How to have a productive sick day
Working remotely doesn't have to mean lost time
Workplace absence cost the British economy £13.4bn last year, according to the Confederation of British Industry. Unsurprisingly, everyone’s keen to keep costs like this to a minimum. One way this can be done is by encouraging employees to work from home on days when they’re too ill to travel but not so incapacitated that they can’t work.
Overall, employees seem to welcome this prospect. Out of 1,000 UK workers,* two in three said they would be happy to work from home on days when they felt too ill to travel. However, this enthusiasm lessened with age, with just 34% of 55 to 64 year-olds prepared to work from home when minor illness prevented travel.
Compare this to 71% of 16 to 24 year-olds and 69% of 35 to 44 year-olds. The poll also found that 39% of UK workers said less commuting would make them healthier as they’d be less exposed to germs in the office or on public transport. And with flu warnings currently in full force who can blame them?
IT and sympathy
“Flexible and remote working practices can help both employer and employee,” says Mark Heraghty, MD, Virgin Media Business. “Increasing the ability to work from home offers employers the opportunity to reduce the productivity impact of sick days when staff are not up to travelling.
“Of course, no-one should work when they’re too ill to do so. Equally, sick workers soldiering on and coming into the office can spread more germs, which can also take its toll on productivity.”
Virgin Media Business’s IP Multimedia solution makes it easy to work from home and other locations through secure internet connections. It puts staff in greater control of their time and improves both their work-life balance and productivity. Incoming phone calls can be automatically routed to the same phone number, irrespective of where the user is actually working. By taking their laptop and softphone with them, they can make and receive calls wherever they can connect to the internet. IP Multimedia can also enable users to video conference with staff in the office, allowing runny-nosed employees to stay in touch from the comfort of their own sofa.
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* Surveyed by GfK NOP on behalf of Virgin Media Business
