Hybrid work has all sorts of benefits. It makes your business more flexible, mobile and productive. Allowing people to work away from the office is also great for morale and your recruitment options.
But you need the right tools and tech to unlock these benefits. Here at Redline, we’re experts in the subject. From telecoms to connectivity, we’ve helped hundreds of businesses create the digital workplace you need to shine.
We thought we’d share some of that knowledge now, with our top four tools for hybrid work. But first, we’ll introduce the tool that makes it all possible …
Introducing unified communications
Let’s start at the beginning. Every workplace depends on good communication – especially in a hybrid environment. When some people are working outside the office, you can’t just take communication for granted.
If you don’t proactively manage it remote workers just won’t know what’s going on. That’s bad for workflow and bad for morale. Our fix for this, and so much else besides, is unified communications.
With unified communications (or UC), all your business comms are in one place. That means voice and video calls, conferencing, instant messaging, and email integration too. This is all hosted in the cloud, instead of hardware in the office.
The benefits of unified communications
UC is a massive upgrade on the traditional business phone system in two main ways. First, it just offers more features and communication options than just phone calls.
Second, cloud-hosting means you can access it from anywhere, on any device including a laptop, tablet or smartphone. You can even log in from a web browser, without downloading anything at all.
This is a game-changer for remote workers. It speeds communication up, and gives home and mobile workers the same tools that everyone in the office uses.
Now, let’s look at our top four tools for hybrid work. Spoiler alert – they involve unified communications!
1. Connectivity
Internet connectivity is the backbone of the modern business. A huge number of tasks depend on the internet, including communication. In fact, BT is switching off the UK’s telephone landlines. By 2025, everyone will have to route calls over the internet. All your UC features depend on the internet too!
We can provide a huge range of connectivity options for your office, from FTTP to SOGEA to leased lines. These have difference speeds and bandwidths, and difference price points. What we’ll do is to consult you, establish your needs and budget, and then recommend the most suitable option. This means you never have to worry about under-performing or overpaying!
This still leaves a question open: what about remote workers? They can’t connect to your office Wi-Fi, and they need a connection just as much. If their home broadband is up to scratch, that’s a big plus. But if not, no problem – we can provide a whole range of options to keep them connected too, including 4G and 5G dongles.
2. Instant messaging
Now we’re back into unified communications. Our UC app includes instant messaging, which is a huge help for hybrid work. It’s just a very quick, convenient way of keeping up to speed on shared projects. You can set up groups for a specific purpose, to keep all your conversations relevant and focused. You can also share and comment on files.
These quick-form chats are so much faster than email, and give remote workers regular, efficient interaction with the team in the office. As well as all that, every user has a presence setting that displays their availability in real time. This means no one is stuck at home wondering who’s available. This makes it a perfect tool for remote collaboration!
3. Videoconferencing like a pro
Sometimes, you just need a face-to-face chat. The video call became a mainstay of lockdown life – normally via a free Zoom call that timed out after 40 minutes! While that’s all well and good for a family chat, it doesn’t cut it for business communication.
Our UC platform offers professional, stable video calls and conferences with easy screen sharing. You can either schedule them into your Outlook calendar, or just click to call. Whether it’s a regular team check-in or a presentation, this keeps your hybrid team connected with face-to-face contact on any device.
4. Business mobiles and apps
It’s worth remembering that remote work isn’t just working from home. You may have team members who have to travel. And they need to be connected just as much as everyone else.
Here at Redline, we provide a huge range of business mobiles to give everyone a way of staying in touch. And we don’t just provide the handsets and leave – we’ll manage your account and monitor your usage proactively, to ensure you’re getting the best deal.
We can also provide our UC platform as a mobile app. This means that you can access your phone system and collaboration tools from anywhere!
Partnering with Redline
More and more businesses want to realise the benefits of a hybrid workplace. From our home in Herefordshire, we’ve been helping them achieve it. If you want a productive, functioning hybrid workplace, get in touch!
