Business VoIP and Telework Can Ease the Burden of Sick Days

Every now and then employees will not go to the office or decide to leave early in the day because they’re just too sick to be there. It may be that they are coming down with an illness, like the common cold—which accounts for more employee absences and missed work days than any other sickness, and is the number one reason people visit their physicians—or perhaps have health issues that last over a longer period of time. In fact, “many companies in the [U.K.] are struggling with staff absence rates, with the latest figures showing some 650,000 workers go sick each and every week,” revealed a post by Telappliant Ltd.

According to Lisa Purcell, project manager for the foundation's Health at Work program, the sickness absence is a major concern at the workplace for employers as it is costing businesses millions of pounds every year. The cost of these absences, in fact, is estimated to be around £100 billion a year, according to the British Heart Foundation.

Sometimes it is to a workplaces’ advantage not to have sick employees report at the office, as they might be spreading germs and be contagious for their co-workers. To reduce the impact of sick hours on businesses, then, it would be important for employers to find other ways to allow workers to still perform most of their duties even when they don’t feel like commuting to the workplace. A good VoIP system could be the answer. According to Purcell, “There are other ways for employers to get around the issue of staff sickness…Installing VoIP throughout a business is a particularly shrewd move, as this enables bosses to stay in touch with workers who feel they could carry out their duties from home.”

Employees that feel too unwell to commute and prefer to stay home to recover, but that are not too sick to actually do some work, might find telecommuting a good solution to continue performing their duties while not having to leave their house. Telecommuting can then be advantageous to both the sick employee (who does not consume its sick leave) and the employer, who can still count on the employee’s contribution while not risking the health of the rest of the staff.

The decision to work from home (or from anywhere) occasionally, when necessary or as needed, can increase or improve productivity for employees. VoIP telephony is an apt business solution and tool (one that is flexible, innovative, cost-effective, and transition is not difficult at all), which can be a real incentive for employees and can help promote that work-life balance that is such an important factor for the employees’ job satisfaction.

By switching to an Internet-based phone system on one’s own network or to convert from an analog system to a modern VoIP solution can allow the company to consider telecommuting also for those who have long-term rehabilitation and recovery needs. In addition, it is also a solution that could be used when employees have other temporary personal reasons that prevent them from commuting to the workplace.

VoIP would still allow employees to work from home conveniently and continue to be productive outside the office; they would be capable of checking voice mail and participate to conference calls, for example, at virtually no cost.

VoIP used for telecommuting is a simple solution that can be extremely beneficial to a workplace without carrying high costs of implementation. With business VoIP, either as an on-premises solution or hosted by a provider that delivers network-based IP voice services, companies can provide a simple means of offering flexibility to their employees in a variety of circumstances. It might not solve the problem of high absence rate for sick leave, but it can help mitigate it and improve employees’ job satisfaction and, then, productivity.

Edited by Alisen Downey