Remote working has become increasingly popular in recent years but in the current climate, this could be the first-time that remote working has been introduced to your workplace. Working remotely is an entirely new way of working, which may very well stay with us after the current pandemic. While it is fairly easy to set up home working in your workplace, there are certain obstacles that you may need to overcome. Primarily, how can you enable and encourage your team to continue working (and continue working productively) when they are not in the office? We hope this information will give you an insight into home working and how you can positively introduce it to your business.
What is remote working?
Remote working is simply offering and providing the flexibility and support to allow employees to work outside of the office. There are numerous benefits of working from home for both you and your team. Your team will not only have reduced travel times and costs but greater job satisfaction. For employers, encouraging home working displays organisation flexibility, reduced costs and increased productivity for your business.
We know that for some businesses remote working may seem daunting, but we hope these suggestions will enable you to prepare a suitable remote working solution for your business that will still be effective for the future too.
Who can work remotely?
Remote working won’t be suitable for everyone; however, you can easily establish which roles in your business can be just as effective regardless of where they are being undertaken. Of course, there may be some initial complications with remote working, so you’ll need to double-check policies and security measures before suggesting your teamwork from home. Another consideration you’ll need to make is what equipment your team will require. With paperwork sorted, you’ll need to establish what equipment they will need. This includes laptops or tablets but also checking they have a suitable internet connection where they will be working. It’s important to regularly check that your team has a suitable set up at home too as remote working continues to evolve.
What resources will be required?
Understandably your team will need the correct hardware to work from home, but they’ll also need appropriate software to work efficiently. There are plenty of applications that will help you with remote working, but one of the easiest to implement is Microsoft Teams. Microsoft Teams is free for up to 300 users and allows you to easily collaborate, whether you are in or out of the office. You’ll have access to instant chat, file sharing, video calling, and phone calls, you can even screen share, so it can be business as usual when you aren’t sat in the office.
How do we know it will work for us?
If you haven’t introduced remote working into your business yet, it’s important that you run tests to ensure smooth sailing. Your current IT systems should be capable to withstand a few people working from home, but what if it’s the whole office? By routinely testing your systems you can iron out any potential issues for the future. This could be a minor oversight, such as setting up remote VPN access on laptops, or how your infrastructure supports calls when everyone is out of the office.
Once you are sure your systems can handle remote working, it’s down to you and your employees. A big worry employers may have is that little work will be done when their team is working remotely, but it is important to trust your staff. It’s always handy to catch up with your team when you can to ensure they have everything they need and that they are pushing projects forward. But, for remote working to be implemented successfully, you need to trust that your team will continue to work as hard as they usually do, and the outcome will be worthwhile!
How can we help?
If you’d like any further advice or support with setting up remote working for your business, our friendly team is here to help. Get in contact with one of our IT experts today.
For more information, please contact Louise Harding on firstname.lastname@example.org