Web conferencing delivers advantages that were unheard of a decade ago, giving small businesses the ability to reach out globally, and giving larger businesses the ability to reduce their communications and travel expenses.
The technology of web conferencing is based on Internet protocols, and transmits video and/or audio packets over the Internet on a prioritized basis. Early on in the Internet’s evolution this was not possible because of the “best effort” nature of Internet Protocol, but newer technologies offering packet prioritization higher-speed transport and broadband connectivity make web conferencing practical for everyday use. More importantly, it has become affordable for nearly everybody.
Successes in web conferencing are evident across a spectrum of business, from SOHO to small business users to enterprise users, across every industry from education to manufacturing to finance. This wide scope is possible for several reasons, including:
• The maturity of the technology, which has led to decreasing prices over time
• The availability of hosted web conferencing services, which eliminate the need for up-front capital expenditures
• The scope of sophistication of the technology, which ranges from simple webcam connections to high-end room video camera hookups
Let’s take a look at a few companies that have had success with web conferencing, and the benefits the technology has delivered to them.
GoToMeeting from Citrix Systems
GoToMeeting is a strategic tool for business consultancy Kaulkin Ginsberg Company. The currency of consulting businesses is communication, and as they cannot function without it, a good web conferencing system has been essential to Kaulkin Ginsberg.
Kaulkin Information Systems discovered GoToMeeting while attending a meeting with one of their vendors, and signed up immediately. The company now uses GoToMeeting and has been able to sustain better presentations, and make better first impression on their clients. In addition to making scheduled sales presentations, the company also uses GoToMeeting for ad hoc, last-minute demonstrations. The ease of use of the GoToMeeting system makes it possible for the company’s sales staff to move into a presentation as soon as the need arises, without advance preparation.
Because it allows up to 25 participants in a meeting, the company also uses the technology to conduct group sales demos to multiple prospects simultaneously, greatly increasing the productivity of the sales staff.
Beyond the initial sale, customer training is an important part of the Kaulkin’s process, and they use GoToMeeting to that end as well. The company reports that they have reduced training time by 30 percent, while retaining effectiveness. Before implementing the Citrix technology, training was usually done using a standard phone connection, which was inefficient because it lacked a visual element; GoToMeeting added that visual element to the training.
Because Kaulkin is in the financial services business, security is a high priority, and the online meeting security has also proven to be an important asset of GoToMeeting. The conferencing system includes password-based authentication and end-to-end encryption.
Adobe Connect Pro
Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro is another leading web conferencing product that has delivered positive results for a number of clients. The Ontario Ministry of Education uses Adobe Acrobat Connect Pro. The province’s vast education system brings with it several challenges, and Adobe helped the district overcome those obstacles. The system is used to promote Internet-based learning and host online meetings, and has dramatically changed the state of education in Ontario. For example, instructors use Acrobat Connect to bring web-based learning into the classroom, enabling teachers to teach in two classrooms at the same time, effectively doubling the number of students they can reach. Students that are not in the same room as the teacher can still interact with the rest of the class through the live chat feature. The technology makes it possible to establish online classes, which also helps to build up the remotely located schools and give them access to the same curriculum and teachers as students closer to the city.
In addition, the school district uses the technology to allow outside speakers to address classrooms and access to resources that were previously unavailable. The guest speakers host interactive presentations, and share their wisdom with thousands of students throughout the district at the same time.
Even better, the students use the technology to collaborate across classrooms and even across schools to work on various projects. For example, two elementary schools 400 miles apart collaborated on a book study project. Additional benefits include allowing students that may be inaccessible or in the hospital to participate with the classroom as well.
The technology is also used to keep staff up to speed and to offer them training and orientation. And, the school board also operates a series of virtual learning centers that accommodates adult learners and home-school students.
Cisco Systems Webex
Cisco Systems’ WebEx is one of the best known and most widely used web conferencing systems on the market. The National Bank of Indianapolis uses WebEx to allow its small IT staff to effectively service all eleven branches. The two-person IT staff needed to meet government regulations and perform the IT needs of the extended branch network, and WebEx allowed them to achieve these goals while improving overall customer service. The system eliminated the need for the IT staff to travel on-site for manual maintenance on each branch’s IT system. WebEx also helped them adhere more closely to regulations by giving them a more effective way to manage and distribute software patches and respond to security threats in the network.
WebEx met a particularly major challenge during the switchover to Daylight Savings Time. The bank’s IT system required two separate time updates, and under other circumstances the IT team would have had to shut down other projects to perform the switchover. Instead, the bank used WebEx for software distribution and patch management, and they have since fully automated critical IT functions like this. WebEx completely transformed the way the bank rolls out software updates, and saved a great deal of time and money in the process. The bank particularly appreciated the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model, which allowed them to start using WebEx immediately without a long rollout period.
Internal support is also facilitated with WebEx, allowing the IT staff to resolve problems on any one of the network’s 300 computers from a remote location. IT issues can now be resolved often in a matter of minutes, and without IT staff having to travel to the branch location.
( http://www.business-software.com/web-conferencing/web-conferencing-success-stories.php )
Multiple companies in Canada and all over the world have benefited from the use of online conferencing solutions. If you feel that any of the conferencing platforms mentioned above will benefit you and your business, feel free to contact us at customersupport@reciteconferencing.com. We are happy to find a right solution just for you!
Friday, December 18, 2009
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
The Ultimate Commute is No Commute
Teleworking is the perfect option for the shortest commute. It provides for business continuity while eliminating the commute to work. If you can perform work from home, you may be a candidate for teleworking.
In addition to reduced transportation costs, teleworking allows employees to better use the time they would have spent travelling. Companies who offer telework report that productivity is often improved because a major stress is eliminated from their employee’s schedule and workplace interruptions are reduced. When employers and employees focus on the work performed rather the work location, job satisfaction can skyrocket.
Teleworking is greenest of all commuting options, reducing the impact on the environment. It has benefits for organizations, their individual employees, and the broader communities in which we live and work.
Employer Benefits
- Increased productivity, recruitment and retention
- Less absenteeism
- Less time lost due to weather or business interruption
- Smaller carbon footprint
- Lower office and parking costs
Employee Benefits
- Flexibility improves overall quality of life
- More personal and family time
- Less stress from time spent in traffic
- Higher job satisfaction and morale
- Reduced commuting costs
Community Benefits
- Less road congestion
- Improved air quality
- Reduced impact on the environment
- More "eyes and ears" for the neighbourhood
Teleworking can be either on a part-time or full-time basis, on a fixed or flexible schedule. That’s the beauty of telework; a telework program can be designed to suit the unique needs of an organization and its employees.
Considering Telework for You or Your Workplace?
Lots of organizations allow their employees to work at home informally once in a while to finish an important project, or when weather makes travel difficult. With all the IT and communications options available today, this type of informal telework has become common. But a growing number of organizations have chosen to take teleworking a step further and implement a more structured program, with staff teleworking on a regular schedule, in order to gain more of the benefits that telework offers.
Formal telework programs are designed to offer some structure while still maintaining flexibility. A formal program includes the development of policies and agreements that provide direction to managers and their employees working from home. These programs are also easier to monitor to keep track of results and successes.
Getting Started
Teleworking is a new concept for a lot of people, teleworkers and managers alike. To roll out a successful program, either formal or informal, an employer will want to consider how a telework program supports the company’s business and organizational goals. Implementation will involve a number of considerations including training, IT/security arrangements, how to manage teleworkers and who is a suitable telework candidate.
