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White Paper: Video conferencing for the telecommuter

He or she is 49 years old, a college graduate, and earns around US $58,000 per year. Wondering what we are talking about? We are talking about the typical telecommuter. Increasingly, telecommuting is becoming the norm in both developed and developing countries, and India is no exception. And a technology that impacts telecommuting in many different ways is video conferencing.

This white paper by Lifesize talks about how video conferencing enables typical telecommuters to communicate from home or other remote locations with their office colleagues and clients. It also details concrete numbers about remote video conferencing. So, here goes…

There are some interesting statistics about the typical commuter apart from the ones mentioned above.

These are:

85% of telecommuters do some or all of their work at the office
88% would never return to a full-time office job
96% would suggest working from home
98% are happier working from home

While these statistics are important they do not tell the whole story. An image of a typical telecommuter brings to mind a person relaxing on a beach with not a care in the world. However, this stereotype is not quite accurate to say the least. Almost 53% of telecommuters work more than 40 hours a week, as opposed to only 28% of regular office workers.

Video conferencing has several advantages and can be regularly used by telecommuters. However, there are certain points to be kept in mind when using video conferencing.

Utilising video conferencing to meet with your remote employees is the best way to ensure that everyone is on the same page.

A face to face meeting at least once a week helps increase productivity in remote employees, particularly when supplemented by short calls at the beginning of the workday.

Lifesize reports that taking on remote workers for compatible duties could save as much as US $11 thousand per person per year for a typical business.

Small charges add up over the year: desks and other office or cubicle furniture are hardly cheap, the electric bill rises with every new employee you put on a computer, and the cost of printing hits businesses hard.

Unlike the constant webcam surveillance employed by some companies for their telecommuting workers, video conferencing allows employers to meet with their employees personally to discuss projects, duties, and changes of plan easily and naturally no matter where they are—it can even be used for job interviews in place of lengthy phone calls.

Body language is a huge aspect of the business communication process. This is why video conferencing makes communication more natural and allows you to really get to know the people working for you across the country or even the world just as well as you know your on-site employees.

Some important points:

“One concern that employees and employers share with telecommuting is the lack of face-to -face collaboration.”

“Technologies like video conferencing help teams build relationships and stay connected.”

“The top 7 career fields embracing teleworking are: medical and health; customer service; sales; computer and IT; administrative; education and training, and marketing.”

So, now you know how video conferencing can help both telecommuters as well as companies communicate seamlessly and effectively as often as they like. So, do use video conferencing and enhance the telecommuter experience!

 

You can access this white paper for certain facts about telecommuting. To know more about how video conferencing can help your business, contact Actis at 022-30808080 or at contact@actis.co.in.

(Content and images courtesy: www.lifesize.com and work.chron.com)