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Regardless of how your company may have functioned in the past – if work-from-home was a big part of your company culture or not included whatsoever – you’ve probably had to introduce remote work as a response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Maybe you and your employees even like it so much that you plan to continue having an expanded remote team and work from home policy even after the pandemic. If that’s the case, it’s important to think through the benefits and challenges, develop and implement a clear policy, and focus on how you can support your remote workforce through the transition and beyond.

The Impact of COVID-19

No matter how you thought of remote working before this year, the COVID-19 pandemic is sure to have influenced your view. What may have once been seen as a luxury and convenience very quickly became a must for the sake of public health. Our eyes were opened to both the unique challenges and the distinct advantages of remote work at a large scale.

Companies were tasked with the work of finding and implementing new systems for communication, collaboration, and security, while teams caught a rare glimpse of one another’s home lives, providing a humanity and closeness between co-workers that may not have existed before. Employees discovered the pros of working from home, including decreased commute time, more time for things like sleep and family, and increased convenience.

Put through the ultimate ringer, remote working was seen to have worked well in an emergency, and many companies like Uber, Microsoft, REI, Google, Amazon, and Spotify, to name just a few, were so impressed that they’ve since decided to use remote work as a long-term business strategy.

The Challenges of Continuing Remote Work

However, it’s worth noting that continuing to move ahead with a remote work policy – whether it be as a result of choice or necessity – is sure to come with difficulty as well as good. As offices remain closed, there are reports of employees getting work from home fatigue. Further, organisations must understand that not all employees wish to work remotely. For some workers, considerations such as work style, family life, and other circumstances make office work definitively preferable.

In order to have as much success as possible with long-term remote work, leaders must carefully consider how they will support their workforce as employees’ homes transform into offices.

How to Support Your Remote Workforce

There are many considerations to take into account when it comes to supporting remote workers. Here are just some of them.

The Home Office

First, there is the issue of physical office comfort. In order to maintain health and well-being, employees will need home access to quality, ergonomic desk furniture and accessories such as chairs, tables, keyboards, and computer mice. As there is no guarantee employees already had something like this available, organisations may consider providing employees with a stipend for purchasing the proper work from home gear.

Work from Home Technology

Further, there are issues of technology support and provision. Companies may prefer to provide computers and monitors of their own rather than allowing employees to use personal devices for reasons of security as well as quality and fairness. Questions of internet access will also arise. Does IT become responsible for home broadband? Can employers offer reimbursement for wifi bills?

Changes to Contracts

There is also the consideration of contractual terms and conditions. Working from home is a different type of agreement between employer and employee than in-office work. It’s likely that contracts will have to be adjusted to include clauses about issues such as where and when employees may work, the requirement of breaks, reimbursements of utility costs, supplying of necessary equipment, whose property that equipment will be, compliance with health, safety, and security regulations, and confidentiality.

Insurance

Another issue to consider is related to safety and liability. Will your employees home insurance cover business equipment and safety? Can you provide coverage for your employees’ home offices under your business’s insurance policy or will you have to take out new insurance policies to cover potential theft and damage to company property? What if an employee is in some way injured while working from home?

New Employees

Recruitment, hiring, onboarding, and training will also have to be adjusted to work virtually. Meetings with HR, introductions to team members and management, new employee orientation, check-ins with managers, and training on work tasks themselves will all have to be redesigned to work as smoothly as possible online.

Management

Managers who approach managing a remote team the same way as they did an in-person one will quickly learn that there is no avoiding adjusting one’s management style to these new circumstances. Remote employees require more communication, emotional support and authentic caring, clearer expectations, and more flexibility when it comes to issues like hours versus output. Managers will also have to be careful about treating employees fairly and equally.

Company Culture

Finally, there is the issue of how to maintain social ties virtually. Meeting culture will be changed and new norms will have to be established. Companies who had once prioritised trust and connection among teams and between members of the organisation will have to find new ways to facilitate, encourage, and offer activities for trust-building, team-building, and socializing. Being proactive about preventing employee’s feelings of isolation, loneliness, and burnout will be key.