To view this article at its source, please go to http://www.translink.ca/en/TravelSmart/Telework/Telework-Overview.aspx
In addition to reduced transportation costs, teleworking allows employees to better use the time they would have spent travelling. Companies who offer telework report that productivity is often improved because a major stress is eliminated from their employee’s schedule and workplace interruptions are reduced. When employers and employees focus on the work performed rather the work location, job satisfaction can skyrocket.
Teleworking is greenest of all commuting options, reducing the impact on the environment. It has benefits for organizations, their individual employees, and the broader communities in which we live and work.
Employer Benefits
- Increased productivity, recruitment and retention
- Less absenteeism
- Less time lost due to weather or business interruption
- Smaller carbon footprint
- Lower office and parking costs
Employee Benefits
- Flexibility improves overall quality of life
- More personal and family time
- Less stress from time spent in traffic
- Higher job satisfaction and morale
- Reduced commuting costs
Community Benefits
- Less road congestion
- Improved air quality
- Reduced impact on the environment
- More "eyes and ears" for the neighbourhood
Teleworking can be either on a part-time or full-time basis, on a fixed or flexible schedule. That’s the beauty of telework; a telework program can be designed to suit the unique needs of an organization and its employees.
Considering Telework for You or Your Workplace?
Lots of organizations allow their employees to work at home informally once in a while to finish an important project, or when weather makes travel difficult. With all the IT and communications options available today, this type of informal telework has become common. But a growing number of organizations have chosen to take teleworking a step further and implement a more structured program, with staff teleworking on a regular schedule, in order to gain more of the benefits that telework offers.
Formal telework programs are designed to offer some structure while still maintaining flexibility. A formal program includes the development of policies and agreements that provide direction to managers and their employees working from home. These programs are also easier to monitor to keep track of results and successes.
Getting Started
Teleworking is a new concept for a lot of people, teleworkers and managers alike. To roll out a successful program, either formal or informal, an employer will want to consider how a telework program supports the company’s business and organizational goals. Implementation will involve a number of considerations including training, IT/security arrangements, how to manage teleworkers and who is a suitable telework candidate.
To view this article at its source, please go to http://www.translink.ca/en/TravelSmart/Telework/Telework-Overview.aspx
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Experts Reveal Why This Recession is a Great Time to Go Green
By Debbie Lawes - BDC
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Cutting your energy costs can give your company a competitive advantage by improving efficiencies and your corporate image with both customers and suppliers.
It`s understandable to think this recession has put a damper on "green" or environmentally friendly business practices. Going green or staying green may be a luxury many struggling businesses simply can`t afford these days.
But while that may have been the case for past downturns, times have certainly changed. For starters, many green initiatives save companies money.
Catherine Swift, president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which represents 105,000 small businesses nationwide, says she`s seen no indication from her members that saving the Earth is taking a back seat to saving the business.
"One reason is that for smaller companies, the recession hasn`t been as dire as for large firms that are driven by the stock markets. Our members are privately owned companies, and among them, we`re continuing to see a focus on environmental practices," she says.
A 2007 CFIB survey found that energy conservation ranked as the second most important environmental issue after recycling of materials, with 83% of its members having already implemented energy conservation changes. While about half of respondents said cost savings was a factor in making changes, 81% said they were motivated by their own personal views. Swift says that trend appears to be holding.
"These companies are motivated primarily by the owner`s personal views about the importance of protecting the environment for future generations. Embracing environmental practices isn`t something you usually have to convince them to do," says Swift.
Of course, it`s always nice if a company can help the environment and its bottom line at the same time. A quick Google search will turn up thousands of web pages on how companies of all sizes can be both green and profitable.
First, there`s the low-hanging fruit, things like printing on both sides of paper, recycling, switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, turning down the thermostat and shutting off idle office equipment. Natural Step Canada (www.naturalstep.org) has a free sustainability toolkit that can be downloaded from their website. Another helpful resource is a book authored by Bob Willard entitled "The Business Case for Sustainability".
According to Willard, integrating sustainability strategies can increase profits up to 38% for large companies and 66% for small- or medium-sized companies over a five-year period. A lot of these savings can be achieved by reducing energy costs.
"If your energy costs are high, you certainly have an incentive to reduce them," says Michel Bergeron, Vice President, Corporate Relations at the Business Development Bank of Canada. "But even if they aren`t high, cutting your energy costs can give your company a competitive advantage by improving efficiencies and your corporate image with both customers and suppliers."
Tax credits and incentives for energy efficiency and other green incentives are being pushed from Ottawa all the way down to local municipalities. Most utilities now offer businesses incentives to reduce energy use. Hydro Quebec, for example, offers financial assistance for electricity-saving industrial equipment, systems or processes.
Keeping ahead of the law and public opinion
Lower operational costs aren`t the only reason to reduce energy use. All levels of government, including local, are introducing laws and regulations that will require companies to reduce waste and embrace more sustainable business practices.
For example, once cap and trade rules become more widespread, Bergeron said companies will need to be careful about how much carbon they produce.
"Reducing your energy use – and thus, your carbon footprint – should be part of any business plan. You can start with something as simple as reducing your corporate travel by using inexpensive videoconferencing technologies like Skype," he says. "But the most important building block should be an energy efficiency audit of your workplace."
Business owners that act early will find themselves at a competitive advantage when new rules are implemented.
"At some point, the consideration of environmental and social issues will be mandated, so for business this becomes a central risk factor. It also becomes an opportunity. Companies shouldn`t wait until the economy picks up," says Melissa Shin, managing editor of Corporate Knights, a magazine focusing on corporate responsibility.
Attracting a green workforce
Companies that don`t embrace environmental practices could also find themselves as a competitive disadvantage in attracting young, skilled employees. Today`s young workers are more environmentally aware than previous generations, and they`re bringing those values into their workplaces.
"BDC, for example, is heavily paper-based and this becomes an irritant for our younger employees who view paper as a waste of resources," says Bergeron. "They`re putting pressure on us to move more quickly to change our ways, and we are."
Companies that incorporate environmental responsibility into their mandate will also tend to have more loyal employees who are more willing to make sacrifices, if needed, during a recession. "Embracing environmental and socially sustainable practices is a great way to retain your staff in an economic downturn," says Shin.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Cutting your energy costs can give your company a competitive advantage by improving efficiencies and your corporate image with both customers and suppliers.
It`s understandable to think this recession has put a damper on "green" or environmentally friendly business practices. Going green or staying green may be a luxury many struggling businesses simply can`t afford these days.
But while that may have been the case for past downturns, times have certainly changed. For starters, many green initiatives save companies money.
Catherine Swift, president and CEO of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), which represents 105,000 small businesses nationwide, says she`s seen no indication from her members that saving the Earth is taking a back seat to saving the business.
"One reason is that for smaller companies, the recession hasn`t been as dire as for large firms that are driven by the stock markets. Our members are privately owned companies, and among them, we`re continuing to see a focus on environmental practices," she says.
A 2007 CFIB survey found that energy conservation ranked as the second most important environmental issue after recycling of materials, with 83% of its members having already implemented energy conservation changes. While about half of respondents said cost savings was a factor in making changes, 81% said they were motivated by their own personal views. Swift says that trend appears to be holding.
"These companies are motivated primarily by the owner`s personal views about the importance of protecting the environment for future generations. Embracing environmental practices isn`t something you usually have to convince them to do," says Swift.
Of course, it`s always nice if a company can help the environment and its bottom line at the same time. A quick Google search will turn up thousands of web pages on how companies of all sizes can be both green and profitable.
First, there`s the low-hanging fruit, things like printing on both sides of paper, recycling, switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, turning down the thermostat and shutting off idle office equipment. Natural Step Canada (www.naturalstep.org) has a free sustainability toolkit that can be downloaded from their website. Another helpful resource is a book authored by Bob Willard entitled "The Business Case for Sustainability".
