With BYOD and work from home options, the days of hauling files and a laptop to the office are long gone. The reasons behind this change can be attributed to the growing ease with which you can now communicate using voice, video, and data. With the Internet and VoIP in place, your smart phone becomes a business phone. Using the Internet and IP, you can call all your colleagues and customers without worrying about costs. If your business phone system is connected to a SIP trunking service, you can call customers who are out of the country or your colleague who is on a tour. Within the US, local and long distance calls are practically free.

1. How to Protect Corporate Culture in a Telecommuting World
With BYOD and work from home options, the days of hauling files and a laptop to the office are
long gone. The reasons behind this change can be attributed to the growing ease with which you
can now communicate using voice, video, and data. With the Internet and VoIP in place, your
smart phone becomes a business phone. Using the Internet and IP, you can call all your
colleagues and customers without worrying about costs. If your business phone system is
connected to a SIP trunking service, you can call customers who are out of the country or your
colleague who is on a tour. Within the US, local and long distance calls are practically free.
Hosted VoIP service is a step forward in this direction. The phone service company hosts your
IP-PBX and gives you universal connectivity as long as you have an Internet connection. Using a
VoIP phone, a laptop, or your smartphone, you can participate in conference calls, video
conferencing, or a simple one to one call with your customers and colleagues.
Employees can even log in to their office computers from remote locations, and access all the
data they need. With VoIP connectivity on-hand, and data connectivity with your office server,
Unified Communication becomes practical from anywhere.
Thus, the culture of coming to the office at a particular time might not sound practical to many,
especially the ones who like working solo.
One issue that springs up is what happens to your office culture. Offices are built around a work
culture where managers assign tasks that are executed by the juniors. On a regular basis,
meetings are held and employees are motivated by presentations and talks. Employees are
encouraged to mingle both in the office and socially. So when you start working from home,
your interaction will mostly be through phone, email, and other digital mediums. What happens
to the office culture in this environment?
Surprisingly, a few large companies such as Hewlett Packard have started to roll back on their
"work from home" policy. They believe that this culture is positively affecting the productivity
of employees and are hampering the corporate culture that always promoted teamwork. On the
other hand, there are organizations that are actively supporting the remote office culture as they
are hiring freelancers as well as full-time remote employees.

2. So, if you are heading an organization and are contemplating the impact of “work from home”
on your corporate culture, here are few questions to consider:
1. What kind of culture do you want to create?
A majority of business owners and leaders believe that building the right corporate culture calls
for a certain degree of cohesion among employees. They emphasize on building teams that
would be able to work with each other while confronting challenges. If you too believe in the
mantra of teamwork, then work from home might not be the right option for you. But, if you are
ready to try work from home policy, you can choose telecommunication as one strong medium
of communication among remote team members and it can work pretty positively in conserving
your corporate culture.
Modern VoIP services go beyond just voice. With video conferencing, you can „meet‟ with all
the people you want, wherever they are in the world. Unlike a face-to-face meeting where you
might waste time, a video conference can be very focused giving you ample time for you to
handle other tasks.
Phone America can set up video conferencing facility for you in your office and wherever your
employees work from. With a proper set up, all you need to do is to click on a colleague‟s ID and
your conference will commence. From using a conference room to using your smart phone for a
video conference, Phone America can install and configure a powerful conferencing system for
you.
2. What are the needs of your organization?
Different organizations would need different corporate cultures to create the perfect productive
systems. If you are running an organization that requires frequent direct interaction with the
customers then it is best to go for the office-based option. On the other hand, if you have a sales
team that moves around the globe then you can choose the remote office option. So, the choice
completely depends on the needs of the organization.
For a sales team that is constantly on the move, a combination of VoIP and Unified
Communication will be priceless. Your sales team does not have to carry brochures anymore and
can simply transfer PDFs to the client‟s computer or laptop. In reality, a tablet that is linked to
your server is more than enough. When needed, the sales person can set up a conference call and
clarify doubts that the client may have. The days of, „I will get back to you‟, can be done away
with completely.
Phone America can set up a powerful unified communication system for you with special
emphasis for sales teams that need to create estimates and proposals on the fly.

3. 3. How do you plan to make sure a work-from-home policy does not compromise
communication?
Again, this is something that requires a personal perspective. A certain amount of compromise
on communication is always made when a “work from home” policy is chosen. For instance,
even for the briefest of communication among employees, they would have to either pick up the
phone or compose an email, or shoot a message, which would have been otherwise done by
simply shouting across the cubicle.
At the same time, with a good VoIP systems and factors such as instant messaging, follow-me,
and call divert, it is possible to ensure that employee is informed, and that he can be roped into a
call or a conference on the fly.
Call Phone America today to see how Unified Communication takes the concept of employee
availability to 24/7 if needed.
4. How often is it really necessary for employees to collaborate?
You really need to ponder hard on the need for a face-to-face collaboration among your
employees before you go ahead with your choice for or against a work-from-home policy. If
your employees truly need to collaborate on a regular basis then it is best to refrain from hiring
freelancers or remote employees.
But, a smart organization will see how to use new technology and work culture for its advantage.
With VoIP phone services, costs are fixed and very low. In fact, it might be less expensive to get
an employee to work from home than to give him expensive floor space in your office. Talk to
Phone America today to see how technology can be used to your advantage.
5. How will a work-from-home policy affect productivity?
Productivity is something that cannot be judged right after the implementation of your work-
from-home policy. There are many companies who believe that the dynamic work environment
gives a huge boost to the productivity and the corporate culture promotes it heavily. On the other
hand, employees might prove to be more productive when they are moved away from their
gossiping colleagues. Therefore, it‟s something that can be understood only after you have
experimented with the idea of working from home.
Properly implemented and without bias, employee evaluation can be transparent and visible to
everyone. VoIP and CTI make it easy for you to share information with your employees and HR
team. Call us today to see how to integrate your computer based HR systems with unified
communication. Next time you have a call with the employee, you will have all the information
needed for a proper evaluation. When employees understand that evaluation is straightforward
and transparent, they will be motivated to work hard.

4. 6. How will you measure their work-from-home productivity?
You must ensure to implement the right metrics based on the productivity of the employees,
irrespective of their place of work. Employees working from home should not feel that they are
being sidelined when it comes to promotion and perks. They must be confident that evaluation is
just and equal for all and based on merits and productivity.
So, you need to weigh all the options before opting for the one that suits the needs of your firm
and its unique culture.
VoIP Phone service and unified communication are powerful tools that will reduce your costs
and help you focus on growth. Phone America is eager to work with you to see which areas of
communication need to be improved and how to do that. Call us today for a detailed discussion.
Phone America offers advanced VoIP and related services to businesses in Philadelphia,
Norristown, Reading PA, and Wilmington DE. As a preferred vendor of award winning Toshiba
products, we can implement leading edge products and services for your Internet telephony
requirements.