FLEXIBLE WORKING

Flexible working encompasses a range of solutions – mobility, remote working, home workers etc, which fall under the category of unified communications. It is important to note that Dataphone can offer these functionalities even for very small offices, so contact us to discuss what is suitable for you.

There are many reasons to provide flexible working functionality – from compliance with the latest rules through to staff retention. More and more people are seeing flexible working as a benefit, on a par with a pay rise. From an employer's perspective it can help staff retention, as well as open up a wider field of talented employees – they no longer have to be a reasonable commute from the office, depending on your business your staff can be based anywhere in the world.

Companies who offer flexible working find that sickness days reduce as employees are often willing to work from home even when they are too ill to face the commute and the office. It can also help from a business continuity perspective, as your staff can work from where ever they are in the case of transportation links being adversely affected by the weather, or if the office is inaccessible due to an unforeseen reason.

Your customer satisfaction levels will improve, not only because happier employees look after customers better, but because they are more available to respond to customers’ queries.

Technologies such as mobile twinning (where both the desk phone and mobile ring at the same time) and one number solutions mean field staff are easily contactable. A one number solution means that a single number (usually a landline) is published and that number can be redirected wherever the employee is. It also means a single voicemail service for staff to manage, reducing the chances of messages getting ‘lost’.

Fixed mobile convergence (FMC) is another new emerging technology. This is where mobile phones are dual enabled phones and a call switches from the GSM network to a wireless one as they come into range. This can result in free calls on mobiles, as they will be calling over the IP network. In addition when making calls out on the road the mobile can dial into the PBX first, which then makes the call on their behalf, again reducing the call costs. All of this is done automatically and intelligently by the PBX, with no user intervention.

Dataphone can advise on all of these solutions so you receive the right solution for you. Some of these solutions are available for small offices, starting from just one user.