Study shows traveling to and from work has a negative impact on health

A recent study from the Lund University in Sweden has found out that traveling to and from work has a negative impact on health.

According to the research, which assessed the daily commuting  routines and their impact in the health 12,000 workers between the ages of 18 and 65, employees who go to work by car or public transportation have a higher probability of suffering from stress related illnesses. The study also found that the longer the commuting the higher the toll on employee’s health.

“Generally car and public transport users suffered more everyday stress, poorer sleep quality, exhaustion and, on a seven point scale, felt that they struggled with their health compared to the active commuters,” said researcher Erik Hansson.

But such issues don’t affect just employees, in the end they affect companies as well. By impacting the employees quality of life, they, in turn, affect their productivity and work performance. 

Still, not all commuting is bad. The study shows that people who go to the office by foot or bicycle do not suffer from the same levels of stress and exhaustion than those who travel by car or public transportation, but these are, by far, a minority.

Such results raise important questions:

Is there any way to avoid commuting stress induced?

Are there any alternatives to car and public transportation commuting?

What’s the role of businesses and companies in promoting a stress free and more productive work environment?

The answers to these three questions might be telecommuting.

Remote work allows employees to work from home and connect remotely to their offices avoiding commuting altogether. Telecommuting isn’t just healthier, it allows employees to better balance their work with their family time and increases productivity and performance, according to several surveys.

The role of companies is to integrate these practices in their business operations and give the opportunity to their employees to work from home.

Businesses should implement real-time collaboration solutions, such as RHUB web conferencing and remote support appliance, which allows workers to be remotely connected to their offices and work with their fellow employees and their superiors in a virtual environment.

Video conferencing solutions with free audio conferencing

RHUB is one of the leading web conferencing service providers, and it is known for its 6-in-1 application that includes free audio conferencing services. The popularity of such solutions is quite evident. When you look around, you will find a lot of companies that are utilizing such solutions to improve their output.

You can find a lot of services that offer audio and video conferencing for free on the Internet. While they may seem perfect for some, it is important to choose the right one. Several of these software applications may turn out to be nothing but malware, so you need to pick one carefully.

The first thing you need to check while looking for any video conferencing service that offers free audio is the features list. Every application has its own features. For example, the RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance offers a complete set of features required by all businesses- small, medium or large.

You need to double-check the process of web conferencing as well before you choose an application. Several applications offer a wide range of features, but the procedure is so difficult that you would be limited to use only a few of them. Moreover, you need to ensure that the learning curve is small enough to let all the necessary employees learn to run the application quickly and easily. If you are looking for a free application that offers audio and video services, you can expect a lot of constraints on the features.

Another important aspect to be considered while choosing a web conferencing appliance with free audio is your computer’s specifications. Not all computers will be capable of supporting a web conferencing application, especially if it supports audio conferencing as well. Most importantly, you may find a lot of web conferencing tools that support only Windows operating systems, and a limited number of applications like those from RHUB that support both Windows and Mac systems.

If you are looking for a free video conferencing tool that also provides audio conferencing, you should try to test them out. Test applications are relatively small to download, so they take less of your time. Moreover, the test product also lets you check whether it would be suitable for your requirements or not. You can assess the product completely without relying on any third-party reviews, and at the end of the trial period, you can confidently reply whether the application meets your own business requirements or not.

If you do like a product, then do not forget to enroll and download the full product. A trial product’s period of use may end abruptly, and this can be problematic if you are in the middle of a conference. Moreover, the trial product may not have all the features of the application, so you can only fully use the web conferencing appliance when you buy it.

Video conferencing appliances that include audio support, like the RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance, allow you to interact in real time with participants without them being anywhere nearby. You can boost your savings and also improve the performance of your business with this type of platform.

Save your phone bills by using RHUB audio conferencing appliance

Let’s face it- businesses are not getting any less competitive. Even though the economy has slowed down, competition has only increased. Companies are always looking to become better, either to beat the competition or to simply survive the economic slump. At a time when globalization is the key to growth and improved performance, a web conferencing or VoIP service like the ones offered by RHUB can help a lot.

These services help bridge the gap between business networks, making communications better and decision-making faster. As a result, the business becomes more dynamic and efficient. For this reason, RHUB web conferencing appliances and other VoIP tools has already become a mainstay in several companies. However, the question here is not whether you should use web conferencing tools, but whether you should integrate them with your phone conference the next time you use them.

This particular question makes a lot of sense for businesses that already have a rigid VoIP product, like the RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance, in place. At first glance, a simple web conferencing solution like the one offered by RHUB may seem to be the most convenient option for a business.

After all, stopping any old-fashioned phone conferences would save a significant amount of money for paying the bills. Moreover, call connections also do not allow clients and participants to see each other face-to-face, albeit virtually through a computer screen.

However, there are 5 possible upsides to an audio conferencing appliance that can make it valuable for your business:

You can start a conference call anytime with a phone, but not with a computer. Some participants may be away from the desk when you want to start a conference, so such web conferences need a certain amount of planning. However, phone conferences allow participants to join the meeting at any time even without a computer around.

