{"id":2926,"date":"2016-10-28T12:28:50","date_gmt":"2016-10-28T19:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=2926"},"modified":"2016-10-28T12:28:50","modified_gmt":"2016-10-28T19:28:50","slug":"small-businesses-hiring-make-sure-remote-employees-productive-engaged","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/small-businesses-hiring-make-sure-remote-employees-productive-engaged\/","title":{"rendered":"Small businesses hiring is up. Make sure remote employees are productive and engaged"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Small businesses aren\u2019t letting uncertainty over the upcoming presidential election or holiday shopping dampen their outlook. A just released Fall\/Winter Chase Business Leaders Outlook<\/a> finds that 65% of nearly 900 small businesses surveyed are optimistic about their business over the next 12 months, and 55% feel the same way about their industry.\u00a0 On the economy, small businesses are somewhat less optimistic. Only 49% are optimistic about their local economy and 42% feel that way about the national economy. These figures are slightly down from spring of this year when 53% expressed optimism about their local economy and 43% about the national economy.<\/p>\n The Chase survey also found small businesses plan on increasing staff over the next 12 months. Among participants, 35% plan to increase part-time employees and 27% to increase full-time workers.<\/p>\n In an effort to attract and retain employees, many small business owners are offering flexible, remote and mobile work options. While workplace flexibility may improve job satisfaction \u00a0(a Plantronics survey<\/a> found that workers with choices of when and where to work are 12% more satisfied with their jobs), it poses management and operational challenges. For example, small businesses need to consider what is the best way to create a cohesive team when employees are in different locations? Also how do you keep employees motivated and ensure that they are properly equipped to perform their jobs?<\/p>\n Equipping employees with the right mobile technology, including smartphones, laptops and apps, is the first step to meeting some of these challenges. With the aid of cloud-based document management software, employees can collaborate on the development of documents wherever they are. Video conferencing\u00a0 makes it possible to have \u201cface time\u201d even when participants are hundreds of miles from each other, and web conferencing enables presentation and desktop sharing when necessary.<\/p>\nPlans for hiring are up<\/h4>\n
Meet tech needs of remote workers<\/h4>\n