According to Willard, integrating sustainability strategies can increase profits up to 38% for large companies and 66% for small- or medium-sized companies over a five-year period. A lot of these savings can be achieved by reducing energy costs.
"If your energy costs are high, you certainly have an incentive to reduce them," says Michel Bergeron, Vice President, Corporate Relations at the Business Development Bank of Canada. "But even if they aren`t high, cutting your energy costs can give your company a competitive advantage by improving efficiencies and your corporate image with both customers and suppliers."
Tax credits and incentives for energy efficiency and other green incentives are being pushed from Ottawa all the way down to local municipalities. Most utilities now offer businesses incentives to reduce energy use. Hydro Quebec, for example, offers financial assistance for electricity-saving industrial equipment, systems or processes.
Keeping ahead of the law and public opinion
Lower operational costs aren`t the only reason to reduce energy use. All levels of government, including local, are introducing laws and regulations that will require companies to reduce waste and embrace more sustainable business practices.
For example, once cap and trade rules become more widespread, Bergeron said companies will need to be careful about how much carbon they produce.
"Reducing your energy use – and thus, your carbon footprint – should be part of any business plan. You can start with something as simple as reducing your corporate travel by using inexpensive videoconferencing technologies like Skype," he says. "But the most important building block should be an energy efficiency audit of your workplace."
Business owners that act early will find themselves at a competitive advantage when new rules are implemented.
"At some point, the consideration of environmental and social issues will be mandated, so for business this becomes a central risk factor. It also becomes an opportunity. Companies shouldn`t wait until the economy picks up," says Melissa Shin, managing editor of Corporate Knights, a magazine focusing on corporate responsibility.
Attracting a green workforce
Companies that don`t embrace environmental practices could also find themselves as a competitive disadvantage in attracting young, skilled employees. Today`s young workers are more environmentally aware than previous generations, and they`re bringing those values into their workplaces.
"BDC, for example, is heavily paper-based and this becomes an irritant for our younger employees who view paper as a waste of resources," says Bergeron. "They`re putting pressure on us to move more quickly to change our ways, and we are."
Companies that incorporate environmental responsibility into their mandate will also tend to have more loyal employees who are more willing to make sacrifices, if needed, during a recession. "Embracing environmental and socially sustainable practices is a great way to retain your staff in an economic downturn," says Shin.
Friday, October 9, 2009
10 Top Reasons Why a Business Should Be Using Conferencing Services
1. It completely eliminates geographic disparity
This principle can apply to anybody doing business anywhere. You can instantly meet with people in your organization, partners, clients, or prospective customers. With products like Reservationless 800 Conferencing, you can e-mail, text or IM a number and access code from your Blackberry or other PDA and participants can join instantly. Proximity to multiple, geographically-diverse clients become instantaneous.
2. It improves productivity in research and development
This principle applies to persons heading R&D in IT, biotech, physical science, product development, marketing, or any other area. The widespread introduction of conferencing and collaboration tools over the past few years has helped organizations better improve research and development among team members. For instance, web conferencing software has allowed company employees in separate locations to collaborate on projects in real-time, greatly boosting operational efficiency. Countless organizations have benefited from this technology and seen time-to-market improve, resulting in competitive advantages not enjoyed before, reduced R&D costs, and quicker ROI.
3. It improves investor relations
This principle applies to any and all CFO’s and CIO’s. All public companies are scrutinized in their quarterly conference call and earnings report. When the call does not go seamlessly, it makes a negative impression on the operational aptitude of the company giving the presentation. Investors think, “What type of company has an error-prone conference call?”
The unfortunate reality is that some companies do botch the investor call, whether having not enough seats/bridges open or a complete lack of moderation/order. Often, they utilize products not geared for such large audiences and/or products that don’t support the unique needs of such an important call. The top conferencing providers have solutions geared toward investor and enterprise-level calls, and a wide variety of solutions exist to accommodate such needs and eliminate highly-visible public disasters.
4. It boosts sales
This principle applies to any sales VP’s, Regional Directors, or Area Managers. Any company with multiple offices needs to have management tools in place to meet with the branch subordinates on a regular basis. As a former sales manager, I learned the mantra “inspect what you expect” very early in my career. Having regularly scheduled calls with subordinates will help prepare the organization better and teach a culture of being prepared and organized. It will also keep senior management informed on the sales activities as they are happening, instead of hearing about things in retrospect. This allows the senior sales executive the chance to act on accounts before they are possibly lost, like stepping in and offering better pricing, terms, or service level guarantees. The best organization leaders I have ever worked for personally made it a point to keep in regular contact with the field sales organization, and it showed in the results.
5. It improves corporate communication
This principle applies and directly affects everybody in an organization. Have you ever worked in an organization where you felt like corporate was a world away? Perhaps you do now, as I did at one time. The biggest difference between companies that grow successfully and those that do not is not being like-minded in goals and spirit across the organization. The most successful ones (like Google) convey a sense of togetherness and corporate culture that is inspired from a set of values, such as “leadership”, “customer-centric”, “caring”, etc….. The organizations that keep their main cultural values at the forefront do so by regularly communicating with their remote and regional offices. Audio conferencing and web conferencing are two of the simple ways to accomplish this high priority.
6. It speeds training and education
This principle applies to any C-Level who has a training requirement in their company. Organizations spend a lot of money getting new employees trained on company and industry information, internal procedures policies and methodologies. Many industries, such as education, legal, real estate, technology, manufacturing, and accounting, have initiatives that require constant training in order to maintain current standards in the respective industry. Audio and web conferencing are the dominant training tools to accomplish any organization’s e-learning initiative. Companies that utilize this technology save thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, in hard-dollars savings from travel, accommodations, meals and gratuities, and air-fare. The often-overlooked aspect of savings in using conferencing products for e-learning is that it is a definite boost in productivity. Instead of losing several hours (at best) with flight time, your employee is able to return to work instantly.
The company that utilizes these communications tools effectively trains their workforce more efficiently, save money, and boost productivity at the same time.
7. It improves your internal marketing initiative
This principle applies to Chief Marketing Officers and VP’s of Sales. Companies that can roll out new products in unison to a geographically disparate workforce have a greater chance of success. The ability to introduce new offerings in a clear, concise manner and in a positive fashion can boost sales’ attitudes about the new product or direction. In addition, the marketing message is the most important differentiator in our highly competitive society. The roll-out is the marketing organization’s best time to convey those vitally important differentiators to the internal sales team as most buyers want to know “what is in it for me”. Differentiators bridge that gap to the prospect and help the sales team close deals.
And for companies relying on an indirect channel, frequent communication is of paramount importance when driving productivity. Effective presentation done in an entertaining way is the best method to get your channel partners pushing your product and not your competitors.
8. It improves the external marketing initiative
This principle applies the direct and indirect field sales force and client retention specialists/account managers. Similar to the internal benefits listed above, the same benefits apply to external customers. When you roll out new products or services, it is easier to demonstrate it in a clear and concise manner. Audio and web conferencing solutions let a sales force introduce new offerings easily without geographic limitation. Retention and service personnel within a company can use the same conferencing and collaboration tools to introduce new products, conduct account reviews, and keep connected with vital decision-makers in an organization. Since sales is all about relationships, keeping those relationships active is vital to protect your customer base and maintaining contact with the most important positions is the key.
9. It offers mobile proximity
This principle applies to anybody with a PDA or cell phone. While it is true that cell phones often can cause a lot of static when they participate in audio conferences, sometimes the urgency of the call overtakes the immediate need for everything to be 100%. Most conferencing providers today offer mobile solutions that allow web features to be accessed from PDA’s, so that you don’t miss any aspect of the call that is taking place at that moment.
