5 best practices for a remote working environment

Remote work has become the default for many professionals who are able to work from home in the wake of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Although there are advantages such as cutting out employee commutes, a remote working environment is not without downsides and risks. These 5 best practices will ensure your remote work IT setup allows comparable security and efficiency to an office-based setup:

1. Maintain secure and reliable remote access

Without a centralised hub for work, you need cloud-based and other IT network solutions that put the right information at the right people’s fingertips, reliably and securely.

If necessary, managed IT support for remote workers will ensure that workers are able to resolve technical issues from home, too.

2. Limit remote work tools

If working remotely requires employees to use a vast suite of confusing tools, it can quickly become unmanageable and confusing. Choose trusted tools recommended by IT-savvy experts who know the security advantages and risks of various platforms.

Sticking to a smaller, judicious selection of tools will ensure employees have fewer communication, data management and other tools to master.

3. Keep teams organised

To keep your team efficient during remote work, you need an organised remote working environment. IT solutions such as cloud-based teams applications or desktop-based text-and-video conferencing apps can ensure everyone is accessible to each other when they need to be.

If necessary, you can get IT professionals to provide your team with a demo of a new platform to simplify and speed up adapting among workers.

4. Invest in security for a remote workforce

The advantage of a centralised office space is that you often will have only one network to safeguard and a single hive of activity to oversee and protect.

When employees are working from home, it’s important to invest in security for a remote workforce.

Secure password management, antivirus protection and software and hardware maintenance are some of the IT solutions you can get via remote assistance. Keeping home working environments secure will ensure a more dispersed network does not bring greater risk.

5. Put digital support structures in place

From IT support for employees working from home to HR services, it’s important to keep tabs on how employees are coping with and adapting to remote work.

Ensuring workers have a remote working environment that feels supportive will ensure continuous levels of efficiency and productivity. Employees will be reassured to know that any potential IT issues are addressed proactively rather than reactively.