Once upon a time, if your employer allowed you to work from home, there was a setup process that included ensuring you had an adequate phone line, a compatible computer, sufficient network speeds, a quiet work area, and so on.
There is no longer a big fuss when deciding whether an employee should work from home or from anywhere else, for that matter. Our lives are already full of the devices, tools, and connections to do most kinds of “office” work from almost anywhere. What was once known as “telecommuting” or “remote work” is now simply known as work.
Where companies do often fall short, however, is accommodating remote workers from the office side. Are conference rooms, huddle spaces, personal workspaces, and the like designed to allow in-office employees to connect to remote employees, partners, etc.?
Employees want to be able to use the same tools to text, email, and video conference whether they are home, in the office, or in transit. And they want the convenience of collaborating with mobile apps. If a team member asks you to make changes to a document, you should be able to do that as easily at the airport as you would in the office. And you shouldn’t have to put meetings on hold because someone isn’t in the office.
You should be able to hold a virtual meeting as easily as you are able to meet in a conference room, but do you ever have meetings start late because someone can’t connect or hear or see? With today’s technology, everyone should be able to get into every meeting on time without having to contact IT because of audio, video, device, or network troubles. If your company is still experiencing late meeting starts that cost time and money, you can simplify remote collaboration with cloud-based video conferencing and virtual meeting room solutions. These enable any user to connect with any device, every time.
To learn more about what you can do to prevent common technology mishaps, read “Start on Time: Avoid 5 Tech Fails That Delay Meetings.”