10. It will save your company money, boost productivity and define your corporate culture
This principle benefits everybody. Whether you measure by hard dollar savings in travel, meals, accommodations, entertainment, or soft dollar savings in areas like boosted productivity, increased sales, and better messaging, your organization will save money.
So with these 10 reasons, you may be able to see other applications for a conferencing solution and how it could positively impact your organization.
About the Author:
Eric Blaier is the founder of Integrated Business Services, Inc, an Atlanta-based telecommunications consulting firm. He has worked in IT sales and sales management for over 17 years and has worked for companies such as Allnet Communications, Allegiance Telecom and AT&T. His client roster includes numerous Fortune 500 clients in the healthcare, finance, technology, consumer goods, and consumer services sectors.
He can be reached at www.integratedbusinessservices.net or sales@integratedbusinessservices.net
This principle can apply to anybody doing business anywhere. You can instantly meet with people in your organization, partners, clients, or prospective customers. With products like Reservationless 800 Conferencing, you can e-mail, text or IM a number and access code from your Blackberry or other PDA and participants can join instantly. Proximity to multiple, geographically-diverse clients become instantaneous.
2. It improves productivity in research and development
This principle applies to persons heading R&D in IT, biotech, physical science, product development, marketing, or any other area. The widespread introduction of conferencing and collaboration tools over the past few years has helped organizations better improve research and development among team members. For instance, web conferencing software has allowed company employees in separate locations to collaborate on projects in real-time, greatly boosting operational efficiency. Countless organizations have benefited from this technology and seen time-to-market improve, resulting in competitive advantages not enjoyed before, reduced R&D costs, and quicker ROI.
3. It improves investor relations
This principle applies to any and all CFO’s and CIO’s. All public companies are scrutinized in their quarterly conference call and earnings report. When the call does not go seamlessly, it makes a negative impression on the operational aptitude of the company giving the presentation. Investors think, “What type of company has an error-prone conference call?”
The unfortunate reality is that some companies do botch the investor call, whether having not enough seats/bridges open or a complete lack of moderation/order. Often, they utilize products not geared for such large audiences and/or products that don’t support the unique needs of such an important call. The top conferencing providers have solutions geared toward investor and enterprise-level calls, and a wide variety of solutions exist to accommodate such needs and eliminate highly-visible public disasters.
4. It boosts sales
This principle applies to any sales VP’s, Regional Directors, or Area Managers. Any company with multiple offices needs to have management tools in place to meet with the branch subordinates on a regular basis. As a former sales manager, I learned the mantra “inspect what you expect” very early in my career. Having regularly scheduled calls with subordinates will help prepare the organization better and teach a culture of being prepared and organized. It will also keep senior management informed on the sales activities as they are happening, instead of hearing about things in retrospect. This allows the senior sales executive the chance to act on accounts before they are possibly lost, like stepping in and offering better pricing, terms, or service level guarantees. The best organization leaders I have ever worked for personally made it a point to keep in regular contact with the field sales organization, and it showed in the results.
5. It improves corporate communication
This principle applies and directly affects everybody in an organization. Have you ever worked in an organization where you felt like corporate was a world away? Perhaps you do now, as I did at one time. The biggest difference between companies that grow successfully and those that do not is not being like-minded in goals and spirit across the organization. The most successful ones (like Google) convey a sense of togetherness and corporate culture that is inspired from a set of values, such as “leadership”, “customer-centric”, “caring”, etc….. The organizations that keep their main cultural values at the forefront do so by regularly communicating with their remote and regional offices. Audio conferencing and web conferencing are two of the simple ways to accomplish this high priority.
6. It speeds training and education
This principle applies to any C-Level who has a training requirement in their company. Organizations spend a lot of money getting new employees trained on company and industry information, internal procedures policies and methodologies. Many industries, such as education, legal, real estate, technology, manufacturing, and accounting, have initiatives that require constant training in order to maintain current standards in the respective industry. Audio and web conferencing are the dominant training tools to accomplish any organization’s e-learning initiative. Companies that utilize this technology save thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, in hard-dollars savings from travel, accommodations, meals and gratuities, and air-fare. The often-overlooked aspect of savings in using conferencing products for e-learning is that it is a definite boost in productivity. Instead of losing several hours (at best) with flight time, your employee is able to return to work instantly.
The company that utilizes these communications tools effectively trains their workforce more efficiently, save money, and boost productivity at the same time.
7. It improves your internal marketing initiative
This principle applies to Chief Marketing Officers and VP’s of Sales. Companies that can roll out new products in unison to a geographically disparate workforce have a greater chance of success. The ability to introduce new offerings in a clear, concise manner and in a positive fashion can boost sales’ attitudes about the new product or direction. In addition, the marketing message is the most important differentiator in our highly competitive society. The roll-out is the marketing organization’s best time to convey those vitally important differentiators to the internal sales team as most buyers want to know “what is in it for me”. Differentiators bridge that gap to the prospect and help the sales team close deals.
And for companies relying on an indirect channel, frequent communication is of paramount importance when driving productivity. Effective presentation done in an entertaining way is the best method to get your channel partners pushing your product and not your competitors.
8. It improves the external marketing initiative
This principle applies the direct and indirect field sales force and client retention specialists/account managers. Similar to the internal benefits listed above, the same benefits apply to external customers. When you roll out new products or services, it is easier to demonstrate it in a clear and concise manner. Audio and web conferencing solutions let a sales force introduce new offerings easily without geographic limitation. Retention and service personnel within a company can use the same conferencing and collaboration tools to introduce new products, conduct account reviews, and keep connected with vital decision-makers in an organization. Since sales is all about relationships, keeping those relationships active is vital to protect your customer base and maintaining contact with the most important positions is the key.
9. It offers mobile proximity
This principle applies to anybody with a PDA or cell phone. While it is true that cell phones often can cause a lot of static when they participate in audio conferences, sometimes the urgency of the call overtakes the immediate need for everything to be 100%. Most conferencing providers today offer mobile solutions that allow web features to be accessed from PDA’s, so that you don’t miss any aspect of the call that is taking place at that moment.
10. It will save your company money, boost productivity and define your corporate culture
This principle benefits everybody. Whether you measure by hard dollar savings in travel, meals, accommodations, entertainment, or soft dollar savings in areas like boosted productivity, increased sales, and better messaging, your organization will save money.
So with these 10 reasons, you may be able to see other applications for a conferencing solution and how it could positively impact your organization.
About the Author:
Eric Blaier is the founder of Integrated Business Services, Inc, an Atlanta-based telecommunications consulting firm. He has worked in IT sales and sales management for over 17 years and has worked for companies such as Allnet Communications, Allegiance Telecom and AT&T. His client roster includes numerous Fortune 500 clients in the healthcare, finance, technology, consumer goods, and consumer services sectors.
He can be reached at www.integratedbusinessservices.net or sales@integratedbusinessservices.net
Monday, September 28, 2009
Home Warriors
Telecommuting is becoming increasingly common as more companies start to get comfortable with it. Unfortunately, problems such as difficulty maintaining work-life balance, feeling of isolation, and a lack of face-to-face contact with fellow workers begin to affect telecommuters' performance over time. The spread of new technology such as videoconferencing helps companies to partially solve these types of problems.
Jul 25th 2008
From Economist.com
Telecommuters need more than e-mail and a broadband connection
THE best thing about being a foreign correspondent is not having to commute to the office every day, attend dreary meetings, dress soberly, and generally get distracted from the nitty-gritty of doing the job. The worst thing is being out of touch with colleagues at head office, with little say over how your stories are treated. But if you can handle the patchy feedback and total lack of control, the freedom pays dividends in productivity and sheer job satisfaction.
