Here at MF Telecom Services, we believe in practice what you preach. This is why we managed to tie down our Operations and Sales Director Ben Capas for a quick chat about remote working, his setup, his work ethic and how he sees remote working as part of his business by successfully splitting his time between the office and home.
Ben currently lives in Horsham with his wife and three children. It’s Seven-thirty in the morning and he is sitting in his home office. He has already connected into his office VPN and is now logging on to his IP phone to ensure his calls are routed to his desk. Ben ensures his phones are in DND (do not disturb) as we start to talk about Remote working.
What are the benefits of working from home?
For me, the pros of being able to work from home far out way the cons. For a start, it reduces my travel time. My commute to the office takes an hour and a half on a good day, depending on traffic, so being able to work from home means I can spend more time on getting the job done and less time in the car stuck in traffic and feeling frustrated.
This leads very nicely into my next point. The environmental aspects of me working from home means I reduce my carbon footprint. Not travelling extensively in the car is also greener.
What is your current set up? Do you need a big set up for Remote Working?
My current home office setup includes NEC IP Phone, Broadband, VPN, Router. Horizon with softphone and Desktop App. However, all you need is an IP Licence, phone and a router and off you go.
Working for a telecoms provider means I know exactly what I need to be able to do my job effectively from home and that’s part of our services, to advise businesses on how they can manage this too. I have all this at home, but working remotely is so flexible because it means you can take advantage of any internet connection, as long as you are aware of potential security risk and take precautions to protect against this.
Would you recommend working from home?
As stated in our previous blog, the perks of offering home working extend to both employers and employees. You can offer a better work-life balance, which means you’re more likely to retain your employees for the long term.
For me, the main advantages of working from home are that I get to manage my working day, fitting this around my family. There are no distractions at home, which means it is generally less stressful and I can focus fully on calls to our customers without the background noises of the office.
Remote working is a part of a modern working culture that I feel is important and should be embraced. Technology advancements mean employees can ‘be at their desk’ no matter where they are in the world and this is never to the detriment of the customer. Plus, it can save on overheads for the employer making it an ideal, all-round, solution and one that works. I am a testament to that. So yes, I would recommend it and that is why we will always ensure we advise our customers to look into this as a possibility for their employees.
Is Remote working suitable for all jobs?
There are some roles you just can’t do from home, for instance, our engineers have to be on-site for most of their working day. However, they can use their Horizon mobile App and can keep up to date with incoming office calls as well as using it for outgoing.
So, what are the cons?
Self-discipline is needed to work remotely and it’s not for everyone. Sometimes, it can be isolating and you can easily miss out on the office culture. It is up to the business you work for to ensure that those employees working remotely are kept in the loop and do not miss out on things to avoid this from occurring. It is also down to employers to make sure they monitor the performance of those working from home regularly.
If you require more information on remote working then please contact us, or call 01892 577577 to speak to one of us in person.