As hard as it is to believe, we are officially in 2015! And now the Christmas cobwebs are just about dusted off, it is time for everyone to take a look and evaluate the upcoming trends for the New Year. One ongoing trend is that businesses are becoming more mobile.

As of June this year, it will be acceptable for any employees to request to work from home, as opposed to the current law, which states that only parents can request to ‘telework.’ With this in mind, the upcoming trend is set to increase even more so, meaning it would be worthwhile for business’ to weigh up the pros and cons of working from home, and see how Intercity could help you along the way.

Productivity

The main issue with ‘teleworking’ from a business perspective appears to be the lack of trust in employees to be motivated without being under their manager’s watchful eye. However, statistics suggest that presence does not equal productivity, with teleworkers reportedly working on average an extra 5-7 hours per week when working from home. As an employee is not physically present during working hours, they are judged based on their achievements, rather than attendance, making it easier for managers to pick up on the less productive workers. However, for the employees who excel through the ability to telework, the freedom and trust that is given to employees through the ability to work from home, in fact motivates staff members, to ensure they are not branded as a ‘skiver’.

Access

Why limit your employee radius to local areas only, when there could be a more productive workforce elsewhere? When applying teleworking into your business, you open new doors to attract a more skilled workforce, instead of settling for what is available close by. With a wider area of coverage through a spread out workforce, comes wider access to customers and potential customers, ‘businesses becoming mobile‘ does not necessarily mean working from home, but to not be restricted to a particular location during work hours. This is all made possible through the services that we, here at Intercity can provide.

How can we help?

Here at Intercity, we can provide you with the ability to keep in touch with your home workers, alongside keeping track on what they are doing, through our unified communications platform which

  • Allows all of your workforce to interact with each other from any location free of charge.
  • Another advantage is that the App is available on iPhone and Android.
  • Allows you to view each other’s availability, making it easy for managers to keep track of their employees, and allowing each other to see who is able to take calls.
  • Provides you access to real-time data regarding your usage, helping to keep on track with your call traffic.
  • Provides an audio and video conferencing solution that would be beneficial for any company considering adopting teleworking.
  • Allows up to seven entries in one conversation when group calling, meaning that meetings can be attended through Blinkpipe without physical presence.
  • Blinkpipe doesn’t require all users to have a Blinkpipe solution, as you can use a browser login through the Blinkpipe Hub, so you can access the conference call without Blinkpipe, and easily on your laptop or mobile handset.
  • Blinkpipe works through the use of your telephone system, meaning that audio is never effected whenever Internet access is restricted, ensuring clear communication from different locations.