Remote working is something that has become a lot more common over the past year. Some companies who promote working from home will have already had the infrastructure required to support this kind of working but for others, the move had to happen rapidly. Remote working doesn’t have to be troublesome, as long as the correct precautions have been taken.
Below, we are going to offer some tips to help facilitate remote work. Read on to get some expert advice.
Using the Right Equipment
If your employees are suddenly required to work remotely, they might not have suitable equipment at home. Some might have laptops that they can use already but is this really suitable for the kinds of tasks that they will be working on from day to day? The equipment that is required by staff entirely depends on the task at hand.
As an employer, you have a responsibility to ensure your staff has all that they need. Consider everything from computers to scanners and office furniture. While you might not want to have to buy desks and chairs for your staff, you could find that when they work on their couch or bed, they are much less productive. In this case, you might want to pay a bit extra in order to maximize the work being done. If you can ensure this is all provided in some form, remote work is much easier to facilitate.
Securing the Network
When you are in the office, you typically have network security that prevents any unwanted guests from getting from into your files. However, when your team is working from their home offices, there can be a serious lack of security. This is especially true if they are working on public networks as you never know who could hack into your system through this kind of thing.
For this reason, our next tip to help facilitate remote working is to use a VPN to securely connect to the enterprise network. This way, you can ensure maximum security and not risk any of your files getting into the wrong hands. VPNs are really easy to set up and you should be able to get your entire team connected to the network in no time at all. There are a number of additional benefits to using this kind of cloud VPN so make sure to give it a try for your business.
Stay Connected
Remote working is never successful if employees and managers are not contactable. If a team member has an issue in the office, they can easily ask someone who is sitting next to them for a solution. When remote working is taking place, however, this is much harder to achieve. This is why our next tip is to make sure that all employees can stay connected with those that they need to.
There are many ways that this can happen including video conferencing tools, group chats or even regular meetings to check in on employees. Have a look at Skype or Microsoft teams as these can be very effective tools. There is a bigger need for communication in this kind of setting so don’t let this fall to the wayside.
Be Adaptable
Finally, if you want to facilitate remote working, you should make sure that you are willing to adapt. When your entire team is forced to work from their homes, you will typically find that circumstances change. For example, one of your team members might ask to work alternative hours due to a lack of travel in the morning or a lack of childcare during the day. If you can be flexible with this kind of thing, it can go a long way.
You should also consider adapting the work style that you currently have in place. Is your workday goal orientated? Often, setting goals for each day or week can be extremely effective in ensuring any staff are doing the work that is expected of them. Using a content management system such as Trello can be useful in this kind of situation.
Try These Tips
Remote working can be effective and there is no reason why a team that is working remotely shouldn’t be as productive as they would be in the office. As long as you make sure that your team has the right equipment and that they know what is expected of them, you should be able to achieve all of your goals throughout the month.
Who knows, this could go very smoothly, and you might even look into remote working as a viable option for staff in the future when it isn’t required by law. Make sure to give all of the tips that we have given you a try today.
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