Member Article

Regional Business Owners opt for staff safety over office return, Webinar Finds

Regional Business Owners are opting to keep staff safe instead of asking them to return to the office, according to a recent webinar conducted by Bromsgrove based business telecoms provider, Armstrong Bell.

The webinar titled ‘The New Normal & Connected Workspaces’ welcomed 50 business representatives from across the region to listen to the commercial lockdown experiences of three business owners: Dale Gough, Director of Financial Planning and Wealth Management firm, Prosser Knowles, Mark Wright, BBC Apprentice Winner and Director of digital marketing agency, Climb Online, and Will Copley, Founder and Managing Director of Armstrong Bell.

As Directors of service-based businesses, Mark and Dale were invited to recount their experiences in how they adapted to mass remote working, whilst providing insight into how their businesses have changed and what they plan to do now lockdown has eased.

Despite the latest Government announcement that Employers can request for staff members to return to the office from 1st August 2020, Mark, Dale and webinar listeners agreed that keeping staff safe and remaining flexible in how and where people work was key in continuing to navigate through the current pandemic.

Mark Wright explained: “Right now, it’s important for both the survival of businesses and the wider economy that staff can continue to do their jobs, which means they need to feel safe. Over the last 4 months or so, advances in technology like VoIP telephones and video conferencing have enabled us to quickly adapt to remote working, which means despite lockdown measures easing, the majority of businesses are likely to maintain some form of remote working policy for potentially years to come.”

Dale Gough added: “The consensus was clear from the webinar in that remote working certainly isn’t going anywhere in the coming months, with businesses either thinking about creating a new hybrid model that combines office and home working or providing the option for permanent remote working. Although Prosser Knowles will return to the office at some point, sophisticated tech and telephony systems has and will continue to allow us to work effectively from a remote setting as we monitor the impact of COVID over the coming months.”

As an established business telecoms and connectivity provider, Armstrong Bell has worked hard to help many businesses adapt how they work, collaborate and communicate during the lockdown period through simple, fast and flexible solutions.

Will confirmed: “Over the last 4 months or so, many of our customers have completely transformed the way in which they work and have therefore had to adapt and invest in new telecoms and connectivity solutions as a result.

By introducing the concept of ‘Smart Working’, which enables staff to work any time, any place with anyone through collaborative and connected workspaces, businesses have reaped the reward of increased productivity, with employees benefitting from a better work life balance. As a result, a positive sentiment now surrounds remote working, which was echoed by Dale, Mark and webinar listeners alike, meaning many employers are likely to ignore the Prime Minister’s advice and enable staff to continue to work from home on a more permanent basis both during and post-COVID 19.“

An established provider of business telecommunications systems, Armstrong Bell works with over 500 SMES across the West Midlands region and UK wide.

Hosted in July 2020, the ‘New Normal and Connected Workspaces’ webinar is the first in a series of insightful and educational webinars to be hosted by the telecoms provider, with the second set to take place in September 2020.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by John Stone .