It is impossible not to have heard of the coronavirus, and we are continually receiving information on the spread and precautions we should take. Have you also considered the impact the virus may have on your business? Everyone should be preparing for having employees work remotely, due to quarantine, those stranded abroad or other related reasons. The upside to this is that remote work is predicted too increase 30% by 2030, so its is good to be prepared.

Technology is the key to successfully working remotely. It is crucial to establishing a plan immediately. Video conferencing tools, such as Teams or Slack, can be leveraged to maintain continuity and provide both video and team collaboration and chat. A large number of companies use Office 365 and may not know that Teams is a tool that comes with it. Whether you use a video feature or just the chat function, it’s great for person-to-person chats, group meetings and real time collaboration without person-to-person exposure.

Now is also the time to ensure you create a policy for dealing with having employees working remotely, especially in a crisis.

  • Identify key employees and set up the systems that they will need to work remotely. For example, the finance department should be able to ensure that pay checks get issued on time.
  • Assuming all employee computers have VPN access, preconfigure new or spare laptop computers with VPN access, enabling Remote Desktop use across the board. Provide training if necessary. Some organizations have strict compliance and security issues, so this will have to be considered and built in.
  • Enable all other tools for remote work, such as the above mentioned video conferencing tools.
  • Make sure that all malware protection is up to date. This is especially crucial for remote work.
  • Review security measures with employees, including use of safe passwords and avoidance of downloading any unknown attachments.
  • Communicate often with employees.
  • Fortify and review your technology, including cloud based tools, remote tools, etc.

Should a skeleton crew be needed at the office, provide safety measures, hand sanitizers and anti-bacterial wipes.

Lastly, rest assured that Waytek has a plan in place to remain up and running and available for assistance.

Please contact us if you would like more information on securely running your technology remotely. Stay healthy!