Creating a flexible work environment

Easier communications helps achieve that elusive work-life balance

In 2008 unified communications was an enthusiastically adopted IT strategy. Many businesses have implemented one or more UC technologies – instant messaging, voice and video chat, web conferencing, Voice over IP, integrated email and voicemail services. Often the main driver is cost reduction. Using your existing data network for telephone calls with VoIP reduces costs of long distance phone bills. Integrating voicemail and email into a bespoke system reduces directory maintenance costs. Video conferencing reduces travel costs.

Yet the true advantage of unified communications is not in cost reduction, but in providing a new, dynamic and much more flexible working environment for your people.

Intelligent UC implementations bring new productivity, satisfaction and communication capabilities to the workplace. However, as with any other technology, there is a risk your new UC environment becomes an ineffective investment. In my experience, the difference between successful implementations and unsuccessful ones is in understanding how these new technologies will impact your workplace culture. Your ability to drive people to embrace the new technologies drives the return on your investment.

Let’s examine the capabilities delivered by unified communications and the pitfalls to avoid.

Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging (IM) is probably one of the most mature UC technologies, going back to mid-1960s (yes, instant messaging that some of us dismiss as “another teenage craze” actually predates the internet).

As a communication mechanism, IM has many advantages. It is relatively non-invasive, because although the person we are communicating with receives your message immediately, they have a choice of delaying their response. We will often IM someone about a matter that does not justify a phone call. Like email, IM is available through publicly available services and as a corporate solution. Many individuals use a personal IM account and use it to communicate with friends and family.

Instant messaging goes hand-in-hand with Presence. Most instant messaging software shows Presence information about your contacts, whether they are online, and whether they are willing and able to communicate. Visual Presence information is very powerful, providing us with a sense of real-time connectedness with our contacts, something a telephone or email can never do. It is because of these advantages that instant messaging is immensely popular with individuals as social communication, and is beginning to play a large part in business communication too.

This ubiquitous technology has quietly penetrated many workplaces, proving especially popular with young, technically savvy professionals. This is an example of generational-led technology adoption. The culture of instant messaging has expanded to accommodate not only friends, but colleagues, customers and business affiliates. This informal shift from personal to corporate communication mode has happened quietly, behind the scenes, over the last few years. I have worked in many teams where one would IM someone a few desks away.

Pitfalls

Unfortunately conducting business using public services has serious drawbacks. There is potential for disputes over customers’ contact details stored in your employee’s personal Live Messenger contact list. There is also the real risk of confidential information disclosure to unauthorised parties. Finally, there are the new compliance requirements stating we must keep track of all communications. All the reasons for not using public email services like Hotmail in a corporate environment apply to instant messaging. How can you accommodate IM within the environment of corporate control and compliance?

That’s why so many businesses implement a corporate IM solution. Your workplace benefits from all the IM advantages, without compromising corporate control, security, compliance and archiving.

The ability to communicate less invasively leads people to communicate more, while group IM functionality allows us to involve more people in business discussions with minimal effort. Modern UC solutions offer far more than text-based, real-time chat between two people. Today, instant messaging also encompasses ad hoc voice and video messaging, allowing you to seamlessly escalate a text messaging session to a voice or video call. An issue that might take hours or even days to resolve can be dealt with in seconds or minutes with the help of unified communications technology.

Distributed business

Most immediate productivity gains from these communication technologies are realised by geographically distributed, medium-size organisations. Many New Zealand businesses have small branch offices around the country or in other countries around the world. For those working out of the head office it is easy to forget about your branch office colleagues; in turn branch office staff often feel isolated, citing ongoing lack of support and attention as a major factor in poor job satisfaction. This is especially true for one to three-person ‘satellite’ offices, or for company representatives who spend most of their time out in the field.

The use of unified communications connects team members, whether they work on different floors, in different buildings or on different sides of the world. The ability to see the presence of colleagues encourages us to reach out and collaborate more. It is also quicker to find who is available to help you right now, where previously you were forced to leave numerous email and voicemail messages with multiple people.

A good unified communications technology must provide the ability to escalate from simple presence to video and voice conferencing, real time document sharing and multi-party communication sessions.

To deliver these features, and truly improve productivity, you must not only implement suitable unified communication technologies, but also ensure your people embrace and use them.

IM and ad hoc conferencing are natural to those who use them in their private social life, but may seem complicated and intimidating to those who don’t. A successful training strategy can prevent slow uptake. I have found that it is very effective to appoint ‘technology champions’ in every group and direct team members who have questions or are unsure of the technology to these champions.

When it comes to new communication technologies, an informal approach can be more effective than a formal training programme. Carefully planning for the human side of technological change will reward you with evolution of professional culture towards a more inclusive, collaborative, relaxed and creative culture. You will also find that better collaboration brings greater job satisfaction, leading to a friendlier workplace with higher employee retention.

What next?

Once you have implemented an internal instant messaging and unified communications system, the next logical step is to connect the system with partner organisations and other external parties. Connecting multiple UC systems is known as ‘Federation’. Federating with your partners allows you to communicate on a new level, while still maintaining your own respective systems. Today, federation with public IM clouds like Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger and other public services is also possible.

Should you federate with these spaces? This decision depends on the culture of your organisation and its business practices.

For an organisation with a consumer business model, like a travel brokerage or a real estate agency, federation with public IM services can provide your customers with a new and highly responsive way to reach you. It can give you a competitive advantage, increase customer satisfaction and ultimately drive your bottom line.

On the other hand, if you are a government organisation or a corporation in a highly regulated industry like healthcare, federating with public IM clouds is a security risk.

 If your organisation is in between the two extremes, consider the value that federation can bring. Is the ability of your people to communicate with external parties important? Is it part of the work-life balance your organisation promotes? Are corporate control and compliance more important?

Prohibiting IM communication with the outside world will likely drive your people to use more intrusive and time-inefficient methods, such as using the phone or visiting in person. We can find a middle ground in providing the pubic federation ability, while preventing misuse through policy and IM content archiving.

In today’s information age, many organisations view their people as their greatest assets. Your people generate revenue and drive your business forward. Your people possess industry skills that define your corporate brand. Your people also demand investment in the form of training, benefits and job satisfaction. Today, work-life balance is high on the agenda of many modern HR departments.

Work-life balance

A highly effective way to offer work-life balance is to provide your people with the ability to work from anywhere. Unified communications allows the workplace to be redefined. Unified communications technology offers unprecedented value to telecommuters, those who work from home or those out in the field.

Presence and instant messaging allow people to actively participate in the team, even when they are away. Voice and video conferencing provides a highly efficient remote communication pathway. The ability to share files and documents allows employees at home to be a contributor to the information chain. For frequent travellers, unified communications means being one click away from the office.

With instant messaging, a travelling sales representative can locate an available support representative by simply glancing at their IM contact list. They can discuss a proposal with several team members at the office and obtain document signoff right there on the customer site. With ‘follow-me’ VoIP setups, a potential customer can call and connect to their account manager no matter where in the world they happen to be.

Conclusion

Unified communications unlocks the power of business collaboration to achieve faster and better informed decisions, while aiding the flexibility to the working environment. And from a human resources point of view, that can be worth its weight in gold.