{"id":99,"date":"2023-03-10T11:10:59","date_gmt":"2023-03-10T16:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/?p=99"},"modified":"2023-03-10T11:25:29","modified_gmt":"2023-03-10T16:25:29","slug":"99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/?p=99","title":{"rendered":"Remote Work Is Here To Stay"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remote Work Is Here To Stay<\/h3>\t\t\t

Embracing remote work has been a love-hate relationship for many small and medium-sized business (SMB)
\nowners. With new technology allowing workers to work from wherever and whenever more than ever before,
\nemployers have had to balance this reality against having the peace of mind that frequently comes from being
\nin the same physical space as your employees. As owners try and adapt to this new tech reality, more and
\nmore companies have been adopting a hybrid approach\u2014offering the option for some remote work but not
\nfully committing.
\nNow, we\u2019re living in a different reality. The coronavirus has made it abundantly clear that the need to work
\nremotely is no longer a perk or a convenience \u2013 it\u2019s a necessity. But thanks to the technology that has been
\nenabling more productive and collaborative remote work in recent years, notably unified communications,
\nthe ability to stand up a remote work environment can be very easy, fast, and affordable.
\nAnd yet, anything new, especially something that happens so rapidly such as the need to shift the majority,
\nif not all, of a company\u2019s workforce from centralized to remote, can certainly cause issues and concerns.
\nSo, to better understand how businesses are adapting to remote working and to gauge how prevalent remote
\nwork may be post pandemic, we surveyed 250 small and medium-sized business owners or senior decisionmakers
\nthat employ between five to 250 people. These respondents had to have at least 50% of their
\nworkforce in office-based roles.
\nOf those businesses surveyed, nearly 85% of their employees worked in a centralized office pre pandemic.
\nThat number has, not surprisingly, decreased dramatically \u2013 to 26% \u2013 once social distancing and shelter in
\nplace orders went into effect.<\/p>\n

New Study Finds More Than Half of U.S. SMB Owners Believe Working Remotely is Here to Stay Post-Pandemic<\/strong>
\nHighlights of the Findings
\nREADY TO HAVE EVERYONE HEAD BACK TO THE OFFICE? NOT SO FAST
\nEarly findings from the report reveal that of the SMB owners who increased remote working as a result of social
\ndistancing, 57% said they will likely maintain increased remote working options for employees in the long-term.
\nThis indicates a shift not only in the way businesses operate but also how business owners, employees, and
\ncustomers will engage with one another in the future. Among the biggest benefits of shifting to remote work,
\nSMB owners have found that employee availability (up 19%), job (up 15%), and life satisfaction (up 7%) have all
\nincreased, while overheard costs have gone down.
\nRespondents offered real-world examples with comments like \u201cworkers attitudes have improved\u201d and employees
\nare \u201chappier\u201d and \u201cmore productive.\u201d There are obvious pressures from the shelter in place protocols, but
\nworkers specifically noted their reduction in stress was due to no longer dealing with stresses around office work,
\ncommuting, time away from family, and the costs associated with being in a physical location, seem to result in
\nworkers that are more engaged and ready to make a difference.
\nBUSINESS OWNERS STILL SEE THE VALUE OF IN-PERSON MEETINGS, BUT VIDEO
\nCONFERENCING IS ON THE RISE
\nOne of the top concerns voiced by those surveyed was the ability to engage with new prospects and continuing
\nto serve existing customers while Coronavirus-related interaction restrictions are in place. Almost all SMB owners
\n(94%) said in-person interactions have been essential to conducting new business in the last two years. Additionally,
\n72% said that the current restrictions on face-to-face meetings will play a significant role in their team\u2019s ability to
\ncontinue business as usual. Technology however, was not cited as a top concern, implying that getting the right
\ntools deployed in order to keep their businesses running was not a barrier.
\nIn fact, survey findings indicate that companies are turning to technology to help deliver face-to-face interactions
\nonce reserved for in-person meetings 57% of respondents indicated a reliance on video conferencing prepandemic,
\nwhile that reliance has jumped to 84% currently \u2013 an increase of 27%, the most significant jump
\nacross all communications channels covered within the survey (including phone, email, chat, and others).
\nREMOTE WORK ISN\u2019T JUST A TEMPORARY FIX
\nRemote work has been expanding considerably over the past few years. It\u2019s allowed companies to have a larger
\npool of candidates and reduce costs. Workers crave a more flexible lifestyle that balances work and play, which
\noften means they want the option to work from anywhere. Plus, technology now provides a perfect foundation
\nfor employees to work from any location with total accessibility, easy collaboration, and robust security.
\nCOVID-19 has certainly made us reexamine the entire concept of work, illustrating that many jobs can be done
\nremotely without sacrificing productively. As more business owners realize that employee availability and job
\nsatisfaction can remain high, if not increase, within a remote working environment, the findings of this survey
\nindicate an increase to remote working will remain well after the pandemic passes.
\nMETHODOLOGY
\nThis survey was conducted among 250 business owners or senior decision makers, from organizations employing
\nbetween 5 and 250 people. Respondents belong to organizations where at least 50% of staff are normally office
\nbased but there has been a reduction in office-based working since Covid-19. All interviews were conducted online
\nin April 2020 using an email invitation and an online survey.
\nContact us today to learn how we can help!<\/p>\n

(866) 664-9933<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Embracing remote work has been a love-hate relationship for many small and medium-sized business (SMB) owners. With new technology allowing workers to work from wherever and whenever more than ever before, employers have had to balance this reality against having the peace of mind that frequently comes from being in the same physical space as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":101,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-remote-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/Remote-User-waving.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":113,"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/113"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamtelecom.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}