In this day and age, it’s more important than ever that employees can work from home. And though having your employees work in their home offices can come with certain challenges, there are also so many advantages to taking this route. Many studies have shown that employees who work from home are more efficient and productive than employees who work in a traditional office. Furthermore, moving your employees into home offices means that you don’t need to pay rent for office buildings, as well as utilities. But you will need to pay for good audio visual solutions.
It’s estimated that about 42% of all employees quit jobs due to subpar technology. This is especially relevant if they’re working from home and have low quality audio visual technology. With that being said, let’s explore some of the types of technology that you need to supply to your employees. Though it can be expensive to provide technological solutions to employees, this will save you money in the long term.
1. Headsets
It’s incredibly important that headsets are parts of a work from home team’s unified communication system. These are relevant for any type of business. Obviously, if employees are dialing out and making sales calls, they are even more important. But even if employees only connect with each other over Zoom calls, headsets are incredibly valuable.
Good headsets for employees who work from home should have large headphones, ideally canceling out as much interfering sound as possible. They also need to have sensitive microphones that can pick up on what employees are saying without being affected by interference. Most people will not be equipped with this type of audio visual technology at home; even if they are, they shouldn’t need to rely upon their own technology when their employers can provide it for them.
2. Microphones
Many employers also equip their employees with separate microphones that can be attached to their computers, even apart from headsets. This is done with good reason. It’s incredibly frustrating for teams to try to communicate with each other when they have to deal with unclear sound quality.
Furthermore, clients and potential customers can be lost if they cannot understand what employees are saying. Employees should be as easy to understand or easier to understand when working with a microphone as they would be when working with an office phone. These microphones should also be easy to attach to the laptops or desktop computers that employees work off of. When you send your employees out of a traditional office, microphones are simply necessary.
3. Webcams
Another piece of audio visual technology that employees need to use is a webcam. While most laptops and desktop computers come equipped with webcams today, these webcams often have poor video quality and can even cause buffering. Therefore, employees should be provided with webcams.
Even if you don’t think that your employees will need webcams, you should consider this addition. You never know when your employees will need to attend a meeting that could require a face to face experience. While many of us are currently working in different settings than what we are used to, many people still feel more comfortable when they’re able to see people in person.
4. Desktop Computers and Laptops
Yes, most people today do have their own laptops and desktop computers. But you shouldn’t rely on technology provided by your employees. The fact is that you can’t know exactly how high quality your employees’ laptops or desktop computers are, and therefore you can’t rely upon their performance.
Furthermore, relying on your employees’ laptops and desktop computers can cause security issues. When employees leave companies with laptops and desktop computers that don’t belong to them, they have the opportunity to commit data theft. Therefore, providing laptops and desktop computers is an important part of covering networking and security solutions for your company.
It can be difficult and expensive to provide this type of technology for all of your employees. But doing so will make life easier for you, them, and your IT team. Make sure that you commit to providing this type of technology, and consider working with a managed tech provider to do so.