The recent pandemic has made dramatic changes to how businesses and non-profits operate.
Most organisations have offices, however with the success of home working, some have no intention of returning to the office. Organisations are considering implementing full remote working solutions, taking advantage of some of the benefits and cost savings of not having a physical office space.
These are some of the things you will need to consider when looking at a full-time remote working solution;
Premises Cost vs Home Working Setup
The cost of having a dedicated premises is very expensive, with not only rent or mortgage payments, but also the costs of utilities, cleaning, staff welfare and upkeep.
Full time home working will require some initial investment, including IT systems and possibly desks, chairs, and telephony. After the initial setup, ongoing costs will drop significantly, allowing your organisation to invest in other areas.
On-boarding New Staff
Considerations will need to be made into how you on-board new employees, including initial training, developing team camaraderie and their locality.
In traditional office settings, staff training and team building are part of the office environment, with structures already in place to enable integration of new employees.
Implementing full-time remote working will have benefits when hiring new staff, as they will not have to commute to a central location (meaning employees can be based anywhere in the country or even internationally). However, new processes will have to be defined when onboarding full-time remote workers for training and integration into the team culture.
Managing & Training Existing Staff
As most employees are used to working in an office surrounded by their colleagues, the idea of resorting to full-time home working can be daunting.
However, managing and training your staff whilst remote working is easier than ever! There are lots of free online training videos for many common applications, such as Office 365 training, that your staff can use to improve their core skills!
Your outsourced IT provider will be able to provide some appropriate resources for your organisations specific software and services
Staff Well-being
When it comes to wellbeing, the data shows a significant improvement in staff happiness where employees are given the chance to work from home, even on a temporary basis.
Firstly, it reduce their travel expenses, and can also make them more productive overall. By not needing to commute to the office every morning, employees often feel more motivated to kick start their workday without the added stress of travelling to work. Remote working also allows more time with family, both before and after work as well as spending lunch breaks together.
Communication & Collaboration
Some may say that communicating in the office compared to when you’re working from home is a lot easier, however, recent technology has allowed a significantly improved level of communication between in-office and home-working employees.
A great way to communicate with your staff whilst they’re working remotely would be through Microsoft Teams. This is a collaboration platform that combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration. You’re able to see your employees face-to-face instantly, whether that’s just one staff member or 49, Microsoft Teams supports this.
Microsoft SharePoint Online is a great service from Microsoft 365 and is a collection of cloud and web-based technologies that makes it easy to store, share and manage organisational information. Not only does it allow you to access your work files and folders from anywhere, but it also allows for easy collaboration for your staff!
Technology
You may think that if your staff work from home that their work devices will not be as secure as they would be in the office. This is in fact wrong as there is lots of new software that will protect all of their work devices!
For example, Microsoft MFA and Duo MFA are great Multi-Factor Authentication security software. They enable another layer of protection as you’re asked to verify yourself with every login. It is free and easy to implement, and ensures that your accounts are significantly more secure.
If you’re interested in migrating to flexible cloud solutions, please contact us on [email protected] or 020 3904 3464. We’re dedicated to finding the right IT solutions for you!
