Working from home

Working from home? In our last blog article at the start of April, we asked if homeworking was going to be the new normal? In the month that has nearly passed and if you believe what the scientist and politicians are telling us, this current situation looks like that it could go on for quite some time, maybe the next 12 months or more.

As with all things this will affect different people in different ways. If you ‘re on a construction site for example, then your on-site presence is essential, but if you a desk jockey its quite likely you’ll be pushing your pencil from your home office for quite some time yet.

Over the last few weeks I have seen friends, family members and colleagues progress from precariously balancing a laptop on the sofa whilst leaning out the window for a half decent mobile signal to thinking this trough for the longer term. People are clearing out their sheds and converting the box room into more workable long-term solutions. Employers are delivering desks home to staff, sending them their favourite chair and I bought myself a dongle on Amazon so I’m back to the practicality of working on two screens.

My point is, some of the panic has subsided and the realisation that a lot of us won’t be back to normal for quite some time is dawning. Once the novelty has worn off, home working can be quite productive, some will argue that, and it certainly won’t work for everybody but even the most ardent homeworker would admit to missing the social interaction of the office, the banter, the jokes and the birthday cakes.

Improving internal and personal communication is key to the productivity and the mental wellbeing of any team. You might have a big family and a dog, but some of your team will be at home, alone and might well be struggling. We’ve all become very quickly accustomed to video conferencing for work and social events, but sometimes you can’t beat picking up the phone for a chat. And that goes for your customers too.

So how well placed is your business to deal with the new world of multiple location, remote, flexible and agile working? If when lockdown came, you didn’t pick up your office phone to take it home with you, or didn’t connect your laptop or smart phone to your providers SIP server, then I’m sorry to tell you, you’re falling behind the curve, for what was once a “nice to have” is now a business necessity.

Our fully hosted VoIP phone systems offer businesses of any size a reliable, cost-effective solution to connect to their customers and colleagues from any location, whether home or office based, or even if you’re flitting between the two.

Previously when we’ve discussed hosted phone systems, we’ve mentioned their main benefits: Reliability, Scalability, low capital expenditure and the access to high end features like call recording, call queuing and call centre functionality. But it’s clear now that the biggest and most relevant feature is the mobility and flexibility that the systems offer. When we decided to close the LG Networks office, everybody just picked up their laptops and desk phones, plugged them in at home and straight away we had a fully functioning business with staff working together from their homes all over Essex and London. Exactly like we were sat next to each other. Just minus the cakes.

If you think it’s time you moved your business communications into the 21st Century. Give us a call on our main office number 01375 363263 which we’ll answer…from home.