Flexible working hours have been an increasing trend for a number of companies in recent years, as many forward thinking business owners understand the benefits which are brought about by higher employee satisfaction levels.
As business habits continue to change, more and more companies are offering extra flexibility by shifting practices towards a more distributed workforce model and allowing employees to work from home.
Not only does this reduce attrition, boost happiness at work, and offer greater options for talent attraction and retention, but it also increases worker productivity with less interruptions and a reduced commuting time.
The stumbling block for many businesses when it comes to supporting remote workers is the technology.
In order to ensure maximum productivity, cost effectiveness and a streamlined workflow, companies require software packages that can fully accommodate those working from home.
That’s why Office 365 is the perfect solution.
With a number of core features and package options designed to suit every kind of business, big or small, Office 365 is ideal for home worker integration thanks to a number of reasons:
With Office 365, Microsoft’s suite of productivity software – including Word, Excel and PowerPoint – is available for workers to download onto their home computers. All the tools are in the cloud, so employees have access to exactly what they need to work effectively outside of the office.
Staff can work on a document in the office, on their commute and pick up exactly where they left off at home, remaining productive during work hours, wherever they might be.
The programs work on multiple devices too, so employees can continue with important documents on mobiles, even if they are travelling on business.
And if an employee decides to leave the company, IT managers have the ability to turn off subscriptions for these people, so they can no longer use the software you’ve paid for.
Cross device support is standard for all emails, so employees can check and respond to messages on phones, tablets and their home computers quickly and effectively.
Plus, there’s a huge amount of cloud storage space and unlimited mailbox sizes, eliminating the need to worry about emails with large documents attached.
Maintaining regular communication with employees is key when they are working from home, and Office 365 supplies just what you need.
High definition video calling with Microsoft Lync ensures the chain of communication for your business remains in place, and allows home workers to have a presence in the office or in important meetings whenever they are required.
Microsoft SharePoint provides a great solution for a streamlined workflow and effective file sharing. And there’s also the extra security against hard drive failures, both in the office and at home, with full backups of files and documents in the cloud.
IT admins can also instruct Microsoft to only save documents to SharePoint, rather than a home computer, so that documents remain in a secure location, and not on the personal hard drive of an employee.
As a subscription based service, Office 365 is extremely cost effective with purchases available on a per user basis. There’s no need for costly email Exchange servers and multiple software licenses.
Plus, automatic updates are standard, so you’ll always ensure the software remains up to date across your whole business.
With the right IT support company, migrating over to Office 365 and setting up an effective system for home workers is simple and easy.
At Paralogic, we’ll help you along every step of the process:
To find out more about Office 365 or to discuss your options for supporting remote workers at home, simply fill in the form on the right, or give us a call on 01844 293 330.
For more than 20 years, Paralogic has been working with small and medium sized businesses, providing IT support and services they can rely on. We’re thrilled, therefore, to be named among the best British MSPs,…
Read MoreThe European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most significant shake up of information security for many years. Despite the toughening of rules and the harsh treatment of companies by regulators and the…
Read More