Being one of the most portable jobs on the planet, journalism provides a daily reminder that work is something you do, not some place you go to. For the past quarter of a century, your correspondent has smirked about the time and energy he’s saved through not having to travel to work.
When he commuted back in the 1970s, he spent 80 minutes a day strap-hanging on trains and buses, and hoofing it in between. On the odd times he drove, it took an hour and at least a gallon of petrol a day. By telecommuting, he reckons he’s saved the planet some 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide for each of the past 25 years.
He’s not alone. Gartner Dataquest, a market-research company, reckons one in four employees in America worked from home for at least one day a week last year. Over half of all businesses in the United States now allow some form of telecommuting. European employers are further ahead still.
However, it’s what’s not being done that’s even more interesting. One study published earlier this year reckoned 33m Americans have jobs that could be done from home. If all of them started to telecommute instead of drive to work, oil imports would drop by over a quarter, and carbon emissions would fall by 67m metric tonnes a year. In terms of hours saved, each telecommuter would get the equivalent of an extra 25 working days of holiday per year.
The telecommuting boom has been driven in part by the rapid penetration of broadband in the home, easier and cheaper forms of IP telephony, more robust VPN (virtual private network) software, plus a new generation of powerful laptops that are true desktop replacements. Actually, that “technological pull” has existed for quite a while. What’s different today is that, complementing it, there’s now an “economic push” for telecommuting from business itself.
To gain an edge over the competition, firms have begun belatedly to realise how much more agile they must quickly become. Success, it’s now understood, goes to those that can genuinely reduce costs, recruit and retain the best employees, and ensure business continuity when disaster strikes.
A sure-fire way of saving money is to reduce the amount of office space and services—generally reckoned to be around $10,000 per employee annually. Telecommuting doesn’t remove all those overheads at a stroke, but it can easily halve them.
Surprisingly, firms also find that telecommuting can reduce their communications costs. That’s because a broadband connection to the home—and telecommuting is impossible without one—can always be configured as a second (essentially free) voice line as well as a high-speed data connection. That saves firms from having to reimburse employees for making business calls at high residential rates.
The other big saving comes from reducing labour costs. Employers find they can often recruit cheaper and better employees as telecommuters by going outside their normal catchment areas. An added bonus is that teleworkers don’t incur relocation expenses.
There are productivity benefits, too. Telecommuters at American Express, for instance, are reckoned to generate over 40% more business than their office-bound colleagues. British Telecom’s 9,000 teleworkers are apparently 30% more productive than their office counterparts.
That may be just the extra hours they put in. Telecommuters are famous for clocking on much earlier and clocking off far later than their office counterparts.
But as experience with telecommuting has accumulated, doubts about some of its reputed benefits have begun to surface. For instance, Korn/Ferry, a recruiting firm based in Los Angeles, finds the careers of telecommuters are believed to stagnate—as out-of-sight translates into out-of-mind.
The unhappiness is mutual. Half the bosses in the Korn/Ferry study felt the work done by remote employees suffered over time through lack of face-to-face contact with fellow workers. With 40% of its employees working away from the office every day, IBM has been alarmed enough to do some soul-searching.
Research it commissioned recently from Jay Mulki, a marketing expert at Northeastern University’s business school, points to two particular challenges that need addressing—the feeling of isolation and the difficulty of achieving a healthy work/life balance when employees operate from home. “When face-to-face communication isn’t possible,” says Mr Mulki, “teleworkers need a substitute—and voice-mail isn’t it.”
Technology, it seems, is both the problem and the solution. What most telecommuters rely on—e-mail, voice-mail, conference calls and instant messaging, plus a broadband-connected computer—will do the job, but only just. Without some form of “telepresence”, remote workers tapping away at their keyboards in their pyjamas will always be struggling in the dark.
The good news is that the cost of providing telepresence—visual and aural feedback that makes remote users feel they are all in the same room together, having personal conversations—has started to come down quite steeply.
Depending on the number of screens used, these high-definition video teleconferencing systems that deliver life-size images of the participants used to cost $500,000 or more per room. Cisco Systems, a network equipment maker based in San Jose, California, is now selling a personal telepresence system for $33,900.
That’s still big money by any measure. But with petrol at $5 a gallon today (and probably double that in a decade’s time), think of the savings to be made. Cisco reckons to have saved $70m in travel expenses in 2007 alone from the 200 telepresence systems it’s installed in its remote offices over the past few years.
And now a small start-up called LifeSize Communications in Austin, Texas, has introduced a personal teleconferencing system for $6,000. It lacks some of the bells and whistles that more professional systems offer. But it’s more than enough for a foreign correspondent filing stories from his bedroom.
To view this article at the source, please go to
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11819706
Jul 25th 2008
From Economist.com
Telecommuters need more than e-mail and a broadband connection
THE best thing about being a foreign correspondent is not having to commute to the office every day, attend dreary meetings, dress soberly, and generally get distracted from the nitty-gritty of doing the job. The worst thing is being out of touch with colleagues at head office, with little say over how your stories are treated. But if you can handle the patchy feedback and total lack of control, the freedom pays dividends in productivity and sheer job satisfaction.
Being one of the most portable jobs on the planet, journalism provides a daily reminder that work is something you do, not some place you go to. For the past quarter of a century, your correspondent has smirked about the time and energy he’s saved through not having to travel to work.
When he commuted back in the 1970s, he spent 80 minutes a day strap-hanging on trains and buses, and hoofing it in between. On the odd times he drove, it took an hour and at least a gallon of petrol a day. By telecommuting, he reckons he’s saved the planet some 2.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide for each of the past 25 years.
He’s not alone. Gartner Dataquest, a market-research company, reckons one in four employees in America worked from home for at least one day a week last year. Over half of all businesses in the United States now allow some form of telecommuting. European employers are further ahead still.
However, it’s what’s not being done that’s even more interesting. One study published earlier this year reckoned 33m Americans have jobs that could be done from home. If all of them started to telecommute instead of drive to work, oil imports would drop by over a quarter, and carbon emissions would fall by 67m metric tonnes a year. In terms of hours saved, each telecommuter would get the equivalent of an extra 25 working days of holiday per year.
The telecommuting boom has been driven in part by the rapid penetration of broadband in the home, easier and cheaper forms of IP telephony, more robust VPN (virtual private network) software, plus a new generation of powerful laptops that are true desktop replacements. Actually, that “technological pull” has existed for quite a while. What’s different today is that, complementing it, there’s now an “economic push” for telecommuting from business itself.
To gain an edge over the competition, firms have begun belatedly to realise how much more agile they must quickly become. Success, it’s now understood, goes to those that can genuinely reduce costs, recruit and retain the best employees, and ensure business continuity when disaster strikes.
A sure-fire way of saving money is to reduce the amount of office space and services—generally reckoned to be around $10,000 per employee annually. Telecommuting doesn’t remove all those overheads at a stroke, but it can easily halve them.
Surprisingly, firms also find that telecommuting can reduce their communications costs. That’s because a broadband connection to the home—and telecommuting is impossible without one—can always be configured as a second (essentially free) voice line as well as a high-speed data connection. That saves firms from having to reimburse employees for making business calls at high residential rates.
The other big saving comes from reducing labour costs. Employers find they can often recruit cheaper and better employees as telecommuters by going outside their normal catchment areas. An added bonus is that teleworkers don’t incur relocation expenses.
There are productivity benefits, too. Telecommuters at American Express, for instance, are reckoned to generate over 40% more business than their office-bound colleagues. British Telecom’s 9,000 teleworkers are apparently 30% more productive than their office counterparts.
That may be just the extra hours they put in. Telecommuters are famous for clocking on much earlier and clocking off far later than their office counterparts.
