Bad mobile phone signal: the impact on hybrid working

You might be thinking: with the advent of hybrid working, do I even need strong mobile phone signal in my office building? Perhaps you already have an internal phone system, communicate directly with colleagues via Teams or Zoom, use email or Wi-Fi calling. So do you actually need to boost your office mobile phone signal?

The answer is an emphatic yes. Today’s flexible working models need to be exactly that: flexible. If you don’t ensure your business has strong mobile phone signal, not only are you creating a bad culture and terrible experience for your employees and visitors to your office – you’re damaging your ability to connect with remote workers.

Around 86% of employers say their employees were in favour of flexible working policies. That means hybrid is here to stay. It’s crucial that managers keep lines of communication open to foster improved collaboration, create a better office culture and keep clients, stakeholders and managers connected.

Below, we discuss how using a mobile phone signal booster to provide strong, reliable coverage across your office could be the key to solving hybrid working challenges.

Ensuring seamless collaboration

If you have bad mobile phone signal in the office, this can make it harder to collaborate with remote workers, particularly if there’s an emergency and they need to get hold of someone immediately.

Without mobile signal, managers, employees and stakeholders aren’t able to share files, contact each other and download information quickly and conveniently wherever they are. Yes, these things could be shared via email – but tying people to their desks and Wi-Fi does not create a collaborative environment and affects how quickly tasks are completed.

According to a survey from RingCentral, 41% of employees struggled with group work during the pandemic against other types of work. That’s why businesses need to step up their game and open as many lines of communication between employees and their colleagues/line managers as possible.

Making the office somewhere people actually want to be

Strong mobile phone signal contributes to a better company culture – offices need to be creative collaborative spaces that can be dynamic and change at a moment’s notice. Somewhere you can access mobile apps to order a team meal, send messages over WhatsApp, and browse mobile internet everywhere from the lobby to the cafeteria.

Over 50% of employers expected employees to have to return to the workplace in some form in Q2, according to a survey from salary.com. Many workers want to return to the office at least some of the time, and employers need to make it worth their while.

Strong mobile phone connectivity improves employee productivity, makes the workplace more attractive and allows sales teams/managers to keep in touch with contacts more effectively – just take a look at our blog on the ways a mobile phone signal booster can accelerate your business growth.

Boost in-building mobile connectivity

Improving mobile phone signal at your workplace will do the following.

Help your employees to stay connected wherever they are

No more dropped or interrupted calls, poor voice quality or slow browsing speeds. Instead, smartphones will allow employees and managers to speak loud and clear to their colleagues across your hybrid workforce.

Encourages the use of mobile devices to maximise flexibility

With enhanced mobile phone signal, businesses can support the use of mobile phones and tablets to download and share files, use mobile apps and make video calls via 4G, connecting remote and office workers.

Futureproof your office for the 5G revolution

5G is coming, and is set to rapidly increase the speed we can share data with much lower latency. Chances are 5G will play a role in your hybrid strategy, but higher-frequency radio waves needed to deliver these speeds will have a much shorter range than those used by 4G networks, and have an even harder time penetrating concrete walls.

Boost mobile phone signal for your hybrid workforce with Cel-Fi

Businesses are adapting and changing their workspaces to address the challenges of hybrid working. One of the things linking these challenges is the need for solid, reliable mobile connectivity so that staff can receive incoming calls and messages from clients and remote workers and collaborate effectively.

That’s why UCtel is working with businesses to strengthen their mobile coverage and prepare them for a digital-led, hybrid working future. By installing a Cel-Fi indoor mobile phone signal booster, we can extend strong, reliable mobile phone signal across your entire building.

Firstly we install a donor antenna in a location where it can obtain the best signal. This is connected to an internal amplifier, which boosts the signal before it is distributed throughout the building via a series of internal antenna.

UCtel can design and install mobile phone signal booster solutions for offices and facilities of all shapes and sizes, from retail units to hospitals to warehouses and shopping centres. All we need is your facility’s floorplan, and we can show you how we’ll implement a cost-effective, scalable Ofcom-compliant solution to boost mobile phone signal.

To find out more, get in touch today by calling us on 0333 344 4417 or emailing us at sales@uctel.co.uk.