If you’re sick of staff sickness, the Cloud could be your remedy
Discover how embracing the Cloud can help keep workers working and your business booming.
Employee absence due to ill health costs the UK economy almost £29 billion every year.
As you can imagine, the worse hit are the small and medium sized businesses, who struggle to pay employees’ sick pay in addition to maintaining their business operations while key members of staff are unfit for work.
It’s unavoidable – from time to time, companies will need to shell out for illness-related absences, compassionate leave, maternity leave and all sorts of other reasons, and losing both money and labour in this way can have a significant impact on business operations.
But there is a solution. Working remotely using the Cloud, facilitates working from home, so that even if staff are unable to make it into the office, business can continue as normal.
Read on to find out how the Cloud computing offers flexibility for those workers making the call you dread to receive.
Snow joke (…sorry)
It’s certainly not funny when the weather hits hard and your staff can’t get into work. Often it’s our public transport letting the side down, with even the most diligent workers having to turn back from the station and head home.
Imagine how introducing a cloud-based system would benefit your company during times like these. Instead of having to play catch up for the rest of their week, your staff could continue working from the comfort (and warmth!) of their own home. And you don’t have to take the risk of them attempting a commute, only to have an accident and be off work for even longer!
Maternity leave
Many mums-to-be would relish the thought of being able to work right up until their due date, if only it didn’t mean a long commute and an uncomfortable stint in the office.
Why not offer your pregnant staff the opportunity of working from home for the last few weeks instead? This is a thoughtful gesture with a powerful message. Not only do you care about your staff, but you still value their input and can inspire them to work (should they choose to do so) whilst they are in their final trimester.
It’s also worth considering that easing yourself back into the working world is no mean feat for any mum. Being able to work with apps such as cloud web conferencing, means that mums can make the transition back to part-time or full-time work, gradually. As long as there is an internet connection available, working from home using the Cloud offers a win/win situation for everyone.
Broken bones and other misfortunes
Unfortunately, accidents happen, but a broken bone doesn’t have to leave a person too unwell to work. More often than not, it simply means your employee is unable to drive or get themselves into the office via public transport.
This can be hugely frustrating for both parties.
However, if you were operating in the Cloud, your colleague would be able to log onto his system, read and reply to emails and update databases just as he would if he was in the office. You could hold meetings with him over Skype and work could carry on as normal. Just remind him to make sure there aren’t any curious children or pesky pets in the background if he is making a client call!
Save power
Another advantage of letting your workforce log in from home? You’ll save money on power. When you think about how much energy each of your employees uses, including the running of their computer and other office hardware, it makes perfect sense to encourage your employees to operate from home, if they need to.
A study by BT found that businesses can achieve efficiency savings of around ten per cent by allowing part of their workforce to work from home. The same study revealed that on average, workers’ desks were only utilised for between 50% – 60% of the day. This adds weight to the argument that members of staff about to go on maternity leave, struggling with crutches or suffering other ills should be encouraged to work from home. They will be more comfortable whilst still carrying out their work obligations, and you’ll achieve significant savings. It’s a no-brainer!
Still worried?
When it comes to security, of course, you should be careful in the Cloud, but it’s worth remembering that using cloud services is often safer than using your internal infrastructure.
If you think your team will be less productive at home than they are in the office, think again. A study by two Stanford researchers found that those employees who had the flexibility to work from home actually made 13.5% more calls and were 50% less likely to quit their job.
Any smart business needs to be able to retain its workforce. By offering your staff the flexibility of working from home during times when they would typically be ‘unfit for work’, you’ll make it clear that you’re willing to work in their best interests, which in turn improves morale and encourages staff loyalty. You’ll also retain an edge over competitors that refuse to steer from the typical 9 to 5 setup.
This sponsored post was provided by Louise Stephens, Marketing Manager at Compare Cloudware.