All the participants in a web conference may not have properly working microphones or USB headsets with them. Even if there are speakers, some participants may not be able to use them among other members because it may disturb them or compromise the conference security. On the other hand, participants can easily join an online meeting by simply hooking up the phone.

A high quality phone conference service makes meetings far more dependable. This particular advantage is especially significant if the business or any of the participants has an unstable Internet connection.

If the conference is to have a large number of participants or continue for a long time, then some phone conferencing operators offer their services to manage question and answer sessions. This helps give the whole conference a professional touch.

There are a few computers that are incompatible with different web conferencing appliances. For example, only a few platforms like the RHUB web conferencing appliance supports Mac and PCs. Moreover, some computers may run on older operating systems that do not support web conferencing platforms.

When you look at the current trends, you can see a lot of web conferencing service providers like RHUB offering integrated audio and web conferencing solutions. Participants are increasingly being able to join meetings via their mobile device.

Make sure your data is safe when doing remote access

Sci-Fi television shows and movies from the 80s and 90s really painted a vivid picture of the 21^st century. According to these movies, we would have developed the ability to teleport from one planet to another in the blink of an eye by now, at the very least. Sadly, that kind of advancement has not happened yet, but we do have the next best thing- the ability to control computers from other locations.

Real-time collaboration through the Internet has been around for some time now, and there are several popular vendors that you can choose from that allow you to do this. For example, RHUB offers a 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance. There are a lot of ways to set up and configure remote control. This article is going to explore the tools you can use, including inbuilt operating systems like Windows and third-party applications like the RHUB remote support appliance. Security is a big concern when you are working online, so you will also see how to keep your data safe while doing remote work.

Securely connecting to a remote PC

In-house real-time collaboration appliance offers the security that is not possible with hosted solutions. If you use on-premise applications over a secure LAN, it is highly unlikely that your data would be intercepted. However, when you are connecting over the Internet, the risks increase exponentially. This is where on-premise appliance deployed behind firewall comes into the picture.

A virtual private network or VPN is an encrypted network that connects the host and client computers, allowing a secure bridge for the transferring of data. This kind of a network is difficult to intercept. Even if a hacker intercepts the network, it would be even more difficult to make sense of the scrambled, encrypted data that is caught. There are some routers with the ability to double as a VPN host (this is usually seen in high-end models). It must be noted here that having a router-cum-VPN host is different from having a router that allows VPN connections between computers. If you are trying to connect to a computer through a router enabled with a VPN host, you need to go through the router documentation to find the right procedure for the connection.

Normally, it is easy to integrate remote control appliance to your system. The method of installation differs from vendor to vendor. Some companies like RHUB offer plug-and-play to install it on the system for you, while other free remote control programs require you to install it on your own. In most cases, it will also easily integrate with LDAP for you.

Choosing a proprietary service

Remote PC controlling applications can be tricky to use sometimes and can also increase the risk of attacks on either computer because of the minimal security offered. That is why you should consider a good proprietary on-premise service like RHUB.

RHUB is a leading real-time collaboration service vendor that offers remote PC support solutions to various businesses and individuals. It offers various features, including the web conferencing, free audio conferencing, file transfer, session recording, and etc.

Employees who work remotely could be more productive

Balancing work and life is one of the major issues in modern societies. With unemployment rates soaring and a seemingly endless worldwide economic crisis, people are working longer hours to keep their jobs and neglecting the time they spend in their homes, with their families.

Still, despite this grim outlook (or maybe because of it), people are starting to leave their work office and to work from home, and companies are adopting telecommuting as a way to reduce costs on infrastructures, allowing employees to have more time to be with their families.

Actually, employees even seem willingly to give up some of their salary if it means being allowed to work from home. According to a survey, 12% of male employees and 6% of female employees have stated that they would be willing to sacrifice more than 10% of their salary in exchange for more flexibility at work. A number which is quite surprising since one would think that mothers would be the ones more willingly to sacrifice their jobs in order to spend more time with their children.

A recent study of the Boston College Center for Work and Family has discovered that most fathers aspire to share the care giving of their children with their partners and that most (53%) would work from home if that option was financially feasible.

In another report from 2008 called National Study of the Changing Workforce, nearly 20% of all surveyed men have stated that they work 55 hours or more per week, which doesn’t leave them much time to be with their families. In this study 77% have stated that they would like to spend more time with their children.

Remote work allows working fathers and mothers to have more flexibility when it comes to be with each other and with their children. Allows them to have a more balanced life work and family life, often combining the two.

Studies also show that workers that are allowed to work from home can be more productive and that companies that have adopted remote connections have less costs that those with office space. Sure, being able to work from home require a lot of discipline on part of the employee but that is easily achievable with a vigilant and intervening manager, and with the right technological solutions which can have a crucial impact in work productivity from home.

Advanced solutions, like RHUB 6-in-1 web conferencing and remote support appliance, allow employees to work remotely in a virtual environment by themselves or in teams while, at the same time, they’re always within reach of a video or a web conference call.

Remote desktop connection allows employees to have a more balanced life and spend more time with their families while remaining productive. It also allows companies to reduce spending.