How VoIP Can Prepare Businesses for Post-COVID-19 Workplaces

Many of the world’s enterprises must find a new way to do business due to COVID-19. For most, that means transitioning employees to a work from home environment.

In the wake of the current pandemic, enterprises across many fields and industries have made radical changes. Most business leaders are doing whatever they can to help stop the spread of COVID-19. A major part of that effort involves moving many tasks out of the office.

Resultantly, many employees are struggling to remain focused on the job while working from home. It’s a new and challenging experience.

Employers need to understand the struggle that employees now face. Many experience stress while trying to figure out how to rearrange their work and personal life. At the same time, they’re worried about the health of their family, their friends and themselves.

To find out how VoIP can empower your business in a post-COVID-19 world, read on.

Getting Things Done in Post-COVID-19 Workplaces

The shift to working at home is especially challenging for career novices. New workers feel especially isolated after missing the chance to solidify their standing in post-COVID-19 workplaces. They also find it more challenging to communicate with peers to find out information that they need to do their work.

Many workers are struggling to get used to working from home. Talking with peers face-to-face is a normal part of doing business.

Now, that’s no longer possible for many. Virtual communication helps, but it can prove burdensome to give up face-to-face interaction while at the same time adjusting to doing work at home. These circumstances make it harder for employees to feel satisfied with their jobs, connect with peers and maintain productivity.

COVID-19 caught companies off guard. Suddenly, people had to start learning how to use remote technology.

The primary concern for many business leaders is maintaining operational continuity. On the heels of current events, executives know that they must adapt to changes quickly or face closing their doors. Deploying and managing a remote workforce only compounds the problem of ensuring operational integrity.

Resultantly, business leaders have found it challenging to maintain employee productivity and engagement while keeping them aligned with organizational goals. It’s been challenging for employers to encourage morale and a sense of belonging among employees.

The pandemic has had less of an impact on veteran employees. Experienced workers are more confident in their roles.

This confidence has made the transition to working from home easier compared to their newly hired teammates. What’s more, their history in the workplace helps to bolster their sense of belonging – a benefit not shared by their recently hired peers.

Barriers to Remote Deployment

Whether it’s a dog barking or a curious child asking questions, employees now struggle with balancing work and home. Even worse, some workers cannot do their jobs because of technical difficulties. These problems can include login issues to a lack of understanding about how to use new applications.

For those not facing technological issues, there’s the issue of fatigue. Staring at a screen all day is tiring and causes weariness. Compared to real-life interaction, it’s downright exhausting for some.

Furthermore, the digital divide causes some workers to feel disengaged when talking to colleagues. A lack of face-to-face interaction also reduces creativity for some.

Also, how do you punch out at the office when the office is your home? For many workers, this issue makes it difficult to disengage from the job at the end of the day.

It’s not impossible to overcome these problems. You can help employees overcome obstacles in the remote work environment by providing everyone with effective technology. Video conferencing technology, for instance, can give employees the interaction that they need to feel connected to the office.

In this new environment, business leaders must help workers reassess office communications and corporate practices. It’s helpful to compel employees to clearly define when they’re working, when they’re off and when they’re on break.

You should also encourage employees to think about whether they prefer video conferencing or teleconferencing when communicating with staff. By inspiring employees to use a medium that makes them comfortable, you can make the transition to work from home life more manageable.

Also, you must embrace technology in the new normal. If there’s an application that you believe will help you maintain continuity, try it.

Finally, reach out – and do it often. Stay in touch with clients and employees and always respond to messages and questions in a timely fashion.

Maintaining Communication With a Remote Workforce

To view the situation from another perspective, new workers are almost twice as likely as experienced ones to feel a diminished sense of belonging. Because of this, new workers are twice as likely to feel isolated and lonely when working from home.

However, the sentiment of experienced workers is cause for hope. A significant segment of veteran employees feels an improved sense of belonging when working from home. This sentiment indicates that the right practices can boost morale among workers.

Among veteran employees, the work from home experience is telling. They enjoy working out of the office.

It’s important to note, however, that many experienced employees were working from home before COVID-19. What this means is that remote work can be satisfying for employees, even during the current state of affairs.

As an employer, you face challenges with promoting communication, connection and efficiency among employees. Technology can help workers adapt to change. The right resources can help you to reshape workers’ roles and improve satisfaction in the workplace – even if the workplace is employees’ homes.

Technology is the Answer

Right now, the most important thing that you can do is invest in technology that will keep your company moving forward. For example, Slack is one of the top tools that are helping business leaders overcome communications challenges. Tools like this help employers increase morale, productivity, focus and communication.

