Last month we talked about planning for our ‘new normal’ and how we at Onecom have quickly adapted to the new challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the table.
We’ve since done a fair bit of research, and the results of our latest poll has revealed the most common tech and communication challenges that hard-working businesses have overcome during these very testing times! The study, which investigated the impact of the virus and home working on businesses, surveyed 1,000 workers at UK SME’s who have worked from home since the lockdown was announced.
Right off the bat, we discovered that 86% of workers at small to medium businesses have already successfully overcome significant challenge with technology and communications to maintain ‘business as usual’. 50% of SME workers reported that finding the right sort of communications platforms was the biggest upfront issue.
Key communications obstacles include setting up employees to manage calls from home, enabling remote email access, and the overall incorporation and understanding of a whole range of cloud communications platforms. We also discovered that lack of face-time interaction has been a problem – overall 31% of workers in the study said that communications errors initially increased in their teams since working from home.
A lack of solid communication inevitably led to team management issues, and we found that 27% of workers had to overcome issues with managing employees, while 21% struggled to motivate staff. Home-based interruptions involving childcare, deliveries or simply being distracted by a partner has not gone unnoticed, with nearly a quarter of the study saying this has affected their daily work pattern. Broadband connections issues, finding suitable software and maintaining cybersecurity also cropped up as common setbacks.
On the other hand, these challenges brought with them a great show of resilience from SME’s who acted very quickly to reduce the side effects. We at Onecom are definitely part of that number, seeing productivity go up for some over the past few months but it’s been a learning curve for all of us. As a team of over 400 (across 7 UK regional offices) we have pulled together and demonstrated that we certainly can practice what we preach – that is to use communication technology to enable and foster an engaged and motivated workforce, that continues to offer service excellence.
For the full results of the report, you can find it on our website.
If you’re looking for teleconferencing apps to support your working from home strategy, take a look out our blog: https://onecom.co.uk/remote-working-3-teleconferencing-solutions/
Are you ready to calibrate your communications? Call our experts on 03330 888 999 to find out more about our remote working solutions.