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Flexible hours and remote work options increasingly are priorities for today\u2019s small business employees. These findings comes from a joint study<\/a> of 314 U.S. small business employees and 47 small business owners conducted by Justworks<\/a>, an all-in-one benefits, HR, and payments platform for small business, and SquareFoot,<\/a> a marketplace for commercial real estate. Among the employees surveyed, 70% ranked flexible work hours as very important and 68% believe flexible hours have a positive impact on their teams. Similarly, 57% consider remote capabilities very important, while 60% believe enabling remote work has a positive impact on their teams.<\/p>\n The study also found that the ability to shape their own work schedule and workplace are growing considerations for employees when looking for a job. Almost half, 42%, of the employees surveyed indicated they would take a lower-paying job if it offered a greater degree of workplace flexibility.<\/p>\n Challenged to find talent (Manpower reports <\/a>that one-third of employers globally are experiencing difficulty filling jobs.), many small business are responding to employees’ needs for flexible and remote work options. The Justworks and SquareFoot research found that 76% of the employers surveyed believe offering such options has a big impact on their ability to hire. Plantronics survey<\/a> of a few years ago also found that offering flexible, mobile and remote work options assisted small business owners (64%) in hiring and retaining key employees. Of the employees surveyed by by Justworks and SquareFoot, 63% work at companies that offer flexible work hours and 59% work at companies with remote work capabilities.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s cloud computing and Unified Communications (UC) technology make it easy for small businesses to \u00a0support flexible and remote employees, enabling team members wherever they are to collaborate and communicate with each other and access company resources.<\/p>\n Cloud computing:<\/strong> \u00a0Remote cloud servers, which can be public, private or a hybrid configuration that includes both, run applications and store company documents. Employees simply log into a web-based service to access all the applications and data they need. A recent report<\/a> from Intuit found that 62% of small businesses are operating in the cloud today, up 37% from just two years ago<\/p>\n Unified Communications:<\/strong> UC consolidates all of the different types of communication devices \u2013 desk phones, PCs, smartphones and tablets \u2013 into one integrated data and voice network so they can talk to each other digitally. With UC, employees can take and place calls and collaborate with each other and customers via e-mail, instant messaging (IM), web and video conferencing and fax through the convenience of one interface. Whether calling or conferencing, noise-canceling<\/a> headsets ensure that employees can hear and be heard wherever they are<\/p>\nTechnology supports flexible and remote work<\/h4>\n