As Hospital numbers climb and a global workforce shortage in place, companies need to get creative as to how they will keep employees on board, keep employees safe, and keep their businesses going. Work from Home environments will surely top the list of the ways that they can accommodate all three of those items. Companies will have their list of lessons learned from the mandates in 2020. Here at HCTG, have a list from “What lessons we learned that impacted companies in their IT?” The following blog will outline some remote work essentials we suggest for a more productive work from home environment.
IT Impacts of Work From Home and Recommended Remote Work Essentials
Home Internet
There is no IT that can make home internet better. When working from home, employees have found that their internet is not used to the draining hours put on it. Therefore, their internet has performed insufficiently when in terms of VPNs and video conferencing. Working with your employees to evaluate their internet, and offering stipends for upgrading their internet, will increase an employee’s flexibility to be able to work from home.
Measuring Performance
If you don’t have clear performance indicators, or a way to track employees’ productivity, this could lead to lowered productivity levels. Your company should invest in a monitoring software to report on the employees’ computer utilization. Teramind is a software we have recommended during the lock downs in 2020. Also, we would encourage dispatching this software by departments, so you can offer a comparison in productivity.
Cloud Applications
Infrastructures that are not 100% in the cloud will not be able to send employees’ computers home with them, and it work effectively without assistance. Servers need VPNs or log in applications to gain access to the server applications, storage, etc. A plan should be collaborated with your IT professionals and rolled out in phases to decrease impact on company productivity and security.
Collaboration Tools
The utilization of a Collaboration tool, such as Office 365’s Microsoft Teams, is an essential tool for a fully remote or hybrid environment. When these tools are implemented, they make a team that works well at the office work just as well remote. Companies that have a collaboration tool, but are not fully leveraging the tool, should assign a Champion to learn more about the tool, and how their company can move their internal company dialogues, documentation, issue tracking, project tracking, etc., into the tool.
These four items will drastically increase your peace of mind and keep your company moving forward. It is important to note, that hardware, such as laptops and video conferencing cameras, were hard to get in 2020. Fast forward to now, and we are facing a hardware shortage from lack of production in 2020. This has not helped any when it comes to the high demand for hardware. It will not be possible to get an emergency laptop purchased, or any other hardware. If the need is there, invest now (it will still take months to get it in).
These are our biggest recommendations for remote work essentials. For more information on Work from Home, visit our webinar series during the beginning of 2020 lock downs which are all linked below.
Monitoring Work From Home Progress Webinar
Navigating Remote Work Leadership Webinar
Work From Home Policies Webinar