THUS' solution will provide the communications technology that will enable businesses to implement flexible working. The demand for flexible working has risen in the past 12 months with 3.1 million people now officially working from home. A recent survey also revealed that flexible working is a positive experience for both employers and employees. Both managers and employee representatives questioned in the survey found flexi-time, assisted by the remote working option, brought a higher degree of job satisfaction, better adaptation of working hours to the workload, and lower absenteeism. However, despite these positive aspects of flexible remote working, the uptake is often limited by the communication technology available to employees.
To support remote working, THUS' Remote Worker Solution provides telephony, voice conferencing and high-speed broadband services. By increasing the technology available to employees who might be travelling, commuting, working from home or at a customer site, businesses can achieve office-level productivity while staff are offsite. In addition, THUS solution can enable connection to a business' Local Area Network (LAN) via Demon broadband as well as providing a dedicated voice conferencing line.
By having just one service provider, THUS' Remote Worker Solution ensures cost savings are achieved by providing; savings to businesses on phone calls, fixed cost broadband, volume discounts and lower IT and support costs. The solution also enables work and home calls to be divided into separate bills, which leads to a reduction in the time spent processing expense claims and eliminates the administrative headache that comes with managing the costs associated with remote working.
Dan Cole, Head of Product Management at THUS plc, said: “The boundaries between home and work are becoming increasingly blurred for many UK workers. The proliferation of remote working is growing all the time with the “nine-to-five ” day no longer existing for a number of people. When employees work from home they need access to the level of technology they are used to in the office, which includes a high speed and consistent broadband connection, a reliable phone service and IT support around the clock.”
“Imagine the scenario of an employee who wants to leave the office at 6pm to get home and have dinner with his children, but still has important reports for the next day to get finished. With the right technology in place he can finish these reports after dinner, at home, with the added security that if anything goes wrong he will be able to gain technical support just as he would be able to in the office. The same goes for employees who may need to stay at home to take a delivery, wait for a builder or look after a sick child. By being able to access the Internet and voice calls easily from home means the employee is more likely to get their work done while they are out of the office. Both of these scenarios provide employees with a better work life balance, giving more flexibility on time spent between work and home.”
Cole added, “THUS Remote Worker Solution is extremely cost effective, making it cheap enough for business to allow employees to work from home occasionally. Customers benefit from having just one support number for voice and broadband problems, as well as a business class broadband service through Demon. In addition to this, businesses need to ensure that allowing remote working won't drain costs and burden administrative processes. Therefore having one provider with one package guarantees remote working is a business advantage and not a hindrance.”
The Remote Worker Solution includes:
- THUS Indirect Access or Carrier Pre Select Voice
- Demon Voice Conferencing
- HomeOffice 2000 Broadband