The trend towards home working is indisputable and technology advances are making mobile working, historically a challenge, even easier than in the past. In fact there are a whole slew of terms which are often used interchangeably that reflect a radical shift in how we approach work:
- Hot-desking. The idea that your desk is not your permanent domain and that desks can be shared by people who are not office based, on an as and when basis. Commonly used where home or mobile working is standard to provide facilities when those people who are not office based need office facilities
- Home-working. The ability to work from home as opposed to an office most suits those sorts of job that are phone and computer centric. Of course there are all sorts of other home working but our concern here is as an alternative to office based working
- Mobile working. The ability to access office type facilities while on the move. Covers the use of laptop computers and mobile phones and other mobile devices.
Using flexible working techniques is often referred to as “virtualising” a business. One of the key drivers in virtualising a business is to reduce the dependence on permanent office space and thereby to reduce fixed overheads. With many businesses needing to flex their workforce up and down with project and contract staff it is becoming difficult to predict the need for office space and manage the cost of buildings.
As a result, businesses need communications capabilities that reflect their increasing need for operational flexibility. Put simply, the traditional office-centric view of how businesses work, and how communications services are delivered, no longer fits the increasing drive towards mobility and the need to drive down fixed costs. There was a time when flexibility was expensive. Now it can bring even lower cost.
Market resistance to overseas call centres is pushing a re-examination of call centre technology with a trend towards considering virtual call centres enabled by cheaper high speed broadband and IP telephony. A virtual call centre relies on home workers to deliver services and use a network centric management model to provide the support and infrastructure. It has all of the additional secondary benefits of other forms of home working
At a personal level managers and employees want increasing flexibility in how they do their work. One of the drivers behind changing working practices is a desire to work to live rather than live to work. Because the guarantees that were implied in people’s relationship with work have been broken they increasingly seek to achieve a better balance between work and life.
The pace of change and the speed at which business is conducted have accelerated over the last 20 years to such a degree that people are now routinely experiencing longer working hours, stress and health problems. Increasing stress in the workplace is leading to changes in the way people view work. Workers desire more flexibility and control over their work/life balance. People who work from home tend to be much more productive and experience lower levels of stress.
Beyond the organisational and personal benefits there are a number of societal benefits in home working which should not be under estimated.
With 20% of the working population in parts of South Yorkshire on invalidity benefit, home working can deliver a soft return to work and enables carers, women returners to work, retirees and the disabled access to working opportunities. Retirees are likely to find that pension provisions don’t deliver the quality of life they want and so part time home working is an alternative that delivers a good return on their efforts. From an employers perspective all of these groups constitute untapped pools of skilled resources that were historically difficult to unlock and go some way to filling the skills gap.
You don’t have to spend long driving around the main towns in South Yorkshire to figure out that traffic congestion is on the increase. Many people are increasingly seeking home-working and flexible working patterns as a method for improving productivity and quality of life. Time spent commuting is stressful and unproductive and leads to long working days and a reduction in quality of home life.
From an environmental perspective the Government wants to meet environmental targets and has set goals for its own “virtual enterprise” initiatives. Commuting is a soft target in this battle and despite increased focus on public transport, total bus journeys continue on a downward trend in South Yorkshire. The truth is people do not easily give up their cars. There is also an implied exclusion process where non-drivers find it increasingly difficult to reach out of town workplaces and home working can improve all of these areas.
The value of home and remote working is clear. Now, what can technology do to simplify and enable it?
The pervasive availability of cheap broadband is a key enabler. In a compressed geographic area like South Yorkshire virtually all areas have access to broadband and often a choice between cable and DSL delivered formats. This creates a competitive environment and further reduces costs. The Digital Region project seeks, over a number of years, to improve the availability of higher capacity, higher quality broadband over fibre optic cables so performance should continue on an upward trend. This in turn enables new powerful applications that enable improved collaboration, often a criticism of remote working. The ability to work in teams on common data using sophisticated networking tools reduces the isolation sometimes experienced by home and remote workers. Video and voice conferencing enables home workers to set up virtual meeting spaces dynamically and can even create an online chat environment to replace the kitchen conversation.
IP based telephone services enable workers to control multiple devices and locations and route calls to home handsets or mobiles without creating confusion in customers and callers. Outside callers call the same number or extension and the call is routed to suit working patterns. Outbound calls can be sent with a consistent number so that it creates the feeling of always being available in one place.
On the mobile front, the improved range of mobile devices such as the Blackberry further reduce the reliance on traditional office space and improve the responsiveness with smaller businesses benefiting disproportionately. The new ranges of mobile devices are, for the first time, really useable as email, web and phone handsets with decent screens, keyboards, performance and battery life
One issue to bear in mind with all of this flexibility, of course, is the issue of data security. If users create and store information offline from the company’s main server network this can create issues around multiple copies and security. Portable devices are easily lost, damaged or stolen and it’s more important than ever to have a useable backup strategy that ensures that key business information is protected and copied to a safe location. New applications can allow this to happen automatically so that the user’s laptop or other device backs itself up as soon as it goes online, and such services are very affordable.
Home working and mobile working is now a useable reality for all types of businesses. Technology has caught up with people’s desire to have an improved work/life balance. The potential for improving performance, saving money and improving efficiency is clear.
visit www.wiredworkplace.net for more information about remote working!
