In the last several weeks, companies across the country have been suddenly faced with the challenge of keeping their people working during this crisis. While the easiest option seems to be to send everyone home to work remotely, this is easier said than done. Some organizations are set up to easily make the switch to remote personnel, but others are not.
On the bright side, allowing people to work-from-home may help long-term with decreases in overhead – a positive trend that some company’s may decide to adopt even after the crisis is over.
Your executive team can use this opportunity to strategize about how your business can recover and operate in the face of other crisis situations as well, such as a building fire or flood.
Viability: Some businesses simply cannot put people to work remotely. While your accountant can easily make the transition, an assembly line worker obviously can’t. You need to identify if in fact your company can remain operational if forced to shut your main location down. Some organizations will fare much better than others.
Communication: Keeping the lines of communication open – both between your staff and your customers – is essential during a crisis situation. Understanding what your receptionist, customer service reps or sales people need from your telephony provider is important for them to effectively do their jobs. Do they need to be set up with an IP-based phone or a personal VPN? Does calls be transferred between people sitting in different locations, or do you need to take messages?
Internet Connectivity: Although nearly everyone has internet connectivity at home, your employees may not possess the proper computing equipment at home to do their jobs. You may need to provide them with laptops, tablets or desktops and provide assistance in setting up remote networks for them. Another consideration, based upon your employees’ specific job descriptions, is if they have sufficient bandwidth to do their jobs.
Application Support: If your personnel use their own equipment at home, do they have the necessary applications on their devices? If not, you will need to facilitate installation. Also, the applications themselves may not operate correctly from a remote location due to security reasons. That specific problem may be rectified with an installed VPN on personal equipment, but it has to be researched.
Capacity: While most organizations have infrastructure in place to support a few key employees who work offsite, you should check with your IT team to discern if your remote access equipment has the capacity to support the entire company working remotely.
Communication: Your employees are used to having instant access to other people to ask questions or gain clarification. When working in an office, it is as simple as walking to another desk. It is important when companies implement a work-from-home strategies that they put an emphasis on communication. Daily conference calls, even for just a few minutes, may allow your employees to feel in touch and connected, as well as to be aware of what their colleagues are working on.
Family Responsibility: It is important to remember that this crisis is affecting families as well as your business. Because children are home as well, a healthy dose of understanding will be necessary. A baby crying or dog barking when you are trying to have a conference call is to be expected. You may also have to allow for more flexible schedules as employees work around the family who is all at home.
As stated, many organizations have already discovered the many benefits of having a remote workforce – for both employees and employers. While working through this crisis situation and setting up your work-from-home strategy, you may wish to take the lessons learned and implement them into your regular business model.
If you need help with any work-from-home challenges, call the experts at Alliance IT. We are here to help you to streamline operations, minimize overhead, and increase productivity. Together, we can weather the storm and come our more effective on the other side.
