The good, the bad and the guilt of working from home

The fact that the office can be a noisy, distracting place is no surprise to anyone. There are endless interruptions that chip away at your productivity — a colleague striking up a chat by the coffee machine, someone knocking on your door for “just a quick favor” when you’re already behind schedule.

Neuroscientists say it takes 25 minutes to fully refocus after being interrupted.

So how do we fix that?

In recent years, remote work — whether part-time or full-time — has become increasingly common. We believe it’s a trend every company will need to adapt to in the coming years.

But isn’t working from home just an excuse to slack off?

Actually, it’s quite the opposite — and there’s research to prove it.

According to Stanford professor Nicholas Bloom, people are more productive working remotely than in the office. His two-year study at travel agency Ctrip showed that the company became more efficient, cut employee turnover by 50%, reduced office costs dramatically — and, most importantly, made employees happier.

And we all know that happy colleagues make for great colleagues — who do great work.

Another study from AfterCollege in the U.S. found that 68% of younger workers would be more likely to accept a job if it allowed for remote work. So, flexibility can actually be a competitive advantage when attracting younger talent.

There are, in other words, plenty of reasons for companies to explore what a more mobile workforce could mean for their business.

Connection and team spirit

Remote work and flexibility can be a win-win for both the company and its employees. But it also requires structure.

When more people work remotely, maintaining a sense of connection and belonging becomes crucial — and that all comes down to communication. To make it work, you need the right tools to keep collaboration efficient and cohesive.

A smart mobile PBX makes it possible

Working remotely today is much easier than it was just five years ago — largely thanks to the evolution of modern, digital business phone systems.

A modern, mobile PBX like lynes Telefoni does much more than handle incoming and outgoing calls. It becomes the communication hub for your entire organization.

Let’s look at five common challenges in remote work — and how a cloud-based phone system helps you overcome them.

Keeping the team connected
Ongoing coaching and performance tracking
Working efficiently at a distance
Monitoring KPIs and performance data
Ensuring a consistent customer experience

1. Keeping the team connected

With lynes, you get a built-in chat function directly in your business PBX. It allows you to chat one-on-one or in groups, create to-do lists, share documents, and organize files in folders to keep everything tidy.

This gives your company a shared workspace for both in-office and remote colleagues — essential for effective internal communication.

Meetings are no problem either. Because video and conference calls are integrated into lynes, you don’t need external software that lags or fails. You can meet through voice, web, or video — directly in the same system.

2. Ongoing coaching and performance tracking with Wallboard

Tracking performance matters whether your team works remotely or in the office.

If your sales team works from home, you can easily see:

How many calls each person has made
How long they’ve spoken to prospects and customers
How many calls were answered

Wallboard gives you a live overview of all key metrics and KPIs — no matter where your staff is.

For support teams, it’s just as useful. Nobody wants to wait endlessly in a phone queue. With Wallboard, you can instantly see how many customers are in line, how long they’ve been waiting, and how many agents are available.

If you need to add more people, you can log in additional agents remotely using the Response Group Monitor. With Wallboard, you have full control of your call flow and workload, wherever you are.

3. Managing response groups and working efficiently from a distance

When working remotely, unnecessary communication can drain energy and time. The less back-and-forth, the smoother the workflow.

The Response Group Monitor lets you log colleagues in and out of response groups without having to ask them to do it manually. You can also monitor — in real time — how many calls are in queue, how many were missed, and how many agents are currently in conversations.

Whether you’re using a full business PBX or a purely mobile solution from lynes Telefoni, you’ll always have visibility and control. Combined with Wallboard, it’s an incredibly efficient setup.

4. Evaluating results and KPIs with statistics and reports

To determine whether remote work suits your company, you need clear data and insights.

Our reporting and analytics tool is a perfect complement to Wallboard. It allows you to generate detailed reports on virtually everything — from group and agent performance to call volume, duration, and historical trends.

You can compare results week by week, month by month, or year over year. You can even schedule reports to be sent automatically whenever you want.

With our easy-to-use web interface, you can access all your reports from anywhere.

5. Ensuring consistent customer experience with a clear phone policy

Beyond tools and systems, it’s equally important that your customers always receive consistent service — whether your team is in the office or working remotely.

That’s where a clear phone policy comes in.

Your company’s PBX will be your primary communication tool, so everyone needs to follow the same guidelines to maintain quality and consistency.

Ask yourselves:

How do we answer incoming calls?
How do we handle customers when a colleague is already on another call?
What are the rules for absence management and call forwarding?

A strong phone policy ensures that customers — and colleagues — get the same experience no matter where the call is answered.

Final thoughts

In this post, we’ve highlighted five key areas to consider when enabling remote work — and how a mobile or cloud-based PBX can help your company succeed.

The trend toward mobile workplaces and remote collaboration will only continue to grow. The benefits — for both employers and employees — are simply too great to ignore.

So, the only question left is:

How does your company handle it?

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