At one point in our lives, we experience cabin fever. Part of the reasons that South African love their holidays so much is that they work extremely hard during the year and get sick of the routine and familiar environments. The reset button needs to be pressed every now and then.

This issue has been discussed in the US and Europe, but instead of urging workers to simply look forward to their vacations, they go out of their way to create an enabling office environment where workers don’t mind working.

**Telecommuting
**

Companies the in the US and Europe came up with the concept of telecommuting, the ability to work from home and delivering work to their managers either via email or via a shared platform – website – where the employees workload can be monitored.

According to a report by Business Today India, about a third of the US’ workforce have telecommuted at some time; further, the number of telecommuters has doubled in the last decade.

Echoing this popularity, a survey of 7 500 Indian employees reported a high demand for telecommuting. This is seen as the epitome of caring companies who encourage a work/life balance, especially mothers who have small children.

There are some advantages to telecommuting. A report by Huffington post pointed out these valid points:

– A Stanford study, conveniently released on the same day as Yahoo’s memo, reported that call center employees increased their performance by 13 percent when working from home. They also reported improved work satisfaction and experienced less turnover, according to the study.

– A University of Texas at Austin study from late last year found that those people who work from home add five to seven hours to their workweek compared with those who work exclusively at the office. Such workhorses, homeworkers are.

– A Bureau of Labour Statistics study, also from last year, reported that working remotely seems to boost productivity, decrease absenteeism — that means missing work — and increase retention. It also gives employers more incentive to ask you to work on weekends.

Yet, anecdotal evidence and newspaper reports in India suggest that the opportunity to work from home is restricted to a small set of valuable employees in the IT, finance, and consulting sectors. So it seems as if not every company feels the same about telecommuting. In fact, there is a whole movement against it.

You are spending way too much time at the airport for one meeting

OR Tambo facilitates approximately 19million passengers a year. 10million of those are Domestic Flights. According to the US Department of Transportation & US Travel Association, business travel makes up 40% of all travel. That’s a staggering 4million domestic business travellers per year, just in Johannesburg South Africa. For Domestics flights we are looking at a rough average of 7 hours spent at the airport and in air for a return trip. 28million Hours, 1,2million Days, Wow. Let’s think about that for a moment….

1,2million Days

Of course some trips cannot be avoided and in person meetings are required. However, if we inform and skill ourselves in the technologies available for meetings & collaboration, we might change our opinion regarding the effectiveness of virtual meetings.

Here’s a great example: On the 9th of July 2016 I presented a Governance session at SharePoint Saturday London. I received my invitation quite late and as much as I tried, I could not arrange a Visa in time. I still presented and had a great session. How might you ask? Skype for Business. Yes I required a proxy to introduce me, but I got my message across and could interact and answer questions. I would have spent 30 hours at the airport / in air to achieve the 45minute presentation.

Keep in mind that the purpose of SharePoint Saturdays is not just to share your knowledge, but also for attendees to meet and greet the speakers. I would never suggest a speaker NOT attending – but I had no choice. My weekend in London (flights, accommodation, transport, Visa) would have cost me close to R25,000. The cost of Skype for Business (1 month) – R67. That’s](/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/GTInfographic001.png)

The days are gone where we have to be “present” to be “present”. Microsoft’s productivity toolset allows us to be online, present and focused when we collaborate and have meetings – and this can all be done in a virtual environment.

Readytalk’s Infographic “How effective are meetings?”, states that face to face meetings can result in 60% productivity loss.

According to Microsoft’s Productivity Future Vision, there are 4 themes to focus on:

1. Bringing people together
2. Living Smarter
3. Friction Free Creativity
4. Fluid Mobility

All of these highlight embracing technology to empower ourselves and others. Apart from Skype for Business, Office 365 has also introduced Planner, Teams and Groups to help us achieve this. See below for more detail:

Skype for Business:
Messaging, meetings, and screen sharing all in one app that works with Office.
Planner:
Take the chaos out of teamwork and get more done! Planner makes it easy for your team to create new plans, organize and assign tasks, share files, chat about what you’re working on, and get updates on progress.
Teams:
Get flexible communication in the moment and keep everyone in the know. See content and chat history anytime, including team chats with Skype that are visible to the whole team. Private group chats are available for smaller group conversations.
Groups:
Office 365 Groups is a service developed with collaboration in mind. It works with the Office 365 apps you use already so you can collaborate with your teammates when writing documents, creating spreadsheets, working on project plans, scheduling meetings, or sending email.

Got you thinking? Here are some more great articles by Microsoft to get those creative juices going and hopefully helps you get more out of your day.

• The future of workplace productivity
• Think outside the desk
• 7 Ways to Work Smarter in the Cloud

Are you using Skype for Business? Are you struggling with the adoption of this platform in your company? Contact us for a free demo and chat about how you can use and or increase the adoption of Skype for Business in your company.