But as experience with telecommuting has accumulated, doubts about some of its reputed benefits have begun to surface. For instance, Korn/Ferry, a recruiting firm based in Los Angeles, finds the careers of telecommuters are believed to stagnate—as out-of-sight translates into out-of-mind.
The unhappiness is mutual. Half the bosses in the Korn/Ferry study felt the work done by remote employees suffered over time through lack of face-to-face contact with fellow workers. With 40% of its employees working away from the office every day, IBM has been alarmed enough to do some soul-searching.
Research it commissioned recently from Jay Mulki, a marketing expert at Northeastern University’s business school, points to two particular challenges that need addressing—the feeling of isolation and the difficulty of achieving a healthy work/life balance when employees operate from home. “When face-to-face communication isn’t possible,” says Mr Mulki, “teleworkers need a substitute—and voice-mail isn’t it.”
Technology, it seems, is both the problem and the solution. What most telecommuters rely on—e-mail, voice-mail, conference calls and instant messaging, plus a broadband-connected computer—will do the job, but only just. Without some form of “telepresence”, remote workers tapping away at their keyboards in their pyjamas will always be struggling in the dark.
The good news is that the cost of providing telepresence—visual and aural feedback that makes remote users feel they are all in the same room together, having personal conversations—has started to come down quite steeply.
Depending on the number of screens used, these high-definition video teleconferencing systems that deliver life-size images of the participants used to cost $500,000 or more per room. Cisco Systems, a network equipment maker based in San Jose, California, is now selling a personal telepresence system for $33,900.
That’s still big money by any measure. But with petrol at $5 a gallon today (and probably double that in a decade’s time), think of the savings to be made. Cisco reckons to have saved $70m in travel expenses in 2007 alone from the 200 telepresence systems it’s installed in its remote offices over the past few years.
And now a small start-up called LifeSize Communications in Austin, Texas, has introduced a personal teleconferencing system for $6,000. It lacks some of the bells and whistles that more professional systems offer. But it’s more than enough for a foreign correspondent filing stories from his bedroom.
To view this article at the source, please go to
http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11819706
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Teleworking - Business Continuity Opportunities and Threats
By David Honour
IDC issued a report recently in which it predicted that the worldwide mobile worker population will increase from more than 650 million worldwide in 2004, to more than 850 million in 2009, representing more than one-quarter of the global workforce. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) currently has the largest total number of mobile workers, followed by the United States and Western Europe. However, in percentage terms, the United States has the most mobile workers in its workforce. By 2009, 70 percent of the US workforce are expected to be mobile.
Teleworking presents advantages to business continuity managers, in that the distributed nature of the workforce provides inherent resiliency. Teleworking can enable continuity of business during mundane business interruption incidents, such as snowstorms or traffic problems preventing staff being able to travel into a central office; and teleworking can protect against more unusual and esoteric threats. For example, it reduces the risk of losing a cohort of critical members of staff due to a single geographical incident or disaster; and offers a business continuity solution to wide area incidents such as pandemic influenza; or a CBRN-based terrorist attack.
In the US, TelCoa has been very active recently in promoting teleworking as a business continuity strategy. TelCoa suggests that companies should follow certain guidelines to facilitate the implementation of telework programs. These are:
• Determine who in your organisation is in a position to perform their duties from home. This would include workers who spend the majority of their time on the computer and/or phone. Further, modify work activities so they can be carried out from home; for instance, this may mean digitising many more of your records and information.
• Coordinate with your IT departments to verify that these workers have a secure means to remotely access the corporate network(s).
• Develop and coordinate with managers an immediate plan to train workers on the basics of working from home and how a telework strategy promotes your organisation’s objectives and business continuity.
• As soon as a plan is in place, test your plan, evaluate it, adjust and refine it as necessary and test it again and again until telework becomes a part of your working culture.
• Develop a two way notification system to let your staff know when your emergency telework program is in effect and so they can report their whereabouts and receive instructions and support.
As well as advantages, teleworking also offers significant information security challenges. This issue has been highlighted by Internet security company SonicWALL, which has expressed fears that the move towards teleworking could result in a dramatic increase in corporate security breaches. To stay safe, SonicWALL recommends that businesses install a VPN and take the following actions:
• Isolate the telecommuter connection - where the teleworker unit is on a shared network at home it should not be possible for the VPN tunnel to be accessible to anyone else on the home network.
• Enforce network protection at the telecommuter site - companies should consider giving teleworkers security levels at home that comply with the basic minimum corporate standards thereby enforcing a multi-layered defence mechanism that incorporates firewall, anti-virus, content filtering and authentication.
• Scale the telecommuting network infrastructure - the majority of enterprises will require VPN connections with many different users so it is important that the solution should be scalable to allow security measures to be deployed rapidly via a web browser.
• Manage telecommuting security policies - any solution must be capable of being managed remotely by the company's service professionals so that the VPN links remain in full control of the organisation at all times.
• Perform stateful inspection - where malicious attacks are detected at the application layer rather than at operating system level.
• Comply with international and local information security standards.
British Telecommunications (BT) reiterates the need to look carefully at security issues when establishing a teleworking policy. BT recently highlighted the security issues raised in a Computer Weekly survey, which found that more than half of the UK SMEs surveyed use at least three examples of wireless technology for mobile and teleworking. While welcoming the trend, BT warns companies to make sure that they have the appropriate training, security, business continuity and flexible working policies in place, rather than allowing the ad-hoc and uncontrolled development of teleworking. However, the survey results show that the latter is the norm in many businesses, with less than 50 percent of small businesses giving staff training on how to use mobile technologies securely. Additionally, more than 60 per cent of SMEs do not have a formal policy on flexible working and teleworking.
Bill Murphy, managing director of BT Business, says: “It is essential for any organisation introducing wireless technology to take steps to safeguard fundamental systems such as phone and data networks. The threat posed by viruses, hackers and fraudsters affects every organisation – both large and small. For an organisation to fully realise the benefits of any investment in wireless technology, it is absolutely crucial to assess and address all security issues as part of comprehensive business continuity plans.”
As well as increasing the information security threats to organisations, mobile working makes communications continuity an ever more important issue. The communications network becomes the lifeline, not just between the company and its customers and suppliers, but also now sits at the very heart of day-to-day business processes. If communications network fails, employees can not work for long. Vital data becomes unavailable and team working becomes impossible. Whereas ten years ago many businesses could operate for many hours, or even days, without access to telecommunications services, today’s business grinds to a halt much more quickly. And the greater the investment in teleworking, the greater the impact communications outages have. The need for true communications high availability solutions is now a genuine one.
To view this article at its source, please visit http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0275.htm
IDC issued a report recently in which it predicted that the worldwide mobile worker population will increase from more than 650 million worldwide in 2004, to more than 850 million in 2009, representing more than one-quarter of the global workforce. Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) currently has the largest total number of mobile workers, followed by the United States and Western Europe. However, in percentage terms, the United States has the most mobile workers in its workforce. By 2009, 70 percent of the US workforce are expected to be mobile.
Teleworking presents advantages to business continuity managers, in that the distributed nature of the workforce provides inherent resiliency. Teleworking can enable continuity of business during mundane business interruption incidents, such as snowstorms or traffic problems preventing staff being able to travel into a central office; and teleworking can protect against more unusual and esoteric threats. For example, it reduces the risk of losing a cohort of critical members of staff due to a single geographical incident or disaster; and offers a business continuity solution to wide area incidents such as pandemic influenza; or a CBRN-based terrorist attack.
