Home office of the future

Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Stephen Tanner, Ops Director of OfficePOD, creators of the innovative self contained home office environment (pictured below).



Stephen had this to say about the officePOD environment:
“We believe that OfficePOD is an incredible business tool, as it empowers employers with the ability to improve sustainability and bring flexibility to businesses that has hitherto been impossible to contemplate. Technological advances have been a significant factor in the growth of the dispersed workforce; with OfficePOD, employers will soon learn that this is the only type of workforce that has credence in the modern world.”



With growing advance orders and firm business relationships with several very large and well known firms, Stephen is involved in a real success story.

You can find out much more about the officePOD environment by visiting the product web site http://www.officePOD.co.uk

For me this sounds like a brilliant move forward, as it addresses the old chestnut regarding home workers having to keep the whole domestic premises warm - clearly with an OfficePOD unit in your garden this is no longer the case.

The north wind doth blow….

There's an old nursery rhyme about snow and ice coming in with a North Wind.

The rhyme may be a little old fashioned but we have most defiantly seen the biggest freeze in decades in both the UK and Europe.

The question is, why have there been so many stories of people trapped in cars, long queues of traffic and businesses closing early or managing on a skeleton staff when the area of remote and home working has been growing for more than a decade?

Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of people opted to work at home and internet-based access to office resources was key to making this possible, but I have to ask how many people ended up balancing a laptop on their kitchen table, while the kids were running around all excited about the snow and time off of school!
Was this a nightmare that people faced, and so opted to risk the trip into work with the old chestnut ‘I NEED to be in the office?’ ?

Now call me a cynic, but did that many people really need to be in the office?

What was the business cost of wasted time, lost hours and the general misery of being stuck in traffic. If, like me, you think that they did not make sense, what could have been done and how can businesses be better prepared for emergencies and disasters in the future ?

Organisations that have embraced smarter working as a fundamental element of business have really gain this winter with lower costs and high productivity. So that two inches of snow, a fallen tree or just traffic jams don’t pose a problem because the member of staff can use a smarter working alternative, such as working from home, using a flexible office facility near to their home or another suitable location. This then gives you a perfect platform from which to have a disaster recovery plan that suits both your operational needs and those of your staff.

So what should you do?

Well don’t ignore the situation or say 'smart working is not for me', make the decision to see what a smart working solution could do for you.

Don’t just go out and buy laptops and other technology without a strategy, you will probably be wasting your time and money; it’s not about technology it’s about how your team work.

Talk to your team and get their thoughts and ideas and then form a plan that is simple and achievable.

Then the next time disaster strikes you will be in a great position to protect your services and ensure your customers see the same great service or products you provide in the best light.