Workshifting; Work What?

Workshifting—the ability for employees to work anytime and anywhere, whether at home, at a coffee shop, or in line at the grocery store—is a concept whose time has come. Not only are employers now able to support workshifting at a variety of levels, but surveys indicate employees want to workshift, even if it's only checking business email first thing in the morning. In fact, a 2011 survey of mobile workers (those with access to mobile business devices outside the office) indicated that 35% of them check business email before doing anything else in the morning—even before getting dressed.

Workshifting at a basic level enables employees to get morning distractions, such as answering overnight emails, out of the way before they reach the office. It lets them put formerly unproductive time, such as time on the train or in line at the coffee shop, to good use.

A large percentage of workers perceive that this approach makes their jobs easier and less stressful, and it certainly boosts corporate productivity. Perhaps even more importantly for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in a tight economy, 37% of non-workshifting employees in a recent survey indicated they would take a pay cut if they could work from home.

Some companies are already hiring 100% workshifted employees. These individuals come into the office only when needed for a presentation or other group effort. They are allowed to perform their work wherever they see fit. It's the newest form of telecommuting and it's catching on in businesses of all sizes.

This trend has seen greater adoption by larger enterprises than by the SMB sector, and the reasons are evident. Workshifting almost always involves letting employees use their personal devices—home PCs; smartphones; tablets. SMBs are overwhelmed by the complexities of setting up user policies, access restrictions and other safeguards for mobile devices, yet they do not want to put the business at risk.

Fortunately, managed services like ITility by DynaSis can bridge the gap for SMBs, because the secure Citrix portal used for both staff and management access works on any Internet connected device, but stores no information on it. It's a utility workers use to open a window to corporate data, and when it closes, the gate goes down. Business owners or their designates have full control over access permissions, but DynaSis handles all the configuration issues. It's truly as simple and safe as it sounds.

For more on the benefits of workshifting, we invite you to browse the resources we offer here. Check back often as we will keep adding more.