With a lot of people and companies forcing to change the way they work; Remote Working has become the norm for many. Just as many companies is introducing work from home policies, either full or part time. But what does it entail to have your employees work from home?
Accessibility
This is the biggie. The information and processes relied heavily on people being present in the office with central storage, computing, internet access and managers readily available. In the new normal, Internet access is the vital key in keeping things working and puts a higher priority and reliability on internet access – both at the central location and at your employees’ remote location. Data needs to be presented in a different way to the employees and processes needs to be adjusted accordingly. Shared data and information need to be accessible anywhere from any device on any medium or type of internet connection. Employees’ computing devices are disparate across the spectrum of what is available. So, do the company provide every employee with a laptop or allow them to use their own devices? Who pays for the employees’ internet connection?
Productivity
Productivity is the biggest gain in this for small companies especially. Many people get more done at home, balancing between work and home life. The normal office hours do not apply here. A lot of time is gained from not travelling, allowing everyone to get more done and more focussed on the task at hand, applying themselves. Video conferencing/calls/meetings has taken off in unprecedented ways over the last few months. Another reason why the internet connection is so important. Collaboration and sharing of documents and everyone’s input can be achieved with the big cloud providers, allowing almost near real time collaboration on most tasks.
Security
Keep this in mind, every step of the way when making decisions. How secure are your systems? How well is the data and information protected from malicious actors? Can your private confidential video meetings be interrupted and hijacked by outside parties or even worse, can they eaves drop on your conversations? Security in depth has never been before so important and relevant. Anti-virus, anti-malware, intrusion detection and prevention, firewalls, end-to-end encryption to name but a few mechanisms. Remember to keep the remote workers situation into consideration – they are not behind the corporate firewall shielding them.
Conclusion
Remote work is here to stay in some way form and shape for the future with a lot of factors to keep in mind and what could determine the best possible solution for the future. Keep Safe and Keep Well – Personally and Digitally.