You know that a satisfied employee is a loyal and productive one. But what is the key to maintaining a high level of employee satisfaction? Surveys and studies across different industries consistently find that factors other than compensation are most important. One is so-called “work-life balance” – the employee’s feeling that he or she has both a rewarding career and a satisfying family and home life.
For many, this means having the flexibility to work part time or even full time outside the office. By adopting some proven technologies, you can help these valued employees maintain the sometimes elusive balance between job and family obligations. The ability to work remotely one or more days each week can even be used as a performance reward to an employee with a long commute.
Here are just a few relatively simple and inexpensive options to consider.
Wherever their non-work obligations take them, employees must have secure access to data. There are many established vendors and programs that enable employees to connect securely to your office’s network – whether hosted on-site or in the “cloud” – from a home computer or laptop.
Most phone systems can forward office calls to an employee’s phone or ring both simultaneously. An employee can tend to a sick child or wait for the plumber while appearing to be at his or her desk. For outbound calls, a computer dialing system can make the office number appear on the recipient’s caller ID, allowing employees to make business calls without disclosing personal phone numbers.
Remote employees can be challenged by their lack of “face time” with colleagues and supervisors. Video conferencing allows these employees to remain a part of the local team by being able to interact face-to-face even if they live in a different city, state, or country. Video conferencing can also be a huge benefit to your sales team and anyone who works with clients.
In addition, a conferencing system that allows you to share documents can reduce travel time to client meetings while maintaining the “personal touch” of a face-to-face conversation.
These are just a few examples of basic technology that can enable you to offer your employees flexibility in their schedules and locations. Have these or other technology solutions helped your employees improve their work-life balance?
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