How Cloud has made homeworking a reality
Once upon a time not too long ago anyone who had their own home office, or even merely a desk, was an author, professor or company director. With the advent of the internet, email and mobile technology, homeworking is now attainable to the masses.
A study carried out by the Confederation of British Industry showed that teleworking rose from 14% in 2006 to 46% in 2008. This figure has continued to rise and according to data from the Trade Union Centre (TUC), approximately four million people in the UK now work from home permanently, with millions more occasionally working from home.
With the obvious advantages of telecommuting, namely avoiding commutes to work and increased productivity, more and more employers are opting to give their workforce the homeworking option.
British Telecom was one of the homeworking pioneers. As far back as 1986, British Telecom began a telework scheme. Today 15,000 of the company's 92,000 employees work from home. At HSBC, 15,000 out of 35,000 members of staff also has the option of working remotely. The company argues homeworkers save, on average, £6,000 a year, take fewer sick days and are 20% more productive.
These homeworkers are not only working at home but joining small business owners and freelancers in smaller and more flexible coworking space. The rise of independent employees has not just changed the statistics in efficiency but is changing the way people are using their office space
Making the unrealistic possible
The sharp increase in those working from home offices instead of on-site locations has been directly related to the arrival and phenomenal growth of cloud computing. In the pre-digital era, the thought of being able to route calls effectively, having access to internal systems and being able to monitor what employees were doing, was nigh impossible. Cloud-based technology eliminates such problems as it enables employers to monitor their staff's activities, to ensure they are getting the most from employees, regardless of where they are working.
Increased collaboration
Cloud computing enables organisations to provide communication tools, apps, software and access to databases and documents from anywhere. This significantly impacts a company's flexibility. It enables them to introduce new tools while phasing out old ones. Long gone are the days when new IT projects would take months to implement, as with cloud computing, new tools can be effectively introduced within weeks.
Small business can harness computing power
With cloud-based systems what was once a privilege of larger organisations with bigger budgets is now available to smaller companies, with lower budgets. For example, video conferencing was once confined to larger, wealthier companies. With cloud computing, small businesses can also use video conferencing, which enables them to compete with larger businesses on a more level technology playing field. Video conferencing does of course make working remotely much more attainable. Long gone are the days when every colleague would need to be present in the office for Monday morning's meeting. Instead, colleagues and clients can meet virtually and conduct business from the convenience of a virtual office.
The statistics in the use of co-working space has risen dramatically and with the opportunity for employees to use an office with the same flexibility is changing the way we see our traditional offices.
At a time when the price of office space is high, homeworking and coworking space has become a financially viable resource and thanks to cloud computing, the drawbacks and limitations of working from a home office are now all but obsolete. For many business owners, with the reduced financial burden and increased productivity that go hand in hand with homeworking, this 21st century model of working simply cannot go ignored.
What are your thoughts about the homeworking revolution? Are you, like HSBC and British Telecom, in favour of giving employees the flexibility of virtual offices? Or are you more on Yahoo’s wavelength, who’s CEO recently banned remote working as part of a new “era of collaboration?”