Enabling flexible working brings benefits to employees and employers. As an employer, you can expect your productivity and collaboration to improve, with employees no longer limited by location thanks to integrated collaboration tools. While employees become happier as they can avoid potentially long commutes and have more flexibility in their day. It has also been a way to attract new employees that would have not been accessible previously, either from a geographical or inclusivity and diversity stand point. Organisations have started to really embrace the capabilities of the “Modern Huddle” with the daily usage of products like Microsoft Teams hitting record numbers.

The challenge now for businesses is how this can be scaled up – many organisations simply do not have the set-up in place to cope with a sudden surge in employees working remotely. Even companies that already have remote working policies may still not be prepared for the scale of this requirement and need to extend their policies to a wider set of people and for a longer period. 

Has your organisation taken the steps to review and test? 

  1. Remote user connections – Scale of access by broadband and VPN? Consider geographical issues where low/no bandwidths are available. E.g. India @256K may not be sufficient, so having a supply of 4G dongles may be prudent. 
  2. Network readiness – Is your corporate network infrastructure ready to provide the best customer experience both to your office and remote workforce? 
  3. Best practices – Do you have clear policies, appropriate to your industry? Field technicians are going to struggle whilst in isolation and some tools may need additional work to enable remote access. 
  4. Governance – Are the right applications and resources accessible to the correct set of users? 
  5. Security – Is everyone secure? Enablement of dual factor authentication and pen testing your environment is key – but most importantly you need a well-educated, security savvy work force who are aware of the threats posed by lapses in judgement.

https://www.colt.net/resources/how-to-cope-with-the-growing-requirement-to-enable-working-from-home/