Ultimately, there are no right answers to these questions and no single correct way to move forward into the new world of long-term work from home arrangements. Just as employees are adjusting and learning as the months go on, so are companies. What is sure is that it will require a healthy dose of flexibility, foresight, and commitment to making things work.

We have all become familiar with virtual meetings, messaging, and calling at this point and how it has changed the work dynamic within our companies forever. While face to face conferences may not be on the table, for now, there is potential that these changes may be the way of the future workplace permanently.

With the potential to save money, reduce property, and minimize time loss, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex, Google Workplace, and Workplace by Facebook become assets to any company braving the pandemic and thereafter. Remote work may not just be a way to weather Covid-19, it may also be the best way to keep companies thriving even after we return to the office.

You’ve Deployed Zoom or Teams – What’s Next?

COVID created the demand for Teams and Zoom which has led to many successful deployments. Both applications are user friendly and provide the necessary forms of communication to keep the workflow going at its usual pace. Questions can be answered quickly and meetings can be had with multiple users. It’s almost like being together again, but now less time is wasted

What’s Next?

Now that the deployment of remote applications has been a success, what does a plan to return to the office look like? Most companies are working towards a staggered return or a rotating schedule to maintain social distancing and keep contact between employees low. This means some people will consistently be working from home, they just may not the same people every day.

Keeping employees safe is the top priority of companies everywhere. With a good virtual work infrastructure already in place and the ability to keep your staff at a safe distance from each other, you’re already set up for success. When staff members have the ability to seamlessly communicate with one another and set up meetings to further the communication, it’s a win-win situation.

Working Remotely Everyone Must be Equal

That being said, while it can be a successful decision to move back to the office, some will be remote and others in separate rooms and this can create difficulties between staff and management. While everything might have worked well when everyone was on an even playing field at home, they might not be so lucky if your room equipment doesn’t support your video conferencing platform.

When you set up the new remote meeting systems in your office, have an IT consultant set up and test all remote capabilities so you don’t get stuck with half your team unable to connect. You will want someone with experience with remote technology to spearhead this endeavor to you can ensure no time is lost as you move back into the office.

Does Your Company Need a Phone System Anymore?

If you’re like most businesses, you’ve been using Cisco phone systems for years and years. However, it is unlikely that your company will continue to need a full phone system. Calling each other will become outdated as your employees are already used to using the instant messaging feature of remote working. Cut costs by reducing the phone system for clients and departments only and replace with a cloud.

Making the move from a phone system to a cloud could cause a headache for you and your staff. Make the transition a breeze by consulting with an IT professional and having them assist with your switch. The time and money that will be saved are well worth it.

Can Your team Support New Technology?

When it comes down to brass tax, it’s time to ensure you have the right people and systems in place to support real-time communication. You don’t want to be left in the dust as other businesses move forward with new technology. You can avoid the hassle of trying not to fall behind by implementing strategies well before the time comes to make changes.

Installing property technology that will make sure your company is a leader in the industry of change and rapid growth, you will be ensuring that all your employees will be able to communicate with clients and each other. Communication is the key to any good relationship and your companies relationship with the customer should be the top priority.

Utilize All Teams and Zoom Resources

The best way to get the most bang for your buck using MS Teams or Zoom is to find and use cases in your business and share best practice. Utilizing every facet of these remote work capabilities will expand the way you do business and the way your employees are able to complete their projects.

Ensure Your Video Conferencing Platform is Consistent with Your Wider IT Provision and Strategy

While it’s tough to know what comes next after the small success of rolling out remote work platforms in your company, there are experts in the field that are here to keep you in the loop when it comes to the wider IT provision and what kinds of strategy to use. Your video conferencing platform must match up with the vision that will employ the best ideals for your business.

It can be hard to know what the right choice is for the entirety of any company, but it doesn’t have to remain up to you alone. Partnering with a company you can trust to outsource your property technology and enable remote work with professionalism and ease can be one of the easiest ways to save money and keep business as usual in these trying times.

Contact this IT consulting business today for a consultation to improve the business as usual of the future.

