As little as two months ago, working from home was considered a job perk. Or, maybe even a recruiting tactic for prized new hires. Despite telecommuting becoming more and more accepted in office parks around the country, the custom was certainly not a taken-for-granted benefit.
A lot has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic has erupted and caused worldwide disruptions to everyday life and work. As more shelter-in-place orders come down from governor’s mansions, working from home has become a mandated reality for millions of people all across the world.
For the immediate future, telecommuting is no longer a job perk… it’s a job necessity.
If you’re a business that embraced working from home long before the spread of coronavirus became an international crisis, kudos — way to stay ahead of the game. Hopefully, your transition to a telecommuting workforce has gone smoothly and easily.
That said, before the onset of the pandemic, accommodating telecommuting for employees never registered as a top-level concern or need for many small and medium-sized businesses. With the new, social distancing reality setting in, you might be finding yourself scrambling to take your business virtual.
What do you needed to successfully complete this abrupt transition? Let’s discuss a few essentials.
Hardware
First and foremost, you’ll need the right equipment if you want to enable your team to manage their work responsibilities remotely. That means laptops.
Why laptops? Because it’s impractical to expect your employees to unplug their desktop setups and transport them to their makeshift home offices. It may also be inadvisable to allow your employees to utilize their own personal computers for work purposes.
Unless you have every employee’s personal computer checked out by an IT professional, you have no way of knowing how secure their machines are. As such, you could be leaving your businesses exposed to unacceptable levels of risk.
So, company laptops — set up and secured by knowledgeable IT staff — are the first items you’ll need to procure.
The bad news here is, many businesses are rushing to stock up on laptops, for the same reasons you are. Some suppliers are running three-week backlogs on orders. A lot of laptop manufacturing capacity resides in China — the first country to be hit with the pandemic. Production has slowed to a crawl across almost every industry.
The good news? China now appears to be heading for a slow recovery. The Chinese government is allowing manufacturing facilities to re-open and resume their production. Provided there are no big setbacks, the laptop backlog may be easing in the near future.
In addition to laptops, the other hardware your employees will need are phones and reliable internet connections. There isn’t much you can do about internet service at your employees homes. However, you can make sure their phones are secure and properly configured to handle sensitive company correspondence and information by having your IT team provide assistance.
VPN
So, now that your employees have their laptops, phones and reliable internet connections, you’ll need to enable your team to access company resources — email, databases, shared drives, etc.. And, you’ll also need to protect your business from potential breaches by digital criminals.
The best way to do that is via a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN enables secure and private transmission of data over the internet. It’s like a private tunnel on a busy road, to which only you and your employees have access.
You’ll need to purchase a VPN license for every remote employee on your team. There are many VPN providers out there. For help selecting the right VPN service for your business, check out this guide from Digital Trends.
Remote Desktop
Another resource you may need to enable for your remote employees is a remote desktop connection. This allows your team to access their workstations from their home computers/laptops.
It’s a good bet that there are resources and information on your employee workstations that they may need to access in order to manage their day-to-day duties. In addition to documents and databases, your team can also access applications loaded on their workstations from home. This is helpful if you rushed deliveries of your newly purchased laptops to your employee homes. The laptops are
Secondly, remote desktop works both ways. Not only can your team access their workstations from home, your IT team can also access your employees’ computers remotely when they require help. This provides “hands on” assistance for any troubleshooting issues when your employees can’t simply hand their machine off to an IT staffer.
Guidelines and Best Practices
Transitioning your business to remote work can be a jarring process for you and your team. There’s no doubt that there are new routines and protocols to adjust to. And, not everyone has experience utilizing the new tools they’ll be asked to use.
To assist the transition to the new reality, it’s helpful to have a common set of guidelines and best practices for your employees to follow. To that end, it’s important to undergo a comprehensive assessment of your business processes and go through all the new steps you’ll be asking your employees to take. This exercise will help uncover problem spots before you begin your work from home program, and make the transition smoother and easier.
Beacon Knows Remote Work
Coronavirus has forced many businesses into new dynamics. If you need advice to assist with your transition to remote work, we are here to help. Get in touch with our team today.
