Submitted by Teo UC News on Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Anything that can enhance worker productivity and engagement is worthy for any enterprise leader to pursue. By improving employee performance by just a few percentage points, companies can see that spike turn into a positive monetary gain.

With the right business communications technology, executives may be able to increase employee engagement, which could help drive business growth. Data from Gallup found that employees that work from remote locations with the help of video conferencing systems are more engaged than workers that do not, according to Dice.

The source reported that 35 percent of staff members who are allowed to spend less than 20 percent of their time working from home are engaged with their work. Just 28 percent of workers that are required to work in the office are engaged in their daily functions.

Although there are positives associated with remote work models, too much of a good thing could be detrimental. Despite still featuring higher overall levels of engagement than traditional office-based workplaces, interest levels decline as remote work times increase. Workers who spend between 20 percent and 50 percent of their time out of the office feature a 33 percent engagement rate, while staffers allowed to spend more than half of their time on the go have a 29 percent engagement level.

This shows that enterprise mobility strategies are certainly effective, but there is still room for improvement. Business leaders need to establish clear remote working guidelines that allow employees more freedom – while still making them proactively interact with the office.

Presence may boost engagement
Investing in presence systems could be the solution to the work-from-home problem. These platforms allow more realistic, real-time, multi-dimensional actions to be conveyed from peer to peer. Although traditional conferencing systems are definitely useful, presence technology could be more beneficial to keep employees who frequently telecommute involved at a more personal level.

Finding solutions to enhance the mobile work experience is important for business leaders, as Mashable noted that one-fifth of the global workforce telecommutes. As technology continues to advance, that number will likely increase.

Failing to embrace enterprise mobility is hardly a viable solution, as employees place a high value on working from home. The source reported that 89 percent of workers cited the remote access as one of the top three employment perks alongside salary and reputation. In order to attract the best, executives need to give them what they want: mobile access.