The recent Consumer Electronic Show (CES) in Las Vegas showcased all the latest (and future) gadgets, electronics and perpetual credit card payments. I didn’t know, until they announced it at CES, that I couldn’t live another moment without a 3D television in my home. How did I manage to survive all my life without feeling like the ShamWow guy was right in my living room, squeezing water right onto my coffee table? There was also the cool laptop with a clear, transparent screen. Now I’ll be able to safely work on my emails and spreadsheets while driving…since I’ll be able to see traffic right through the see-through screen! The marvels of not-so-well-thought-out technology!
All the new gadgets are pretty cool, but I won’t be fully satisfied until they make good on the decades-ago promise of jetpacks. For generations we’ve been promised a world where people go grocery shopping on jetpacks, commute to work on jetpacks and maybe even walk our jetpack-wearing dogs on jetpacks. I want my jetpack!
Until jetpacks become a reality, we’re left with 3D infomercials, motion-sensing Xbox game systems and multi-hundred dollar machines to read $10 books. Nothing much there to help the business community. But fortunately you don’t have to rely on bleeding-edge-see-through-3D-motion-sensing-abracadabra-futuristic technology to help your business. There is great technology readily available to help increase employee productivity and effectiveness…even in an age without jetpacks.
Consider shifting to a remote workforce—that’s when your employees, absent jetpacks, avoid the maddening traffic and resulting stress and instead work effectively and efficiently from home. There are a multitude of benefits to employing a virtual workforce, including reduced costs for office space, ease of accommodating differing schedules and the ability to bring together a team with broad knowledge and experience (and no relocation). On top of that, it can even result in a more “ecologically-friendly” workforce with less commuting (pollution) and less paper usage (resource conservation).
But before you agree to the concept of a virtual workforce faster than you picked up the phone and ordered those ShamWows, take a moment to consider some of the challenges a remote workforce poses, as well as some of the steps you can take to overcome those challenges. Some challenges are obvious, such as the importance of setting and checking in on goals; some may not be so obvious, such as the importance of remote workers visiting the office on a regular basis to stay connected with co-workers. Whether your company has already deployed a virtual workforce or is starting to explore options for doing so, here are some things to consider:
- Consider what job roles are appropriate for working remotely and what are not. Some things are still best done by a team working in the same location.
- Detail the parameters of the working arrangement. During what hours are employees expected to be available? How quickly are they expected to respond to email or phone calls?
- Ensure that remote employees have ample opportunities to interact with each other and those back at the office. Have them call in to team meetings, have them come into the office on a regular basis and include them in work-related social activities. The face time and interaction they have with the rest of the team will lead to a more productive relationship.
- Get more remote workforce tips and things to consider here.
Technology can make many of these challenges easier to overcome (why technology hasn’t perfected the jetpack, we’ll never know). There is software available to help you monitor when and for how long employees are logged on to your server/system; conference call services and online web meetings to keep the team working together; email and other online communication tools to make it easier to stay in constant contact and the coolest of all—you can scare your employees by appearing on their 3D television and fooling them into thinking that you’re there watching them work.
TelePacific can help you get started with your remote workforce…or if you’ve already started one, perhaps we can help you enhance it and make it more effective. TelePacific’s 1Net IP-VPN allows employees secure remote access to your servers, email and other company systems through a simple web interface, so they always have the work files they need to be productive.
And when they want to discuss those documents with a group of team members or with the client, they can use Conference Central. Conference Central is a reservation-less audio conference service that is easy-to-use, flexible and secure. You can set up a sub-account for every employee, and every conference host is provided with a dedicated access number and a suite of user-friendly features.
And if you have some clients who are not quite up to speed with the latest technology, you can use TelePacific’s Fax Central, which provides you with a private fax number so you can receive and view fax documents as electronic attachments in your email inbox. You can access faxes wherever you can access your email, and you can even forward them as email attachments—saving paper and saving time.
