Remote work is a working style that allows professionals to work outside of a traditional office environment. It is based on the concept that work does not need to be done in a specific place to be executed successfully. Think of it this way: instead of commuting to an office each day to work from a designated desk, remote employees can execute their projects and surpass their goals wherever they please. People have the flexibility to design their days so that their professional and personal lives can be experienced to their fullest potential and coexist peacefully. There has been a cultural paradigm shift in what society deems to be an appropriate workplace and remote work has capitalized off of that newfound freedom.
What statistics say about work from home?
- Fifty-six percent (56%) of employees have a job in which at least some of the tasks could be done remotely. (Global Workplace Analytics)
- In a Future of Work survey of company managers, 78 percent of the respondents listed “flexible schedules and telecommuting” as their most effective non-monetary ways to increase employee retention.
- Gallup research found that 54 percent of office workers would leave their job, if they could have one with more flexibility. In addition, Gallup further states, “job flexibility increases engagement.”
- Remote workers can be 20 to 25 percent more productive than their onsite colleagues, and
- Real estate expenses saved by each remote worker average $10,000 a year.
- Employee turnover in companies that allow remote work is 25 percent lower than in companies that do not offer that option.
- Employees who work remotely at least one day a month are “24 percent more likely to be happy and productive.”
To work effectively from home, you will need to make sure you have the technology you require, a separate workspace, Internet service that meets your need, a workable schedule you can stick to, and ways to connect with others. Top fields for remote work include computers and IT, education and training, and healthcare, positions include customer service reps, virtual assistants, data entry and transcription, teachers, and more.
The technology needed when working from home
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Communication tools
Technology is offering an abundance of options today for everything from communication to project management. The workplace was once composed of a physical office space with employees working face-to-face and through email during set hours between 8am and 4pm. Fast forward, several years and it is now the norm for employees to be working across multiple locations, hours and devices, the workforce no longer confined to a single office environment.
As these diversified workplaces emerge, the need for team-based and collaborative, digitally connected work environments becomes critical to efficiency and growth. Organisations must introduce digital workplace strategies capable of improving collaboration and communication, and enabling employees to work together effectively, regardless of location or device.
In today's diversified workplaces, Cisco phones are a popular choice for seamless and effective communication, enabling employees to collaborate effortlessly regardless of location or device.
File storage
Most file-sharing services have evolved into full-blown collaboration platforms. We look at 10 online services ranging from basic to enterprise-level. If you are working from home, there are few things more important than sharing your work documents remotely with your fellow team members. Online file storage, synchronizing, and sharing services like those included here can play a huge role in accomplishing this. Computer systems have been steadily moving away from local storage to remote, server-based storage and processing also known as the cloud.
Collaboration platforms
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A collaboration platform is a category of business software that adds broad social networking capabilities to work processes. The goal of a collaboration software application is to foster innovation by incorporating knowledge management into business processes so employees can share information and solve business problems more efficiently.
Vendors are taking different approaches to building collaboration platforms. Some are adding a “social layer” to legacy business applications while others are embedding collaboration tools into new products. All enterprise successful collaboration platforms share certain attributes -- they need to be easily accessible and easy to use, they need to be built for integration and they need to come with a common set of functions that support team collaboration, issue tracking and messaging. Many collaboration platforms are designed to look like Facebook or other sites that employees are already accustomed to using in their personal lives.
Computer remote access tools
Remote desktop software, more accurately called remote access software or remote control software, let you remotely control one computer from another. By remote control we truly mean remote control you can take over the mouse and keyboard and use the computer you've connected to just like your own.
Generally, remotely accessing a computer requires that a piece of software be installed on the computer you want to connect to, called the host. Another computer or device with the right credentials, called the client, connects to the host and controls it. Examples include teamviewer, ultra VNC, AnyDesk, AeroAdmin to mention but a few.
Virtual machines
A virtual machine (VM) is a virtual environment that functions as a virtual computer system with its own CPU, memory, network interface, and storage, created on a physical hardware system (located off- or on-premises). Software called a hypervisor separates the machine’s resources from the hardware and provisions them appropriately so they can be used by the VM.
Nyasha D Ziwewe is a Business Consultant and Systems developer at Industrial Psychology Consultants. Email: nyasha@ipcconsultants.com. Mobile 0783462251. LinkedIn: Nyasha D Ziwewe.