Virtual Working is the ability for your staff to operate effectively outside of your office. In most cases it is referring to working from home but it could be applied to any effective working space outside of your main office space.

Clearly it would not suit all functions and roles within your organisation but there are potentially a wide ranging set of roles where it can be very effective. You should also consider that Virtual Working can be applied to a varied number of days ie it is not necessarily about 5 days a week but more realistically about 2 to 3 days per week.

Virtual working is fast becoming a key component of corporate strategy for a number of positive reasons as follows:

Increased Productivity
Virtual Working improves productivity by reducing travel time and increasing the time spent on more valuable activities. It helps rationalise office space and costs, but most importantly with the correct tools provided, it will promote better knowledge sharing and collaboration.

Business Continuity
Virtual Working will allow you to increase the resilience of your operation through a more distributed working model but not compromising on the need to act and operate as one team.

Staff Retention
The ability to work more flexibly to balance home and work commitments can be a priority for some staff and therefore this option can have a very positive impact on retention. This also forces the management culture to focus on deliverables and empowerment rather than measuring productivity through the "hours spent at a desk".

Cost Avoidance
Property prices in recent years have increased significantly and therefore smarter use of existing space is becoming increasingly important to the bottom line. Operating a shared-desk policy for some parts of your business will provide the opportunity for avoiding costs and also reducing costs over time.

Sustainability
With increased awareness and aspirations to minimise carbon emissions, Virtual Working plays a very positive role in reducing carbon emissions through reduced commuting to the office.

Employer Image
Deploying Virtual Working is seen as a very positive action through the flexibility and empowerment inferred and therefore has a very positive on the image of the company.

To implement an effective Virtual Working solution you will need to consider a number of critical aspects to ensure that it becomes a successful component of your overall infrastructure. Key considerations are: Technology (including security), Health & Safety, Shared Desks, Legal, Compliance, Insurance, Team working dynamics and tools, Virtual Working tools and Education (including the cultural changes). Clearly this initiative needs to be led from a sound Business case.

Please contact us to discuss the benefits of virtual working. Call us now on 0207 898 0590 or email info@resilience-one.com.