Flexi Working/Telecommuting Solutions
What Is Flexi Working/Telecommuting?
Flexi Working/Telecommuting incorporates work practices whereby employees have flexibility of working location. To enable remote working, a regular commute to a central place of work is replaced by telecommunication links. Most Flexi Workers/Telecommuters work from their homes, while others utilize mobile telecommunications technology to work from a variety of alternative locations such as client premises. To be successful, Flexi Working/Telecommuting requires leadership and management practices that are based on results, and not on close scrutiny of an individual.
Flexi Working/Telecommuting is facilitated by tools such as virtual private networks, Voice over IP telephony and Unified Communications. These technologies enable staff to communicate over large distances, saving travel time and cost. With the increasing and widespread availability of high speed internet connections, an increasing number of workers have the opportunity to use these technologies to connect their home office to their corporate intranet and internal phone networks.
Work arrangements of this kind are becoming more popular due to demands for flexible working conditions, ever increasing travel costs and the increasing popularity of virtual organizational structures. Flexi Working/Telecommuting offers great potential for organizations to reduce costs, develop competitive advantage, access a greater variety of scarce talent, and improve employee flexibility, effectiveness and productivity.
Flexi Working/Telecommuting – Good For People And Good For the Planet
Flexi Working/Telecommuting has increased the employability of many workers who may otherwise not be available to the workforce, such as mothers, the disabled and those living in remote areas. Through Flexi Working/Telecommuting practices, employee productivity can be increased and virtual offices allow employers to reduce costs and retain valuable employees. They may also enable an employer to hire employees otherwise not available.
In addition, organizations can improve customer service levels and international reach as workers in different time zones are willing and able to provide resource to enable them to conduct business virtually 24 hours a day.
With a reduced need to commute there are additional environmental impacts which are becoming increasingly important to businesses, individuals and governments worldwide. Flexi Working/Telecommuting can assist in reducing petrol/oil usage and accordingly reduce air pollution levels. Although there are costs associated with implementing communications solutions that enable Flexi Working/Telecommuting, they can be offset by increased well-being and productivity along with reduced costs or even need for office space.
According to research conducted by Kate Lister and Tom Harnish in 2008, “40% (almost half) of the U.S. workforce hold jobs that are suitable for telework[ing]. If they were allowed to work from home these teleworkers would collectively avoid 154 trillion miles of driving and save $25 trillion in fuel purchases, even accounting for mileage for errands formerly accomplished driving to or from work.”21
They also claim “Thirty-three million American's could work from home. If they did, the U.S. could make major cuts in oil dependency and significantly reduce global warming.
Challenges For Flexi Workers/Telecommuters When Systems Are Not in Place
Barriers to Flexi Working/Telecommuting include trust that work is actually being done; this relates to management and to other work colleagues. There is also a risk that confidential data may be lost. Setting up security and virtual private networks increase the demands for IT. Other risks are created by the increased geographical diversity of the network and a loss of direct control over the physical work environment.
The feeling of alienation can be very difficult and management needs to address the communication barriers that Flexi Workers/Telecommuters experience. Many line managers are used to managing by observation and not necessarily by results. This can be a significant obstacle in attempting to adopt these new work practices. Appropriate training and development plans are a key requirement in ensuring that new work practices are successfully implemented, for managers and for staff.
IPFX Provides Freedom Without Exposure
With IPFX Unified Communications and Unified Contact Center solutions, employees need not be bound by physical location; you can work remotely yet appear to callers as if you are physically located within the office.
IPFX Unified Communications workers can have the same phone number and functionality when working remotely as they do when in the office, so efficiency is not compromised when working from alternative locations. As when in the office, Voicemail messages can be delivered to the user’s email in-box and each user’s Presence status is updated in real-time so that colleagues can see if you are available or on the phone, or even logged on but have not used your PC for a period of time. This visibility can help deal with colleagues’ trust issues.
To address security issues, the IPFX Web Client enables you to control telephony and communications from within a web browser; no client software is required and all key communication data can reside on the central server rather than on a remote PC. Users can access IPFX functionality remotely on any computer equipped with a web browser and a high-speed internet connection.
With IPFX Unified Contact Center, Agents are not bound by physical location. Agents can work remotely, yet appear and perform as if they are physically located within the office. Calls are handled by the rules set up for each queue and delivered to the most appropriate Agent, irrespective of their whereabouts. Unified Contact Center Supervisors are able to view real-time performance of all queues and Agents. Each employee can have a real-time view of colleagues, and their own performance, regardless of location.
All IPFX solutions are designed to be intuitive and require a minimal amount of training. For maximum uptake and use, IPFX provides comprehensive user help information within IPFX solutions as standard.
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21 Lister, K. & Harnish, T. (2008). Telecommuting can half U.S. Gulf oil dependency. Retrieved 24 June 2008 from http://www.pr.com/press-release/69559
