Last October the storm of the century hit Ireland, bringing the country to a standstill with the first Red Weather Alert in years. Less than six months later, a second red weather-day immobilised the country under a blanket of snow. With public transportation halted, and schools and public services all closed, most businesses shuttered for the day as well. After all, what else is there to do when you can’t make it to the office?
Well, at IP Telecom we stayed hard at work. Our customers don’t stop talking when the weather turns bad, so we can’t either. Taking advantage of our own business VoIP system, our team members called in from three separate locations, staying safe while keeping our business up and running. While weather can disrupt communications, and video conferencing is often unreliable to begin with, our communications were crystal clear allowing team meetings to continue seamlessly.
It doesn’t take a hurricane or snowstorm to leave you or your team members stuck at home on a workday. Something as simple as a minor illness, injury or road closure can leave you wondering how to keep up.
Business communications solutions like IP Telecom’s allow you to keep working from the comfort of your home without missing a beat. You can answer calls to your work number on any device with soft-phone, or jump in on team meetings over Skype for Business with the Telecom4Teams integration. With the ability to fully integrate your communications with Office 365, while using it to host your work projects and linking to our innovative platform, the possibilities are endless.
However, crisis management isn’t the only reason to work from home. Sometimes it’s a better fit for your schedule, whether because of distance, family or a variety of other factors. Over 200,000 people in Ireland already work from home on a regular basis. Why? Because remote workers report feeling more productive, satisfied in their job, and happier overall. The data backs it up, with employers seeing a productivity boost of nearly one full day’s work per week among their work-from-home team members.
While part of this comes from cutting travel time and not having to prepare for a day in the office, remote workers at one call centre found themselves able to answer over 10% more calls per hours they were actually active on the job.
Working at home isn’t just for callers and creatives anymore, either - innovative business collaboration platforms like Office 365 with IP Telecom’s add-ons allow you to fulfil a variety of roles such as IT, business, design, marketing, accounting and financial work, education and others all from your home office. IP Telecoms Hosted PBX solutions make working from home a viable option for anyone looking to shake up and revitalise their schedule.
With flexibility, freedom from your commute, increased satisfaction and boosted productivity, there’s more reasons to work from home than not to.
See how working from home can allow your business to communicate better with VoIP from IP Telecom.