With the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak spreading around the world, many companies are seeking to understand how they can enable their employees to work from home while weathering the outbreak. While remote work is not a new concept, the need to ensure employees have a productive and safe place to work if they can’t come into the office has never been more top of mind. 
 

How to Enable Successful Remote Work in Challenging Times

As workers around the globe adjust to remote work, we wanted to provide some additional insights into what successful and sustainable remote work requires.
 

Use a common collaboration tool

Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams, Cisco Webex, Skype and Slack are making it easier for employees to work from home. Whichever solution you choose, it’s important to make sure all employees are using the same common platform to chat, conference, and collaborate with ease. If you haven’t already broadly adopted a collaboration tool, Microsoft is currently making Teams available for free in the wake of these challenging times, see here for details on the free licensing. For assistance getting up and running with Microsoft Teams, we offer a Teams Rapid Deployment to help you get up and running right away.  Information on our Microsoft Teams rapid deployment solution can be found here.  
 

Leverage the cloud

If you tend to rely heavily on on-premises systems, then you’ll need to consider a strategy centered around providing secure access to cloud apps from personal devices and remote locations. Moving appropriate applications and decision support systems to the cloud will not only enhance your ability to manage through difficult times but also harness the horsepower, innovation, compliance and security features provide by global public cloud vendors.
 

Manage change

Just because you have the right tools in place, doesn’t mean a positive remote work experience will just happen on its own. A well-defined enablement and adoption strategy will help you maximize productivity while minimizing disruption. This may require a different cadence, specific measurements for remote teams, and empathy during a difficult situation. Focusing on your communications plan and your work culture will allow you to manage through distractions. 
 

Next Steps

While this set of guidelines is not an exhaustive list of every requirement needed to enable remote work, we hope it provides some essential first steps in helping you address some of your more immediate needs. Stay tuned for a broader message regarding the coronavirus impact and risk response guidelines.

For immediate assistance on how to stay productive during challenging times, please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss your unique circumstances and business objectives.