Workplaces have changed almost beyond recognition in the last decade. Gone are the rows and rows of desks and cubicles. Instead there are distributed workforces. Your colleagues and clients are located across the UK and beyond. Getting certain people in one place at the same time is virtually impossible. Whether you’re employed in the legal sector, financial services, recruitment or engineering, the working world is evolving on a daily basis and so is how we actually get work done. 

Striking the right work/life balance

“Work isn’t simply somewhere we ‘go’ anymore, it’s actually more about the specific role we have and the types of work that role demands,” explains Jonathan Ashley. “At the same time, money is no longer the key driver for lots of us. It’s more about striking the right life/work balance and an employer that facilitates that by offering ‘agile working’ is now seen as an employer of choice by many.

Continues Jonathan: “It’s taken some businesses longer than others to recognise, but the majority now understand that every employee has their own individual requirements when it comes to work and home life. For many companies it no longer matters if all tasks are completed during the traditional working hours of 9am to 5pm; just as long as the work is done and within any set deadline. Working weekends or late into the evening is now a common occurrence for today’s workforce. Keeping the customer satisfied remains the objective.”

What is agile working?

Agile working makes it easy for employees to get things done, irrespective of where they are or what time it is. Agile working uses specific technology to build a bespoke blueprint for a company that then enables all employees to work at whatever time they choose from the location they choose. Increased productivity, a happier workforce and lower office costs are all common results of agile working.

Our agile workplace solutions

Outlines Jonathan: “Here at etiCloud we specialise in designing, building and maintaining agile workplaces for our customers that include law firms, accountants, independent financial advisors and recruitment companies.

“Our agile workplace solutions include one or more of our core services including Hosted Desktop, Unified Comms, Resilient Connectivity and IT-as-a-service. Each bespoke solution we provide enables employees to access all of their business information securely in one place whether they are sat at their desk in the office, working from home or in the local coffee shop.”

Concludes Jonathan: “From a Microsoft Windows-based desktop, secure internet access, hosted exchange mail and Office 365, full integration with case management, CRM or application software and fully managed back-ups, creating an agile workplace to facilitate agile working will bring numerous benefits to your business and its workforce. In fact, every client we work with in this respect has told us they wish they’d implemented agile working sooner. They never, ever look back!”