Collaboration tools, such as Slack, can help to reduce workers’ feelings of isolation. With such tools, workers are far more likely to feel a sense of belonging. Furthermore, they’re less likely to feel lonely and isolated.

A significant number of workers also feel that communication technology makes them more productive in a remote work environment. Communication tools will also allow your organization to experience similar benefits and productivity in other performance measures.

VoIP to the Rescue: The Benefits of VoIP

Technology empowers employees to communicate and stay focused. Resultantly, they’re able to get more done.

VoIP is the backbone that enables workers to use all the technology needed to do their jobs. This technology may include:

• Business suites
• Productivity tools
• SMS messaging
• Teleconferencing
• Video conferencing

Just a few short years ago, it was unheard of to deploy a largely – or completely – remote workforce. As 2020 drew closer, however, the possibility didn’t seem so far-fetched.

Many technical advocates promoted the idea of allowing people to work from home as new technological developments made this prospect entirely feasible. At the same time, researchers have made progress in securing company networks.

It’s an ongoing struggle. However, they’re making it happen.

It’s a good thing too. When employees can work from anywhere using cloud-based technology, it’s almost as good as working in the office.

After COVID-19, it’s painfully apparent that you never know what’s going to happen next. Accordingly, you must prepare for every and any possibility.

VoIP technology enables you to do just that. It resides on a flexible, scalable framework.

Your organization may experience a sudden change due to seasonal demands, a promotion or an emergency. Whatever the reason, VoIP technology empowers you to deploy changes in an instant.

Furthermore, VoIP technology enables you to connect workers anywhere and at any time. More importantly, it allows you to connect staff members via regular staff meetings right from their homes.

Businesses Get a Break During COVID-19

Social media platforms are essential for sharing valuable information with your clients or customers. However, you need more than social media to keep your business running. Fortunately, many technology firms have offered free resources to help you make it through these trying times.

These offers enable you to deploy remote technology without worrying about cost for the time being. It’s only fair to give credit to technology vendors who are providing free service to businesses.

They did the right thing and chose not to price gouge during a time when enterprises desperately need their services. The generosity of these companies has enabled many small-to-medium-sized businesses and nonprofit organizations to stay afloat.

Many communication providers are doing their part to support businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. As enterprises struggle to adjust, technology providers are pitching in to help them survive. Tech firms such as Atlassian, Okta and Tableau now offer free versions of the applications that help companies stay in business.

Atlassian, for example, has made its top offerings available for free for ten or fewer employees. This offer is in addition to the company’s existing unlimited seat, free offerings, such as:

• Bitbucket
• Confluence
• Jira Service Desk
• Opsgenie
• Trello

Atlassian has also granted free access to Jira. In addition, the company has offered Trello to educators for free for a year.

Another free offering, Okta for Emergency Remote Work, is available to new subscribers for six months. Okta offerings include Single Sign-On, Multifactor Authentication and five other proprietary applications.

Ping Identity is also offering multifactor identification for new clients. The company is allowing businesses to register an unlimited number of applications and identities.

Choosing a VoIP Service

This kind of generosity is a boon for businesses struggling to make it through the COVID-19 pandemic. However, you need a foundation to support the technology. VoIP is that foundation.

You must choose the right VoIP provider. This task, however, can prove problematic. There are many providers in the market.

There are a few things that you should think about before choosing a VoIP service provider. Think about the kind of numbers you need, as well as the type of calls that you need to exchange. You’ll also need to learn about common VoIP expenses and services.

For instance, you may need local, toll-free or vanity numbers. Make sure that you choose a VoIP provider that can offer the services that you need.

If possible, ask other business owners or IT professionals who they subscribe to for VoIP service. Their opinion will help you assess the quality of different providers.

Once you’ve found a provider, you can set the service up easily. Top VoIP providers offer a convenient dashboard, allowing you to manage your account from anywhere.

You must also test the system before it goes live. Try out all the features and make sure that everything works.

For example, use different devices and call all your extensions. This way, you’ll know that your communications features work correctly across all devices, such as desktops, laptops and smartphones.

Adapt Now: Choose VoIP

Before the pandemic, business leaders and IT experts were talking about remote work – a lot. Now, it’s a necessity for post-COVID-19 workplaces.

Right now, people are still adjusting to remote work. However, it’s a viable solution to a pressing problem that businesses need to solve now.

Joon makes it easy to get up and running with VoIP service. Our technology enables your workers to communicate.

Our platform connects workers, empowering you to alleviate the stress of a new work environment and boost productivity. Contact us today for a free consultation and find out how you can transform your office into a remote work environment at the speed of light.