Welcome to the long hot summer of remote and hybrid work arrangements. According to a recent American Opportunity Report published by McKinsey & Company June 23, 2022, “organizations worldwide have created new working norms that acknowledge that flexible work is no longer a temporary pandemic response but an enduring feature of the modern working world.” McKinsey worked alongside the market-research firm Ipsos to survey 25,000Americans this past spring, and here’s what they found:

·      58percent of Americans work from home at least one day a week.

·      35percent of respondents work from home five days a week.

·      When people have the chance to work flexibly, 87 percent of them take it.

·      Flexible work “is a factor to consider in the ‘war for talent.’”

According to the McKinsey & Company report, “what makes these numbers particularly notable is that respondents work in all kinds of jobs, in every part of the country and sector of the economy, including traditionally labeled ‘blue collar’ jobs that might be expected to demandon-site labor as well as ‘white collar’ professions.”

The Survey of Working Arrangements and Attitudes was founded in May 2020 in response to the dramatic impact of COVID-19 on working arrangements – it’s a monthly online survey run jointly by the University of Chicago, ITAM, MIT, and Stanford University. This is from the organization’s July 18, 2022 report, “Let me work from home, or I will find another job”:

"Four in ten Americans who currently work from home at least one day a week would seek another job if employers require a full return to business premises. In addition, most employees would look favorably on a new job that offers the same pay and the option to work from home 2 or 3 days a week. These employee attitudes are pushing many employers to permanently alter working arrangements…levels of post-pandemic working from home have risen 23 percent in the past year. Our survey-based evidence also suggests that high rates of quits and job openings in recent months partly reflect a re-sorting ofworkers with respect to a newly salient job attribute – namely, the scope for remote work."

Another factor driving hybrid and remote work is inflation, 9.1 percent in the USA as of July2022, while many economists are pricing in a recession for the euro zone either later this year or in 2023, with inflation in the zone forecasted at 8.3 percent for this year. With the price of goods and services lofted skyward by inflation, and the average price of a gallon of gas across the USA above $4.00 per gallon, working from home gives Americans the chance tor educe the amount of money they spend on commuting and meals and other incidental costs related to working on-site every day.

Hybrid and remote work environments are also saving companies money and making them more efficient. According to a June 29, 2022 Business.com article, “Does Working From Home Save Companies Money?”, the answer is yes, and the benefits aren’t only cost savings:

·      Reduced rent and utilities

·      Reduced maintenance and cleaning costs

·      The possibility of reducing your company’s tax burden

·      Improved employee retention

·      Increased productivity

·      Reduced payroll costs

·      Reduction in absenteeism

·      Talent retention

If you haven’t yet, the time to begin the digital transformation of your company and give your staff the opportunity to choose remote or hybrid work options is nigh.

The Vodia phone system is the first and most crucial step you can take in the digital transformation of your enterprise. Installation is simple and painless, and the evolution of your phone system from a legacy,“landline” system to a cloud PBX makes it so your team can collaborate no matter where its individual members are working while providing your customers with a seamless and easy-to-navigate call journey. Everyone in your organization can use their smartphones as their office extensions without having to share their phone numbers, and withcall control features that ensure they don’t receive calls beyond business hours.

We give you the most complete suite of robust business telephony features for on-premises and cloud-based telephony, including auto attendant, SMS, paging, separation of personal and work calls, conference calls, call recording, CRM integration and Microsoft Teams integration. Our phone system is perfect for hospitality, manufacturing, retail and transportation companies, as well as for municipalities and non-profits. And, if you’re a medical office or healthcare organization, our phone system has been HIPAA compliant since 2020.

Welcome to the new normal: hybrid and remote work arrangements that improve the quality of life for employees and reduce costs for employers, with fewer people than at any other time in the modern era spending40 hours a week or more at a traditional office or workplace. At Vodia, we don’t think we’ll ever return to pre-pandemic work arrangements – that’s why our phone system makes it so your organization can adapt and truly thrive.

We’d love to tell you more about it and connect you with one of our incredible resellers. Contact us, sales@vodia.com, +1 (617) 861-3490.

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