The axiom that remote workers are less productive has proven untrue. Combined with lower organizational costs and reduced turnover, we have to question – will staff ever come back into the office in the same way? For the immediate term WFH is here to stay. This is a prime moment to step back, assess your initial WFH strategy, and decide if there are changes needed.
Organizations who are able to shift their technology capacity and investments to support work from home effectively, will run more smoothly now and over the long term.
5 tips for long-term work from home success
1. Identify requirements
As the lens changes from a short-term response to a long-term plan, meet with your team to discuss:
- What do they need to do their jobs effectively from home that they don’t have now?
- What apps and documents do they need access to that they haven’t been able to get to?
- How could you use your existing productivity and collaboration platforms like Microsoft Office 365 better?
2. Set expectations
Provide clear expectations of how collaborative work should be conducted, discuss any potential changes to work hours, and consider how you’re going to flex with employees who are working alongside their children.
3. Communication, communication, communication
It can be difficult, but not impossible, to instill a company culture in a virtual environment. Staff working remotely should communicate with one another just as much as they do in the office. Everybody should be encouraged to participate in video calls, to mirror in-person meetings and reinforce social bonds in the workplace. The right communication and collaboration tools will also lend themselves to spontaneous interaction.
4. Protect your endpoints
More people working from personal devices can unfortunately have a negative impact on cyber security. Providing access to remote desktop services, virtual private networks (VPNs) and virtual desktops can help employees continue their work out-of-office without compromising systems.
Endpoint protection solutions can also come in handy to protect mobile devices such as laptops, tablets and smartphones.
5. Secure continuity
Relevant solutions for online backup and data recovery should be an essential part of your remote work plan. Confirm that your systems are fully redundant, and that you remain compliant with any applicable data protection and privacy regulations.
As we adjust to working from home as the new normal (for now), we will all become more comfortable with collaboration tools and the new way we need to work. However, there are bound to be hiccups. Shared folders won’t sync, calls with no sound, lost logins – that’s where your managed service providers at Runabout Technology are here to help.