Virtual Offices

Virtual Technologies Taking Hold

November 4, 2008 - 5:02 pm

Modern technologies are offering people flexible working opportunities via virtual offices, hot desking and mobile work practices. Time and place is no longer an issue and the boundaries of a nine to five working day have been eroded. Email offers fast and efficient communication unconstrained by time whilst video conferencing packages are opening up the world to us allowing face-to-face meetings between offices based in different countries.

Mobile Technologies Help Working Parents

November 3, 2008 - 4:51 pm

New technologies that allow us to work on the move or remotely from the office using virtual office set ups can often get bad press for creating a 24/7 working culture in the UK. However these technologies offer benefits not only for the businesses but the employees themselves.

Virtual Practices Good for Business

November 2, 2008 - 4:50 pm

Offering flexible work practices such as working from home and virtual office is deemed to be a good idea for the business. Industry surveys have highlighted that staff work more productively when they work from home:

Build Your Home Systems

October 31, 2008 - 12:59 pm

It is a sad fact that many home-based businesses fail within the initial six months. One of the reasons this can happen is that the company hasn’t put in place essential communication systems and administrative processes to run the business successfully.

The Impact of Working from Home on Your Partner

October 26, 2008 - 9:34 pm

If you’ve decided to run a business from home one of the most important things you can do is to ensure your spouse is happy with the decision. Without their support your enterprise just won’t work. Don’t just unveil your plans after buying into a virtual office package and start moving in the office furniture into the house – you need to sit down and talk it through.

Calling All Working Mums

October 18, 2008 - 11:22 am

As a working mum it can be a challenge at times to juggle your two jobs, that of your business and that of running your family and household.

The key to success is becoming adept at saving time so that you can get through more jobs. Working from home can give you access to do this but it can be difficult to balance both demanding jobs and problems can occur. It’s easy to become disorganized and before you know it your home life is merging into your work life and vice versa. Now and then it can’t be helped but in the main you need to have strong well defined boundaries between the two.

3 opportunities & 3 challenges Of Virtual working

October 15, 2008 - 11:59 am

Opportunities

1. Eradication of traditional organisational boundaries
Access to knowledge, skills, expertise and talent is no longer restricted by geographical, cultural and organisational boundaries. In troubled markets this enables organisations to adopt flexible working structures.

2. Reduced overheads
By working virtually organisations can achieve efficiencies through:

- Reduced business travel costs
- Reduced office costs by utilising home-working (and virtual offices) and/or serviced offices
- More efficient teamwork. For example, no travel time means meetings can be shorter and more frequent.

3. Enhanced performance
Some research indicates that virtual teams can outperform traditional teams. This creates the opportunity for organisations to improve performance and gain a competitive edge. Areas in which virtual teams outperform traditional teams include:

- Idea generation
- Decision making

Challenges

1. Collaborating across the boundaries of locations and cultures
Working virtually requires people to apply a different set of skills and behaviours to those that have served them previously. Traditionally team dynamics are governed by the rich social interaction that occurs between the team members every day, when you are working virtually this interaction diminishes. For example, when we use technology to communicate we experience a partial, or complete, loss of the social and non-verbal cues that would normally guide our behaviour. Add to this cultural nuances and time differences and the interpersonal dynamics become extremely complex.

2. Using the technology to communicate effectively
Virtual working is not all about the technology, it is about how people engage with it, and utilise it. One challenge is overcoming people’s technology barriers in terms of connectivity, ability and willingness to participant. Research shows certain technology is advantageous for certain tasks; it is a matter of selecting the right technology for the task. Learning new ‘virtual’ facilitation skills are essential if communication technology is to deliver its potential.

3. Creating and sustaining effective virtual teams
Statistics show less than 30% of virtual teams succeed. Successful virtual teamwork requires all members to be mindful of the common goal, and attain instant rapport and trust. This is despite the fact they may never have set eyes on each other, or had any experience of working together. In order to combat these challenges virtual teams need a fresh and innovative approach to working that compasses new skills processes and behaviours that enable effective communication, and build trust and team cohesiveness.

Business psychologists Bluestone Talent Management can help your business or team evolve, by providing people development solutions to help you capitalise on the opportunities, and address the challenges, of virtual working. For information on our virtual/dispersed working programmes, including virtual leadership development and effective team working, contact:

Rosalie @ Bluestone Talent Management
Email: rmillardevans@bluestonetm.com
Phone: +44 (0)20 8334 8082
Mobile: +44 (0)7854 569629
Web: www.bluestonetm.com

Things to Avoid at Working from Home

October 15, 2008 - 10:06 am

If you have a virtual office package then there are a few things you need to avoid on the days you work from home:

Distractions – you need to avoid these like the plague. This is imperative to your success! You need to be as strict with yourself about your working hours and breaks as an employer would be with you. It’s far too easy otherwise to become distracted by the TV, the family, the dog…the list of possible distractions is endless.

Fold Away Offices

October 14, 2008 - 10:57 am

If you use a virtual office package you are likely to still need to make arrangements for your own office at home. However it’s not always easy to find the space at home. You might not have a separate room to house it in and don’t want to have the PC and printer on display in any other rooms.

If you don’t have space for a full office there are some wonderful furniture designs available that can utilize small spaces and also give you the opportunity to hide it all away at the end of the working day. This way you can separate home from work and not disturb your home décor with unsightly wires and office equipment as you unwind over a glass of wine and some TV.

Beat The Gridlock with Virtual Office

October 12, 2008 - 7:01 pm

As the reports of Britain heading towards gridlock due to the overburdening of transport links across the UK continue to be released its time businesses started to look seriously at what their working policies are going to be to cope with the impending problems.