Coronavirus: Is your business prepared to work from home?

“work from home where possible”

UK Government

As COVID-19 continues to spread, with cases in the UK having reached 1,391 and climbing, is your business prepared to deal with employees having to work from home?

In the continuing effort to contain the coronavirus pandemic, a number of businesses have started urging workers to work from home. Some organisations including Google, Twitter, Nike, Facebook and JP Morgan have published and distributed business continuity and contingency plans for Covid-19 to UK-based workers that included mandatory home work.

What is remote working?

Remote working — working from where you are happiest and most productive, regardless of your physical proximity to your office HQ or a co-worker — this is an increasing reality for many.

Owing to developments in technology and shifting attitudes within the modern workforce, there has been a significant increase in the number of businesses and people working flexibly and remotely in recent years.

There is a new generation of professionals (Generation Flex) wanting to plug in at the right time and place that suits them – and they are changing the way we work.

Download the report

“50% of employees globally are working outside of their main office headquarters for at least 2.5 days a week.”

International workplace group survey

How do I get this set-up? What tools and software do I need?

In response to a pandemic, businesses are encouraged to rethink their business continuity plans (BCP) and prepare for disaster recovery. These BCP’s should help mitigate business disruptions due to COVID-19 and other unforeseen circumstances. Not done this yet? Check this out > Plan, Prepare and Respond to Coronavirus Disease.

Internet/Connectivity

You will need to ensure your employees have adequate internet connectivity/broadband at home to allow for an efficient remote working strategy. If not, it is easy to set-up and use mobile broadband devices such as mobile broadband routers, and dongles. They are perfect as a temporary and inexpensive alternative to a fixed internet link, with flexible plans and short-term contracts available. Alternatively, you could look into the possibility of enabling or upgrading 4g plans for users who have a business mobile.

Infrastructure/Cloud/VPN

If you already have your IT infrastructure in the cloud, then your workers will be able to access systems as usual. However, if some or all of your systems are physically located on-site, then you will need to add a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to ensure safe access to your corporate network. You must aim for a business grade solution that can support multiple users at any given time, there are several different VPN service providers available.

What is a VPN
A virtual private network extends a private network across a public network, and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network.

Customer service & external communication

How will your employees interact with stakeholders, including your clients and with each other? VoIP telephony will enable you and you entire workforce to stay connected, delivering the same level of service over the phone, as long as there is internet connectivity. If you haven’t migrated your traditional telephony system to a VoIP solution yet, you really should consider this. There’s lots of vendors out there providing solutions, some of which include great soft-phone options so you can make and answer calls via your desktop or via smartphone apps.

What is Cloud PBX/VoIP? What is On Premise PBX/traditional phone system? > find out more here.

Internal communication and team collaboration

Staying in contact and maintaining productivity will be key to the success of setting up remote working. Collaboration platforms like Microsoft Teams offer chat, voice and online conferencing facilities in a single user interface for internal communications. That means you can make calls, send messages one to one or group and set-up virtual meetings. You will also be able to create lists, assign tasks, share documents and update them in real time. The demand for video and chat software has been directly influenced by quarantines, cancellations, and work-from-home policies that allow people to try to maintain some resemblance of business as usual. In addition, tech companies in the workplace such as Zoom, Microsoft, and Google have offered some of their services for free and have taken measures to make sure they are able to meet the increasing user demand.

Not migrated to Office 365 yet > Find out more here.

Work smarter, not harder.

Generation Flex has grown up amid the rapid acceleration of technology. It’s predicted in a few years that 80% of the world’s population will own a smartphone. And with this unprecedented technological shift, the attitudes towards the workplace have shifted dramatically.

It is especially the case when it comes to commuting to work, sometimes considered lengthy, costly and often stressful. According to the IWG report, two-fifths of people around the world see commuting as the worst part of the day (40%), while more than 50% believe it could be obsolete by 2030.

Getting the balance right

After all, this is a generation for which the work-life balance is crucial. It needs to be able to manage work around life, not the other way around. The IWG survey reports that flexible work increases this balance by 78%.

Indeed, one-third of survey respondents (32%) claim flexible work is so important to them that they would turn a job down if they did not offer it.

Alternatively, they’re looking to work for a company that provides a collaborative culture and a more inclusive work environment that can particularly support returning parents, older employees and those suffering from stress or mental health issues.