opposed to letting employees rely on their
own devices.
The second component is endpoint
protection. It is not enough to facilitate
employees with remote access to company
systems. Employers must always ensure
that their employees only access company
systems through secure networks. Devices
such as laptops, tablets, mobile phones
and other wireless devices that employees
use to access the corporate network create
room for security breaches if proper cyber
security protocols are not adhered to.
The third component is facilitation
of team collaboration. One of the key
benefits of staff being in an office space
is the fact that team members have access
to each other therefore collaboration on
projects is much easier. When setting
up remote working policies, employers
should prioritize adoption of technologies
that enable their remote teams to
interactively share ideas and perspectives
as they work towards a common solution
to set organizational goals.
The fourth component is content
collaboration. As teams work remotely,
there is always a need for easy creation,
access, storage, sharing and collaboration
on files. Employers should ensure that
there are user friendly systems in place
that enable their remote teams to do this
securely from multiple devices, and these
systems should be agile enough to handle
The onus is on the
employer to ensure
that their employee
has a conducive
working environment
free from distractions
to spur productivity.
Employers
should proactively
work with their employees
and help
them set up a proper
remote working environment
as opposed
to letting employees
rely on their own devices.
varied file sizes from small to very large.
The fifth component is secure video/
audio conferencing. Thanks to technology,
employees do not need to spend hours in
traffic burning valuable time just to come
to the office for a face to face meeting
in the company’s board room. With
video/audio conferencing technologies,
meetings between two or more employees
can be conducted remotely through
secure conferencing platforms. The aspect
of security is key particularly when
discussing sensitive company matters.
The sixth and final component is time
tracking. As I mentioned earlier, even
though an employee is working from
home, it is still company time therefore
it is very important for said employee to
respect company time. One of the ways
an employer can ensure that employees
work the stipulated hours is through
incorporating a time tracking system that
measures and documents hours worked.
These systems essentially maintain a time
tracker and time sheet that records the
amount of time an employee or teams
spend working on different projects or
tasks, and generates reports which can
be accessed by the employee’s manager or
HR for review.
With such measures in place, companies
are likely to see a similar if not a better
level of productivity from their employees
working from home, as compared to when
they were working from the physical
office space.
The reason I am offering this free
unsolicited working from home tips is
because this is now our new normal. The
fact that our economy has been opened
does not mean that Covid-19 is gone.
If the global trend is anything to go by,
the worst is yet to come therefore it is
in our best interests to have systems in
place that will enable us to continue to go
about our day to day business in spite of
this pandemic that thus far has no end in
sight.
All in all, one of the biggest positives that
employers will draw from this Covid-19
pandemic is the realization that they
can drastically reduce their operational
costs by adopting remote working for a
majority of their corporate functions, yet
still maintain a high rate of productivity.
Having a large physical office location
may end up proving to be an unnecessary
expense after all.
Eugene Wanekeya is a
Communications and Marketing
consultant currently serving as the
Head of Communications, Projects
and Partnerships at Cerosoft
Technologies Limited. To interact
with this trend spotter, you can
reach him via mail at: GWanex@
gmail.com.