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Telecommuting and Why Employee Video Communication Can Mitigate Risks

06 September 2017
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Telecommuting has become a staple of many American companies in recent years, but allowing employees to work from home comes with inherent risks as well. That’s why an ironclad employee video communication system is all the more important.

More employees are working from home than ever before across all industries these days. For many companies and workers, this is an advantage. Remote workers save office space, money, and love working from home, but there are drawbacks to remote employees as well, and that’s why you need an employee video communication system that can reach all employees effectively, no matter where they work.

Employee video communication systems utilizing video technology help in-office employees make decisions about their benefits packages and pass along messages for the entire team. Remote workers need this technology to get the right messages at the right time from their superiors quickly and easily. From live video chat technology to explainer videos, remote workers rely more than ever on video communications.

Mitigating Risk

One significant downside, from a company leader’s perspective, of remote workers is communication breakdown. Without regular work updates and ready, regular communication over the Internet, problems crop up that can’t always be solved. Executives have an advantage when they work in the same office as their employees because they can pass messages and information to them face-to-face. This face-to-face interaction helps employees focus and understand exactly what is expected of them. It also allows executives to get a better read on their employees by drawing on their attitude and gaining a better understanding of their abilities.

Remote workers operating on their own without an easy-to-use employee video communication system also need to have the discipline to avoid the many distractions that often come from working from home. Pets, children, household chores, television, etc. are all dangers to work productivity at home.

Raising Engagement with Employee Video Communication Systems

My team and I here at the ECC have written many articles about how employee video communication raises engagement for all employees, and engagement is even more important for remote workers. According to a recent Gallup poll studying the state of the American workforce, employees who work 100% from home have the lowest engagement rates among American workers. Raising engagement among remote workers has to be a top priority for Human Resources managers and executives to keep their teams productive.

When workers stay in their pajamas to perform their jobs, it’s much more difficult to keep them engaged and focused. You might already have an effective employee video communication system in place, but you have to leverage that system to engage and reach all of your remote workers to hold them to the same standards that all other workers are held.

As more workers trade their commutes for coffee shops and couches, employee video communication becomes more important for executives. You can take all the good things about remote workers—lower employment costs, less workplace drama, etc.—and mitigate the bad things such as low engagement and communication breakdown, with a good communication strategy bolstered by high technical support.

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Ben Renner

Ben Renner is an HR expert, writer, and Senior Editor of the Employee Communications Council. He has lived and managed his own business in Denver, Colorado since 2013. Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ben-renner-97708099/

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