Remote working has grown in popularity over the past decade, mostly due to innovations that enable productivity when working from home. In general, a remote workforce can mean lower overhead and more flexible schedules, but enabling productive work from home can greatly pay off in times of large-scale public health and safety concerns, such as disease outbreaks and major weather events.

Consider for example, major snowstorms and hurricanes that compromise employees’ ability to get to work safely, national security events such as 9/11, and more recently, the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.

These events threaten not just employees’ health and safety, but also business continuity. As more and more events have arisen in recent times, many businesses are now allowing, either voluntarily or on the advice of local officials, their employees to work remotely, and are investing in remote office technology.  As more companies face the possibility of disruption, determining the right IT solutions for this situation is crucial.

Start with basic connectivity

Most broadband home internet access is sufficiently fast for handling typical business traffic, even data-heavy applications such as video conferencing. Many home WiFi routers, however, are often not optimized to deliver seamless coverage. Remote employees - especially those with family members who may be home using bandwidth for gaming or streaming - should use an ethernet connection to ensure reliable performance. 

Collaborate with the right tools

Remote work thrives with apps and platforms to enable project transparency and real-time collaboration. Today's collaboration tools feature much more than the ability to message co-workers. They allow sharing and joint work on documents, incorporate video conferencing, and are effective for customer communication as well. 

Keep security in mind for remote workers

For companies considering remote work for their employees, cybersecurity must be the top priority. They should create policies that restrict employees from using unsafe WiFi networks, such as public WiFi. Employers should also enable encryption, require multi-factor authentication and require that personal devices are up to date in cases where a "bring-your-own-device" policy is allowed. 

Remote work using sophisticated home office technology has grown in popularity and may become the new normal in the wake of public health concerns, like the 2020 COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.  For more information on how to maximize productivity and minimize the risks with remote office technology solutions, contact us.