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In the face of the modern world, it can be hard to keep up with the trends: what practices are in and which ones are out. The world is moving at one hundred miles an hour, and it's no small task to keep up with it all. But how do we know what practices are going to stay or which ones are going the way of the dodo? It's a difficult question to answer, but we may have some insight into what the correct one may be.
Many businesses are trying to introduce new and exciting ways of moving with the times. These can range from online project management to the introduction of algorithmic AI to help pinpoint audience and customer engagement.
Over the past year, huge swaths of businesses have been forced to change tack and their whole overall approach to running and operating their business. Employees around the world have, for the first time, been in the unique position of having to conduct all of their work from home. Whilst for many this has been something to turn your nose up at (and we cannot deny how many people are excited to finally return to the office), for a large portion of workers, it has also been a rewarding and interesting challenge.
For one, commuting is expensive and can be quite a stressful experience, given nauseating rush hour periods, as well as delays and cancellations to public transportation.
Secondly, the office can be a stressful and sometimes even a dehumanizing environment. Most of us shudder at the thought of cramped and stuffy cubicles, minimal color, lacking entirely of personality. It doesn't always encourage the best work out of their employees. And Employee happiness has been proven essential in maximizing workplace efficiency and the overall success of your business. At-home employees feel safe; they are surrounded by what is familiar and what makes them happy; their creature comforts.
Now, this is not to say that the future of work lies at home. Not all jobs can be performed from home, and as previously mentioned, not all workers want to mix their home life with their business life; there is something to be said for people enjoying their workplace environment and thriving in that space.
However, there are ways in which some areas of the past year's move to work from home can be incorporated into the usual modes of business. For one, discussions about the four-day working week have surged in popularity since the COVID-19 crisis. However, one area some businesses have been looking toward is administration. Receptionists make up a key and significant portion of the workforce. Without them, we'd never show up for our appointments, meetings wouldn't take place, no one would know about our open job vacancies, and basically, the entire organization would fall apart.
But with businesses moving more toward the digital landscape, the idea of a person(s) sat behind a desk greeting clients with mountains of paperwork to file piling up may be an outdated one. This is where the telephone answering service comes in. But what is a telephone answering service, I hear you ask?
Well, in many ways, it functions the same as what we've all come to think of from receptionists. Essentially they are receptionists that work remotely, otherwise known as 'virtual receptionists,' and the number of these virtual receptionists has been on the rise as the years have gone on.
It is not too dissimilar from how many receptionists have had to work from home over the past year: making sure clients' needs are always met, keeping schedules on track, and running smoothly. Most of the work of a receptionist takes place over the phone, and maybe reception lobbies remain eerily quiet until other employees or clients pass through. Remote administration allows and affords businesses with a level of flexibility not seen with in-house and on-site reception staff. Businesses will be able to employ the services of virtual receptionists around the clock, with employees from different time zones.
It is interesting to see the scope and scale of advances in technology and the direction it is going in. Maybe in a couple of years, we'll all be working from home, commuting very rarely into the office for important meetings. As each new idea, or in the case of working from home, necessity breeds new workplace practices; it is important to be on the front line and follow closely how the world of work is changing. If we don't, we'll be left behind, and our businesses will suffer for it.