Your coffee, car, lunch and even your hair are just as important to how you work as an Internet connection, enterprise applications, a laptop and your mobile phone. When your hair is looking good, you've downed your morning coffee, and started your morning commute, you're ready to get to work and make money for your company. But, that's after it takes you 30-40 minutes of commute time, time that ends up being totally unproductive. And then, of course, you have to do it all again at the end of the day. So while you're trudging along to make yourself presentable, alert and smelling like a rose, all those applications, all that data and even your fancy devices are sitting there waiting to be used. It's not productive and it doesn't let you do what you do best.
Technology, however, does give us a benefit that is critical both to how we work, and also to where we work. The Internet era gave birth to the concept of working remotely, and even though it was a bit of a rarity even a few years ago, smart companies are now latching on to the major benefits you can have when your workforce is remote. There are the obvious ones: eliminate costly office space, remove the wasted time of commuting and time lost to distractions. But there are also the hidden benefits that include things like giving employees the ability to create a better work/life balance and a mindset that enables them to work where they can be productive. Studies show that for the vast majority of people, having control over the time and location of where they work contributes greatly to work satisfaction. Satisfied workers tend to also be better workers. We'll let you do the math.
Even Richard Branson, multi-billionaire founder and head of the Virgin empire, has never worked in an office. He prefers to work from home so he can be close to family and the things that inspire him. His belief in working remotely is rooted in motivation and productivity; in other words, work where you can get the most done. He even suggests that offices as we currently know them will become obsolete.
In order for your employees to be productive when they are away from an office requires a working environment that is consistent, engaging and usable. We created ZeyOS to provide a cloud-based business framework that provides employees with everything they need to work all in one usable workspace. We know that in the course of a normal day, employees must create (requirements, POs, reports, presentations, innovations, etc), communicate (with colleagues, partners, customers, the media, etc), and collaborate (sharing of documents, intellectual property, concepts, etc). That entails a lot of work and brainpower, but we know that when it can be done within an environment that is flexible and can be customized, employees can quickly get down to business and begin to see results.
All the benefits that come from a remote workforce can be recognized, but they must be done with a vision for growth. This is precisely what ZeyOS helps our customers accomplish. Our customers tend to be newer companies and they are technologically fairly advanced. But for them, it's not just the technology we provide that is so interesting. Rather, it is the value that the ZeyOS solution provides to them. It means freedom to innovate, to grow, to produce, to just be what it is you are good at.
So, working from home means that while I'm developing a new product or communicating with sales reps that each live in different time zones, I'm also maintaining a balance with the things that nourish me. Having my data, apps and functionality all in a single dashboard and stored in the cloud means I don't have to worry about upgrades, downtime or integration. I can focus on the things that impact my company’s bottom-line. I can optimize my communication with colleagues and customers. It even means I can get a load of laundry done while I'm on a conference call, and that I can put on a cap when I don't want to comb my hair. We'll leave personal grooming tips for another blog...
