By Brian Ferguson, Digium
A recent CNBC study found that this season’s winter weather cost the U.S. economy more than $50 billion in lost productivity. There are few business roadblocks more glaring and expensive than the loss of productivity due to employees not being able to get to the office. This is especially true for small businesses that naturally tend to run very lean on staffing and budgets.
How can your company prepare for the operational disruptions of winter weather? For that matter, how do you combat any of Mother Nature’s possible weather events that could potentially throw a monkey wrench into profits?
There are a few fairly obvious (and somewhat expensive) actions you can take, such as developing a disaster recovery plan, buying back-up power equipment, and investing in redundant equipment and services. There is, however, another change that can have benefits well beyond those of disaster planning and that can actually save your business money: providing flexible workplace options.
Allowing employees to work remotely doesn’t necessarily mean offering that as a full-time or part-time opportunity. It may mean being able to provide the tools that let them work outside the office as needed. Workplace flexibility is a major key to not only keeping employees productive, but also to ensuring your customers have access to your business during major weather shut downs.
Take my company, Digium, as a prime example. A large percentage of the employees at Digium have the equipment necessary to work from home, or from a hotel room, or even a Starbucks, if necessary. During a recent snowstorm that shut down the city where our headquarters are based, Digium was able to function as normal even though most could not physically reach the office. Laptops and a modern Unified Communications system assured that our employees never lost connectivity with each other or with Digium customers. This is particularly important to a company that services customers worldwide. If your customers are in geographic locations that are not affected by weather events, they’ll be conducting business as usual – and will expect your company to do the same.
Flexible work options offer many benefits well beyond disaster planning:
- Cost Savings: When there are fewer employees in the office, the cost of running the building will drop. The reduction in the cost of utilities and other operational expenses add up to significant savings. Statistics show that employers can save upwards of $11,000 per employee when working at least half-time out of the office.
- Increased Productivity: Though there are some jobs that do not lend themselves to working remotely, it’s been shown that productivity increases significantly in many jobs. It’s true that it’s not possible for a line worker to assemble cars from their living room, but writers, software developers, managers, salespeople, and many more creative jobs thrive from the flexibility and freedom of working remotely. In fact, it’s been proven that employees that work outside the office usually end up working well beyond a 40-hour week.
- Recruiting Talent: Being able to work remotely is an attractive benefit to prospective talent. Giving potential employees flexible options can be the difference between them choosing to work for you or your competitor.
- Higher Employee Morale: Employees with multiple work options have been proven to be more satisfied with their jobs and more likely to stay.
So what can you do to help your company or the companies you support be ready to add remote workers? Here are some things you can provide:
- Mobility: Whether it’s providing laptops or tablets, or developing solid Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies, use mobile devices to unchain employees from their desks.
- Cloud-based Unified Communications (UC): UC systems go way beyond your traditional phone system and provide many tools to keep employees connected to each other and to their customers. These tools or features include video, chat, collaboration tools and more. Cloud-based UC removes physical hardware from the office and ensures that if the office building is out of commission due to power loss, remote employees can continue working as normal.
- Remote Access Network Tools: One key to a successful remote work program is to ensure employees have the necessary access to files and software from anywhere. VPN and other remote networking tools provide the access and security necessary.
Don’t let your company or your customers become next winter’s statistics on lost productivity and decreased profits. Stay productive during any weather situation by providing the tools employees need and by guiding them into flexible work options.
Brian Ferguson is a product marketing manager at Digium, which provides Asterisk® software, telephony hardware and Switchvox business phone systems that deliver enterprise-class Unified Communications.