As the entire world flexes and changes in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, so must our workplaces. In many ways, we will have to make adjustments that will stay with us forever, long after the pandemic becomes a distant memory. It’s up to leaders in departments such as IT, facilities, and property management to stay ahead of the game, anticipating and evaluating what changes to expect and what actions to take as our offices move toward an uncertain and categorically different future.

What Will Offices Look Like?

As much as we move toward more and more remote work, we can be sure that there will always be a need for offices. But now, companies are beginning to ask how many offices and how much office space they really need. So what might the post-Coronavirus office look like?

Safety

The top priority when it comes to returning to the office during and after the pandemic will be safety. The future workplace will have to take into account issues such as:

• A one-way flow at entry and exit points
• Sanitation stations for hands and surfaces
• A larger distance between desks
• Video conferencing booths
• Antibacterial desktop screens

Collaboration

If most employees can and do work remotely at least part of the time, the main function of the office will become as a space for collaborative activities that can’t be done from home. This means more office space will have to be dedicated to meeting rooms, though these rooms will have to have enough space for people to sit at a greater distance from one another than was typical previously.

Further, there will be a need to make collaboration and communication between in-office and remote employees more seamless, which may require remote collaboration tools like virtual whiteboards and more video conferencing set-ups.

Less Office Space, More Technology

One thing that is sure to come along with increased remote work is less of a need for as much office space. That means that companies will be able to reduce property and reallocate resources to technology that will be necessary to accommodate and make possible all of this remote work.

For example, some of the technology that may become necessary to invest in includes:

• A smart digital building infrastructure to collect data and support remote services, particularly to understand and analyze occupancy in buildings in order to track peak office times and determine if there are higher-risk areas in the building
• Connectivity applications and tools for voice, video, and online collaboration such as secure VPNs, employee monitoring tools, broadband, videoconferencing (such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and Google Workplace), chat and messaging, cloud storage, and sharing tools

Who Goes Where?

Another key consideration for offices will be to designate which staff can work remotely and who must be present in the office. This may be chosen on the basis of such factors as where somebody is in their professional development journey and what stage a project is in. Hiring may also look entirely different as companies can begin to consider hiring talent from faraway places for a remote job that used to be only done in office.

There will also need to be space for much more flexible work arrangements, including weeks that include both working from home and working from the office. Companies may want to consider choosing a hybrid “hub and spoke model” that puts office facilities closer to where employees live.

Home Office Provisions

Spoke or no spoke, one consideration that companies will have to make will be what to provide to employees for work from their home offices. While the pandemic came as a surprise and people had to make do at the start with what they already had, in the future, it will be fair to expect that companies will take it upon themselves to provide employees with the necessary tools and equipment for remote work, including things such as:

• A one-time or monthly allowance for employees to purchase their own work-from-home gear
• Weekly credits to purchase food for lunches at home
• Reimbursement on wifi bills and purchase of equipment such as a desk, keyboard, mouse or headphones
• Childcare assistance such as reimbursement for or credit toward virtual summer camps and nannies

Challenges in the Post-COVID Office

Of course, it can be foreseen that all of these changes will come with their own unique challenges. One will be the much more confusing nature of office space, as companies will have to balance a combination of owned space, standard leases, flexible leases, flex space, co-working space, and remote work, something that can be expected to be significantly complex for operations and facilities staff.

Then there are the technological challenges. When the majority of work and collaboration happens online, the functionality of tech systems will become absolutely critical. If a video conferencing or VPN client goes down, the disruption will be significant. Assuring that each employee has effective internet access, software, and hardware, as well as providing responsive tech support during all relevant hours, will have to become a high priority.

That’s not to mention the issue of security, as more and more sensitive employee and company information will be housed online. This means taking charge of security not only of company equipment but also employees’ personal devices, in pursuit of a multidimensional security model that takes into account identity, UI, network and behavioural analytics.

And of course, it’s worth mentioning the challenge of tracking data about employee health including who has and hasn’t been vaccinated or infected, who has come into contact with whom, and when everybody has or hasn’t been in the office.

Ultimately, there are both many challenges and many advantages to look forward to in a post-COVID world, but the bottom line is that the future workplace will look different from the one we knew before and even the one we know today. The future office is coming – will you be ready?