{"id":820,"date":"2013-09-06T13:40:56","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T13:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=820"},"modified":"2013-09-06T13:40:56","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T13:40:56","slug":"are-you-meeting-the-flexible-working-needs-of-your-small-business-employees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/are-you-meeting-the-flexible-working-needs-of-your-small-business-employees\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you meeting the flexible working needs of your small business employees?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"smb-tech-trends\"<\/a>Talk around the water cooler these days just might be about flexible working.<\/a> That’s because your small business employees would rather be working remotely,\u00a0 if they are like the majority of workers, according to a recent survey.<\/p>\n

The survey<\/a> from Kona, the social collaboration platform from Deltek,<\/a> indicates that 70 percent of workers would rather work from home than come into the office. The figures go even higher \u2013 81 percent \u2013 for workers between the ages of 35 to 44; while only 66 percent of respondents between 18 and 24 want to work remotely.\u00a0 In addition, 70 percent of parents would rather work from home.<\/p>\n

In fact, the desire for flexible working may be the cause of some jealousy among in-office workers.\u00a0 The study found that 57 percent of employees who come into the office are jealous of colleagues who work from home. The figure increases to 65 percent for workers who are over 65 and as much as 75 percent for those who earn over $100,000 per year.<\/p>\n

The survey also underscores the need for small businesses with a flexible or \u201csmarter working\u201d<\/a> policy to provide the technology tools, such as smartphones, tablets and laptops<\/a> and headsets<\/a> for making calls, as well as video conferencing<\/a> and cloud-based<\/a> document sharing,\u00a0 to enable team members to be productive and stay connected.\u00a0 The Kona survey showed that while 54 percent of respondents consider email the most effective way to communicate within a group; 20 percent still use paper and pen to keep track of group activities and 22 percent keep everything \u2018in their head.\u2019<\/p>\n

Tips to manage your flexible working team <\/strong><\/p>\n

Even with the right technology tools, flexible working can make it challenging to preserve your small business culture and foster collaboration between remote workers and those who come into the office every day. To make a flexible work environment successful, you need to:<\/p>\n