In the US, TelCoa has been very active recently in promoting teleworking as a business continuity strategy. TelCoa suggests that companies should follow certain guidelines to facilitate the implementation of telework programs. These are:
• Determine who in your organisation is in a position to perform their duties from home. This would include workers who spend the majority of their time on the computer and/or phone. Further, modify work activities so they can be carried out from home; for instance, this may mean digitising many more of your records and information.
• Coordinate with your IT departments to verify that these workers have a secure means to remotely access the corporate network(s).
• Develop and coordinate with managers an immediate plan to train workers on the basics of working from home and how a telework strategy promotes your organisation’s objectives and business continuity.
• As soon as a plan is in place, test your plan, evaluate it, adjust and refine it as necessary and test it again and again until telework becomes a part of your working culture.
• Develop a two way notification system to let your staff know when your emergency telework program is in effect and so they can report their whereabouts and receive instructions and support.
As well as advantages, teleworking also offers significant information security challenges. This issue has been highlighted by Internet security company SonicWALL, which has expressed fears that the move towards teleworking could result in a dramatic increase in corporate security breaches. To stay safe, SonicWALL recommends that businesses install a VPN and take the following actions:
• Isolate the telecommuter connection - where the teleworker unit is on a shared network at home it should not be possible for the VPN tunnel to be accessible to anyone else on the home network.
• Enforce network protection at the telecommuter site - companies should consider giving teleworkers security levels at home that comply with the basic minimum corporate standards thereby enforcing a multi-layered defence mechanism that incorporates firewall, anti-virus, content filtering and authentication.
• Scale the telecommuting network infrastructure - the majority of enterprises will require VPN connections with many different users so it is important that the solution should be scalable to allow security measures to be deployed rapidly via a web browser.
• Manage telecommuting security policies - any solution must be capable of being managed remotely by the company's service professionals so that the VPN links remain in full control of the organisation at all times.
• Perform stateful inspection - where malicious attacks are detected at the application layer rather than at operating system level.
• Comply with international and local information security standards.
British Telecommunications (BT) reiterates the need to look carefully at security issues when establishing a teleworking policy. BT recently highlighted the security issues raised in a Computer Weekly survey, which found that more than half of the UK SMEs surveyed use at least three examples of wireless technology for mobile and teleworking. While welcoming the trend, BT warns companies to make sure that they have the appropriate training, security, business continuity and flexible working policies in place, rather than allowing the ad-hoc and uncontrolled development of teleworking. However, the survey results show that the latter is the norm in many businesses, with less than 50 percent of small businesses giving staff training on how to use mobile technologies securely. Additionally, more than 60 per cent of SMEs do not have a formal policy on flexible working and teleworking.
Bill Murphy, managing director of BT Business, says: “It is essential for any organisation introducing wireless technology to take steps to safeguard fundamental systems such as phone and data networks. The threat posed by viruses, hackers and fraudsters affects every organisation – both large and small. For an organisation to fully realise the benefits of any investment in wireless technology, it is absolutely crucial to assess and address all security issues as part of comprehensive business continuity plans.”
As well as increasing the information security threats to organisations, mobile working makes communications continuity an ever more important issue. The communications network becomes the lifeline, not just between the company and its customers and suppliers, but also now sits at the very heart of day-to-day business processes. If communications network fails, employees can not work for long. Vital data becomes unavailable and team working becomes impossible. Whereas ten years ago many businesses could operate for many hours, or even days, without access to telecommunications services, today’s business grinds to a halt much more quickly. And the greater the investment in teleworking, the greater the impact communications outages have. The need for true communications high availability solutions is now a genuine one.
To view this article at its source, please visit http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0275.htm
Monday, July 13, 2009
Telecommuting
Teleworking is a relatively new and cost-effective practice. Unfortunately, telecommuters have been criticized for being less productive, more easily distracted and less committed. However, a recent study in The Journal of Applied Psychology has proved the opposite!
Telecommuting is a win-win situation, study finds
Jennifer Newman and Darryl Grigg, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, February 16, 2008
Working from home, or "telecommuting," is becoming more commonplace and popular among workers as technological advancements allow for it.
But is everyone a fan?
The conventional wisdom is that allowing people to work from home can hurt business. Telecommuters may be less productive, more inclined to quit and perform less well than workers at the office. Employers may be concerned that at-home workers are more easily distracted by family and social obligations and opportunities, perhaps doing less in a day and negatively affecting business results.
Critics also maintain that letting employees work from home should be avoided since it damages staff chances for promotion, undermines supervisor-subordinate relationships and increases family conflict. When staff aren't in the office, they appear to be less loyal and committed as a result. This damages their reputations as promotion-ready and they are sidelined.
Relationships with supervisors are supposed to suffer under these arrangements as well. Managers rely on observing staff to evaluate their performance. When the manager can't see what staff are doing, distrust could develop, causing supervisors to monitor employees more closely. They may implicitly suspect that the worker is not pulling his or her weight by hiding out at home.
Families could suffer more under telecommuting arrangements since technology reduces boundaries between work and family. People find their loved one constantly working and unavailable, see no downtime for the telecommuter and as a result conflict increases.
Right?
Not according to a recent study in The Journal of Applied Psychology, which firmly debunks these claims. Ravi Gajendran and David Harrison at the Department of Management and Organization with Pennsylvania State University, conducted an extensive review of 46 studies on the subject featuring 12,883 employees. Their results show that working from home is good for business and for staff.
The researchers identified seven positive results of working at home:
INCREASED CONTROL
A key positive aspect of telecommuting is the opportunity for workers to have maximum control over their work and work environment. Staff have control over when they take breaks, what they wear to work and the layout of their office space. They can make individualized decor choices, alter the ventilation to their liking, change the lighting or even include their own music. They get to decide when and how they do their job and schedule their time accordingly. As long as the work gets done, staff are free to choose what they do and when.
INCREASED WORK/FAMILY BALANCE
When staff can decide when they are going to work and what particular tasks they will work on, they are afforded the opportunity to integrate work and family obligations. This means they can make work and family schedules fit together. Staff can plan uninterrupted work time as well as catering to family needs. Some workers find that they have a room set aside for an office and thereby reduce disruptions. Telecommuting reduces time spent in traffic and can ostensibly increase the number of hours telecommuting staff work. Taking time to take a child to a sport or pick up groceries can be scheduled into the day along with work "to-do's". Telecommuting reduces the tension that can exist between doing one's job and meeting family obligations.
IMPROVED SUPERVISOR-STAFF RELATIONSHIPS
The researchers found that telecommuting had a positive effect on supervisor-staff relationships. They speculated that the reason for this is that both parties make an extra effort to stay in touch when staff work from home. Supervisors who have less opportunity to see home-based staff, may contact them more and have longer and better quality conversations. Staff may also seek the supervisor out to update him or her regularly. When supervision occurs in the office environment it may be more casual and on a "catch-as-catch-can" basis. Telecommuting may mean supervisor and subordinate see each other less, but the quality of their contact may increase.
REDUCED STRESS
Not having to rush to work through commuter traffic, spend extra money on lunch and business attire or worry about being late can reduce stress. Coupled with improved supervisor-staff relationships and less tension at home, working from home causes a reduction in common irritants, subtle pressures and concerns that other workers find pervasive.
INCREASED JOB SATISFACTION
Workers who have increased control over their work, who can attend to their familial obligations and experience autonomy are more satisfied and less likely to quit their jobs. Being provided with the means to take charge of their own schedule and having choice is key to ensuring that workers are satisfied. Being given the option to work at home also promotes a sense of loyalty to the organization. Staff feel cared about and their concerns taken seriously when they are given the option of alternate work arrangements. Increasing staff satisfaction benefits businesses hoping to attract and retain talent. Job hunters talk to employees and former employees, gleaning important information about the company and its policies. Knowing that a prospective employer is flexible and recognizes the needs of its workers is attractive to prospective employees.
