Commuting is without doubt a stressful activity. Whether it’s getting up early to leave, returning home late, worrying about missing your train, traffic jams or changing a puncture, the daily travel to and from work takes its toll. So what does all of this stress do to an employee’s productivity? Could you increase productivity by reducing or eliminating the commute altogether?
Naturally, for many employers this would seem like a risky thing to do. You pay employees to work and an office allows you to see that work and give your employees the space they need to collaborate. Technology though is increasingly showing us new ways to liberate ourselves from this thinking. Remote working or ‘working from home’ may seem of more benefit to employees than employers, but there could be definite business advantages too. For example it’s been estimated that in a business of 100 employees, 27% of workers are likely to be 30 minutes late once per month. This means that the business loses around 20 days per year in man hours through delayed commuting.*
In order to make the most of remote working though, remote workers need the right tools and applications to be productive, as well as fast, reliable connectivity. For example, a dedicated Virtual Private Network from a service provider like Colt is built for speed and efficiency. As the ability to manage networks effectively increases, provision of fast data transfer and minimal downtime should help productivity increase. When this is combined with a smart Virtual Desktop solution too, your employees should have the reliability they need to work, without the pressures of commuting.
If you would like to learn more about how to take the sting out of commuting we have some useful insight inside our eBook or why not share your thoughts on commuting and remote working below?
* Harris Interactive survey for CareerBuilder Nov-Dec 2011
Make Do
05 August 2013
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