With all these out-of-office work tools, maybe next year you’ll be all set up to work productively while you’re in Las Vegas enjoying CES…hopefully at the product launch for the new commuter jetpack.
Subscribe
Thank you for the help.
Great Audio info, i’m bookmarking the page for the great content.
My friend and I were recently talking about how technology has become so integrated in our day to day lives. Reading this post makes me think back to that discussion we had, and just how inseparable from electronics we have all become.I don’t mean this in a bad way, of course! Ethical concerns aside… I just hope that as the price of memory falls, the possibility of transferring our memories onto a digital medium becomes a true reality. It’s a fantasy that I daydream about almost every day.(Submitted by Nintendo DS running R4i SurfV3)
That rss option on your blog here is impressive, you should tell more folks about it in your next post. I haven’t noticed it for the first couple of times, now I’m using it every morning to check on any updates. I’m on a rattling slow dial-up link in Australia and it’s rather hindering to sit there and wait for such a long time ’til the page loads… but hey, I just found your rss page and added it to the Google Reader and voil? – I’m always up-to-date! Well buddy, keep up the good work and make that rss button a little bigger so that other people can enjoy that as well
Keep coming back for more. This blog is a lot of fun and we hope to continue to hear from you.
I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business.
I have been looking around http://www.telepacificinformation.com and really am impressed by the exceptional content here. I work the nightshift at my job and it really gets boring. I’ve been coming here for the previous couple nights and reading. I just needed to let you know that I have been enjoying what I’ve seen and I look forward to reading more.
I do not believe I have seen this said that way before. You actually have made this so much clearer for me. Thank you!
Lots of Good information in your posting, I bookmarked your blog post so I can visit again in the near future, Cheers
I wish more people would write blogs like this that are actually helpful to read. With all the crap floating around on the internet, it is refreshing to read a blog like yours instead.
Good share,you article very great, very usefull for us…thank you
i have enjoyed reading thank for sharing your story Greeting.
Good journey and experience!
Amazing article thanks for sharing and I will be coming back soon.
Superb site, thanks for the useful and interesting article.
Keep posting stuff like this i really like it
great information you write it very clean. I am very lucky to get this tips from you.
Amiable brief and this enter helped me alot in my college assignement. Gratefulness you on your information.
great post as usual!
Thank you for sharing I wish I could go somwhere.
I bookmarked this link . Thank you for good job !
Dugg your own article, the fantastic !
Nice content. Thank you for your information.
great share, great article, very usefull for me…thank you
I saw this really good post today and related content i think…
You have an interesting point of view on this topic. I am happy you shared your thoughts and ideas and I find that I agree. I really appreciate your coherent writing style and the effort you have spent on this piece. Thank you for the fine work and goo…
great share, great article, very usefull for me…thank
you
Decent article. I just came across your blog and wanted to say which I have really enjoyed reading your opinions. In whatever way I’ll be subscribing for a feed and I really hope you post again soon.
wonderful share, great article, very usefull for me…thanks
Thanks lots, I have found this extremely useful!
good information you
write it very clean. I am very lucky to get this tips from you.
Hello everyone thanks for
good information.
i am happy to find it thanks for sharing it here. Nice work.
Ha ha, that is rockin
Thanks for good news!
You can consider me in for a Digg. Thanks for posting this on your web site!
I usually don’t normally post on many another Blogs, nevertheless I just has to say thank you… keep up the amazing work. Ok regrettably its time to get to school.
Hi, I applaud your blog for informing people, very interesting article, keep up it coming
I hope you will keep updating your content constantly as you have one dedicated reader here.
Hi there, just wanted to leave a quick comment about the interface of your blog. It is really easy on the eye while also being catchy. I think I will do something similar for my blog as well. Thanks for the nice blog share.
Well this is very interesting indeed. Would love to read a little more of this. Great post. Thanks for the heads-up
Great write up, saved your site with interest to read more!
Excellent content. Thanks for posting.
Sure an interesting article. Thanks