2014’s Top Technology That Enables Employees To Work From Home

Posted on Mar 18 2014 - 4:46pm by Editor

It has to be said that, in 2014, more and more business owners are letting their employees work from home! You might think that such a proposition sounds like a daft idea, after all, how are a firm’s team members going to be able to effectively communicate with each other if they aren’t in the same office?

But the truth is, it actually makes perfect business sense to let staff members work from home, and it is proving to be mutually beneficial. For example, employees won’t have to spend so much money on childcare costs if they can do their work from home whilst looking after their children, and it significantly reduces a company’s overheads because they won’t have to pay for office space and its associated costs.

2014's Top Technology

Thanks to the wonders of technology, it is now possible for employees that carry out a range of computer-based tasks to be able to work remotely from home. Some firms require their employees to come into the office once a week for a “catch-up”, but even taking that into account it is still a cheaper prospect for both office workers and employers respectively.

In order to make this happen, home workers need to take advantage of a number of different gadgets and technologies. Here are some examples of what is currently used today.

Computers

This is a pretty obvious one! Computers come in all shapes and sizes, ranging from small netbooks and laptops to desktops with huge monitors and enough processing power to perform even the most complicated of mathematical and logic calculations!

Fibre-optic broadband

Personally, I was never really an advocate for fibre, instead opting to use traditional ADSL broadband.

But considering that I work from home most of the time, and I do a lot of file transfers to the servers my clients own, I needed to upgrade to fibre-optic broadband to increase my productivity as it was getting to the point where I would literally have to walk away and make a cup of coffee whilst I was waiting for something to upload!

Video conferencing

Obviously you will need a computer and a webcam for this one, but the perfect way for employers to keep in touch with their remote staff is by using video conferencing facilities!

This technology can range from simple one-to-one video calls to utilising cool (and professional) multi-participant video conferencing technology, such as that installed by companies like Project Audio Visual.

I once worked for a company that had a special video conferencing room set up that enabled them to contact people working for their various offices around the world, and it was quite amazing because it enabled people at headquarters (where I work) to have video conferences with multiple people simultaneously!

Remote desktop

A number of technical support companies employ support staff that work from home! This is generally possible thanks to the use of remote desktop software and technology, plus the fact that company-issued smartphones mean that they can talk to end-users whilst they are remotely logging into their computers to resolve all manner of PC or Mac issues.