VoIP and employee productivity

Employee productivity can be increased with improved management practices, targeted strategies and providing workers with the right tools.

A strong unified communications system using VoIP can be used to make employees more productive, according to Jeff Orloff, Studio B analyst.

VoIP solutions provide organisations with a number of features that help a business get the most out of the resources it already has in place, says Orloff.

He says the three primary ways a VoIP solution increases productivity is by enabling mobility, providing voicemail transcriptions and reducing downtime.

Mobility is a top trend in business today. According to IDC, the Asia/Pacific workplace is changing rapidly as users move to using mobile devices for their personal and professional lives.

"The transformation of mobile devices and new models of utilisation are forcing organisations to go beyond the question of whether they need mobility and instead ask how they should be utilising mobility," says IDC.

According to the analyst, mobility can raise employee productivity, improve customer relationships and satisfaction, and streamline business processes and operations.

VoIP phone systems aid mobility by providing remote workers with the ability to access their company's communications system via an app on their mobile device or software on their laptop.

Calls can be routed from their office landline to a mobile device to ensure no calls are missed.

VoIP also ensures remote workers can remain connected to their colleagues.

Using tools such as videoconferencing for collaboration, teams can continue to develop ideas and projects together.

VoIP systems ensure voicemail messages aren't missed or lost as they can send the voice message to an email inbox or transcribe it and send it in text format.

This makes sorting through messages easier and gives someone the opportunity to glance at a message when a call is received to see if it warrants immediate attention, says Orloff.

Downtime or technical problems can negatively impact a business and can mean loss of productivity for employees.

"With a VoIP solution, however, troubleshooting is simpler," says Orloff.

He says when a user's phone goes down while using a VoIP solution, they can use a softphone (software based phone) installed on the computer or an app on the mobile phone as a replacement while a new phone is being programmed.

Furthermore, should an employee need to work from a different desk for a length of time, they can use these replacements or simply unplug the phone from the network and plug it back in at their new location, Orloff says.