CPA Practice Advisor

MAY 2017

Today's Technology for Tomorrow's Firm.

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22 MAY 2017 ■ www.CPAPracticeAdvisor.com FEATURE By Christopher Stark Top Business Trend for 2017: Achieving Work-Life Balance While having a better work-life balance can directly impact your bot- tom line, the improved morale and employee satisfaction also leads to more productivity and less employee turnover. Businesses have become more conscious of the early warning signs of employee burnout, such as increased absenteeism or a slackening of the quality of work done. That's why it is no surprise that evolving work-life balance policies is a top small to mid- size business trend for 2017. Implementing a hosted cloud and virtual desktop solution enables busi- nesses and their employees to have more mobility and flexibly. With the ability to work from any location or device, employees don't have to make sacrifices for their careers or home life. They're able to live their lives fully while getting great work done. A better work-life balance helps workers mentally, physically and emotionally be better professionals, which in turn means your business is able to provide better service to your end customers. To support the shift in work-life balance policies, we've pulled together five interesting stats: ■ A recent Microsoft study, found that 71 percent of employees say work-life balance is the most important aspect of their job. ■ Cor porate Executive Board, which represents 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies, found that employees who believe that they have good work- life balance work 21 percent harder than those who don't after researching 50,000 global workers. ■ Society for Human Resource Manage- ment (SHRM) found that 89 percent of human resource professionals reported an increase in employee retention simply by launching the implementa- tion of flexible work arrangements. ■ The Center for Amer ican Progress fou nd t h at t he av e r ag e c o s t of employee turnover was 21 percent of an employee's annual salary. ■ Staples Business Advantage 2016 Workplace Index (conducted among more than 3,100 employees in the U.S. and Canada), found that 22 percent of employees changed jobs because of work-life balance issues. Hear what one of our clients has to say about improved work-life balance due to the cloud: "Our internal staff has benefitted greatly from the transition to the cloud," said Reggie Nance, director of finance and administration, Public Affairs Council (PAC). "It has allowed our staff to be more efficient and has given them more of a work-life balance, which in the end makes our employees happier. They're able to work from home, because they know they have the technology and support from Cetrom to be productive. That's a huge benefit for us!" ■ Christopher Stark is CEO of Cetrom, a provider of custom cloud and IT solutions to meet specific user, mobile, security and appli- cation needs for a variety of SMBs including accounting and CPA firms, associations and nonprofits, travel management and other organizations. TRANSITIONING FROM A traditional IT setup to the cloud can not only save your business IT dollars, but it has nontangible benefits as well. One of those benefits is creating a better work-life balance for your employees.

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