from whatever location one is in.
Downtime Costs
One of the main worries for any business is downtime.
Downtime can easily and quickly run into the thousands cost-wise. As such, it is important that downtime is minimized as much as possible. Using hosted PBX means that all hardware is hosted by the vendor within its data center.
The great thing is that the hosted PBX services provider is responsible. Furthermore, data centers have better security compared to the average office and more powerful hardware. As such, when equipment fails, all that needs to be done is routing the hosted solution to a different network.
However, it is vital that businesses thinking of investing in hosted PBX solutions vet their vendors carefully. The Service Level Agreement or SLA dictates hosting terms.
As such, companies should pay very close attention to the fine print.
Most hosted PBX service providers guarantee up-time, so it is important that you check this very carefully. When offering workers the option to work from the comfort of their homes, it is important that downtime is never something to worry about.
Company Culture
As discussed earlier, flexible remote working success relies, to a greater extent, on the culture of the company.
Businesses that do not believe their employees can work independently without supervision are the ones that foster a culture of low productivity and unhappiness. Happy workers are more productive, less likely to quit a firm for another, and more willing to share what they know.
With all this in mind, take the time to consider how remote working could improve your company’s culture.
If you think this is an option that could work for your business, then go for an option that will offer your employees the tools they need to productively, efficiently and effectively perform their duties remotely and that choice is hosted PBX.