WORKER RETENTION
Staff who are ready to quit their jobs often cite tensions between work and family, lack of employer flexibility and difficult supervisors as reasons for their desire to leave. Some employers introduce flexible work arrangements to induce overwhelmed or stressed workers to stay. By finding a way for an employee to do their job and lower their stress, companies keep valued, experienced people on the payroll. Working from home is attractive to many and being offered that choice, can mean the difference between staying with an employer or looking for another job. People stay at jobs where they feel respected, trusted and allowed to complete tasks in ways that get the job done and suit the individual. Working from home can provide this kind of allure since the trust and autonomy implied by giving an employee the option to telecommute increases commitment to the company.
IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY AND CAREER PROSPECTS
Contrary to those who oppose work-at-home arrangements, productivity increases in these scenarios. Staff are less distracted and when supervisors examine objectively what actually gets done, they note that at-home workers deliver. The researchers debunked the concern that not being seen in the office was considered career limiting. Participants in the studies they reviewed did not consider their work arrangement a liability and when taken with improved supervisor-staff relations and increased productivity, the at-home work arrangement may help those who wish to advance in their careers.
Gajendran and Harrison report that telecommuting is largely beneficial for companies and workers. But they warn that care needs to be taken to nurture at-home worker relationships with their co-workers. These relationships can suffer the most from the telecommuting work arrangement.
Ensuring that employees have time together, some face-to-face meetings or social gatherings is helpful to reduce isolation and encourage co-worker camaraderie.
- Dr. Jennifer Newman and Dr. Darryl Grigg are registered psychologists and directors of Newman & Grigg Psychological and Consulting Services Ltd., a Vancouver-based corporate training and development partnership. Identifying information in cases cited has been changed to protect confidentiality. They can be contacted at: sunmail@newmangrigg.com
Telecommuting is a win-win situation, study finds
Jennifer Newman and Darryl Grigg, Vancouver Sun
Published: Saturday, February 16, 2008
Working from home, or "telecommuting," is becoming more commonplace and popular among workers as technological advancements allow for it.
But is everyone a fan?
The conventional wisdom is that allowing people to work from home can hurt business. Telecommuters may be less productive, more inclined to quit and perform less well than workers at the office. Employers may be concerned that at-home workers are more easily distracted by family and social obligations and opportunities, perhaps doing less in a day and negatively affecting business results.
Critics also maintain that letting employees work from home should be avoided since it damages staff chances for promotion, undermines supervisor-subordinate relationships and increases family conflict. When staff aren't in the office, they appear to be less loyal and committed as a result. This damages their reputations as promotion-ready and they are sidelined.
Relationships with supervisors are supposed to suffer under these arrangements as well. Managers rely on observing staff to evaluate their performance. When the manager can't see what staff are doing, distrust could develop, causing supervisors to monitor employees more closely. They may implicitly suspect that the worker is not pulling his or her weight by hiding out at home.
Families could suffer more under telecommuting arrangements since technology reduces boundaries between work and family. People find their loved one constantly working and unavailable, see no downtime for the telecommuter and as a result conflict increases.
Right?
Not according to a recent study in The Journal of Applied Psychology, which firmly debunks these claims. Ravi Gajendran and David Harrison at the Department of Management and Organization with Pennsylvania State University, conducted an extensive review of 46 studies on the subject featuring 12,883 employees. Their results show that working from home is good for business and for staff.
The researchers identified seven positive results of working at home:
INCREASED CONTROL
A key positive aspect of telecommuting is the opportunity for workers to have maximum control over their work and work environment. Staff have control over when they take breaks, what they wear to work and the layout of their office space. They can make individualized decor choices, alter the ventilation to their liking, change the lighting or even include their own music. They get to decide when and how they do their job and schedule their time accordingly. As long as the work gets done, staff are free to choose what they do and when.
INCREASED WORK/FAMILY BALANCE
When staff can decide when they are going to work and what particular tasks they will work on, they are afforded the opportunity to integrate work and family obligations. This means they can make work and family schedules fit together. Staff can plan uninterrupted work time as well as catering to family needs. Some workers find that they have a room set aside for an office and thereby reduce disruptions. Telecommuting reduces time spent in traffic and can ostensibly increase the number of hours telecommuting staff work. Taking time to take a child to a sport or pick up groceries can be scheduled into the day along with work "to-do's". Telecommuting reduces the tension that can exist between doing one's job and meeting family obligations.
IMPROVED SUPERVISOR-STAFF RELATIONSHIPS
The researchers found that telecommuting had a positive effect on supervisor-staff relationships. They speculated that the reason for this is that both parties make an extra effort to stay in touch when staff work from home. Supervisors who have less opportunity to see home-based staff, may contact them more and have longer and better quality conversations. Staff may also seek the supervisor out to update him or her regularly. When supervision occurs in the office environment it may be more casual and on a "catch-as-catch-can" basis. Telecommuting may mean supervisor and subordinate see each other less, but the quality of their contact may increase.
REDUCED STRESS
Not having to rush to work through commuter traffic, spend extra money on lunch and business attire or worry about being late can reduce stress. Coupled with improved supervisor-staff relationships and less tension at home, working from home causes a reduction in common irritants, subtle pressures and concerns that other workers find pervasive.
INCREASED JOB SATISFACTION
Workers who have increased control over their work, who can attend to their familial obligations and experience autonomy are more satisfied and less likely to quit their jobs. Being provided with the means to take charge of their own schedule and having choice is key to ensuring that workers are satisfied. Being given the option to work at home also promotes a sense of loyalty to the organization. Staff feel cared about and their concerns taken seriously when they are given the option of alternate work arrangements. Increasing staff satisfaction benefits businesses hoping to attract and retain talent. Job hunters talk to employees and former employees, gleaning important information about the company and its policies. Knowing that a prospective employer is flexible and recognizes the needs of its workers is attractive to prospective employees.
WORKER RETENTION
Staff who are ready to quit their jobs often cite tensions between work and family, lack of employer flexibility and difficult supervisors as reasons for their desire to leave. Some employers introduce flexible work arrangements to induce overwhelmed or stressed workers to stay. By finding a way for an employee to do their job and lower their stress, companies keep valued, experienced people on the payroll. Working from home is attractive to many and being offered that choice, can mean the difference between staying with an employer or looking for another job. People stay at jobs where they feel respected, trusted and allowed to complete tasks in ways that get the job done and suit the individual. Working from home can provide this kind of allure since the trust and autonomy implied by giving an employee the option to telecommute increases commitment to the company.
IMPROVED PRODUCTIVITY AND CAREER PROSPECTS
Contrary to those who oppose work-at-home arrangements, productivity increases in these scenarios. Staff are less distracted and when supervisors examine objectively what actually gets done, they note that at-home workers deliver. The researchers debunked the concern that not being seen in the office was considered career limiting. Participants in the studies they reviewed did not consider their work arrangement a liability and when taken with improved supervisor-staff relations and increased productivity, the at-home work arrangement may help those who wish to advance in their careers.
Gajendran and Harrison report that telecommuting is largely beneficial for companies and workers. But they warn that care needs to be taken to nurture at-home worker relationships with their co-workers. These relationships can suffer the most from the telecommuting work arrangement.
Ensuring that employees have time together, some face-to-face meetings or social gatherings is helpful to reduce isolation and encourage co-worker camaraderie.
- Dr. Jennifer Newman and Dr. Darryl Grigg are registered psychologists and directors of Newman & Grigg Psychological and Consulting Services Ltd., a Vancouver-based corporate training and development partnership. Identifying information in cases cited has been changed to protect confidentiality. They can be contacted at: sunmail@newmangrigg.com
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