The Realities of Implementing a Remote Workforce

OVERVIEW

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing many businesses to rethink how their employees work. Across the country, companies large and small have already stated that they will immediately implement a work-from-home policy for their employees.

While that attitude is laudable, the reality is that converting a workforce from a traditional 9-to-5 in-office model to a remote workforce is not as simple as it sounds, especially if it is being done on the fly without any advance planning.

For remote workers to be able to work effectively and be productive there are numerous checks and balances that need to be put in place in order to effectively safeguard the security of not only the business, the network and data, but the employees as well.

IMPLEMENTING A REMOTE WORKFORCE

In the current situation, employers are already encouraging their employees to stay and work from home. Employers may have heard of all the benefits that will accrue, both to the employee and the employer, so from their perspective it is a win-win scenario. Benefits such as improved productivity, reduced absenteeism, improved employee retention and better work-life balance all make it sound as if having a remote workforce is the key to business success.

Unfortunately, the reality of implementing a remote workforce may not align with those beliefs, at least not initially. While those benefits may ultimately result, the truth is that in the short term, and especially in the situation that businesses are facing today, there may be more decreases in productivity, more short-term increases in expenses, more layoffs, and more headcount and resource shortfalls than previously experienced. This is because working remotely is not for everyone.

Employees who have never worked remotely often view that as something they’d like to do, but once they begin, they find that the reality is often quite different. Remote workers must be self-managed, self-driven and self-directed. They must be able to make their own decisions without having a supervisor telling them what to do. They must be able to provide their own tech support. In short, they must be totally and completely self-sufficient. For the employees who are comfortable in that type of situation, working remotely is ideal. For those who are not, working remotely can be a nightmare.

Because of those differences, and to provide employers with an idea of just what is involved in effectively deploying and managing a remote workforce, here are just a few of the items that businesses must consider:

EMPLOYER CONCERNS

GENERAL

• The guidelines and expectations for remote employees must be defined and clearly communicated to all remote employees
• All necessary policies and procedures to support and manage a remote workforce must be in place
• This includes Accounting, Training, HR, Marketing, Payroll, Purchasing, IT, Tech support, Productivity Tracking, Sales, Taxes, etc.
• The employer must ensure all employees know how to use the appropriate tools to properly record and report their remote activity, in what format, and how often
• The employer must decide if all roles will done remotely, or will some still have to come into the office
• How do you manage a distributed workforce across multiple time zones and/or multiple geographies
• How will you deal with confidential data and information that remote employees may need to access
• Does business-critical data and information need to be scanned and digitized for remote access
• Will onsite facility access by available if required
• How will switchboard calls and functions be managed/rerouted

COMMUNICATIONS

• There must be a method to communicate updates and changes to remote workers in a timely manner
• What are the communications and reporting protocols that must be followed
• Between the business and the employees
• Between the employees and their managers
• Between management and customers
• Between employees and customers

COLLABORATION & MEETINGS

• Meetings
• How many and how often will be held
• What format will be used (conference call, video call, webinar)
• Who must attend, who is optional
• Collaboration tools
• Is there a corporate standard collaboration tool
• Does everyone have it and know how to use it

EMPLOYEE CONCERNS

TOOLS & EQUIPMENT

• Do employees have the necessary equipment, hardware and software needed to work remotely
• Equipment may include
• Chair
• Desk
• Table
• Lights
• Power strips
• White boards
• Etc.
• Hardware may include
• Desktop or laptop computers
• Monitors
• Docking stations
• Desktop phones
• Cell phones
• Headsets
• Bluetooth earphones
• Printers
• Mouse
• Routers
• Switches
• Projectors
• Video cameras
• Web cam
• Etc.
• Software may include
• Whatever office productivity suite your business uses (such as Office365 or G Suite)
• Any proprietary business software your business requires
• Security software (firewall, antivirus, VPN)
• Login credentials
• Authentication software and tokens
• Soft phones (VOIP)
• Video call software
• Communications software
• Collaboration tools (such as Webex, Zoom or Slack)
• IM
• Design
• Layout
• CAD/CAM
• CRM
• CMS
• Marketing automation
• Etc. 

PURCHASING

• Who will order the equipment, hardware and software for the employees
• If the employee must do it, is there a standard setup to order
• Is there one SKU for the entire standard package, or does each component need to be ordered separately
• Is there one supplier to contact or are there multiple suppliers to choose from
• Will all equipment, hardware, software be delivered to the employee or will the employee need to pick it up
• Is there a corporate account employees can use to pay for it, or do they order it themselves and are reimbursed
• If they are reimbursed, are the processes and procedures in place to deal with that
• Who will install, set up and maintain all equipment, hardware and software for the employees
• Working from home means being able to be self-sufficient to a large degree, but many people have never done that and do not know how
• Who will train the employees how to use the tools and equipment
• If a person has never worked from home, they may not know how to set up, access and use a VPN, how to log in remotely, etc.
• What do employees do when their hardware doesn’t work, they can’t get the software configured, they can’t connect to the VPN, etc.

IT DEPARTMENT CONCERNS

HEADCOUNT

• Are there enough people to support the remote workforce

INFRASTRUCTURE

• Are there enough servers  to support the remote workforce
• Is the network robust enough to maintain the required uptime
• Does the network have enough bandwidth
• Is there a standard hardware and software package (i.e., a standard image) that all remote workers must have/use

SECURITY / AUTHENTICATION / ACCESS CONTROLS

• Is BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) allowed for the remote workers
• Can remote employees work from their own computers, or only from company-provided equipment
• How will IT manage non-standard software or hardware that will invariably be connected to the business computer, which in turn may infect or cause problems for the business network
• Will static or dynamic IP addresses be used
• Do all remote computers have firewalls
• Do all remote computers have antivirus software
• Who is responsible for ensuring the antivirus software is kept up to date
• Do all remote computers have VPNs
• Will the VPN automatically connect when the computer is turned on
• How will remote employees be authenticated
• Do all remote workers already have login credentials established
• Will they need to use a password or token
• Are access controls in place for data types, intranets, networks, customer information, partner information, sales information, etc. that may need to be remotely accessed
• How will password configuration and management be done
• How will software updates be managed
• Do all remote employees have email accounts established
• Do all remote employees have cell phones, desk phones or soft phones

SUMMARY

As you can see, there is much more to establishing and managing a remote workforce than simply stating that your employees are going to begin working remotely and then telling them to stay home. Having a remote workforce impacts literally all departments and functions across the business, so having the necessary infrastructure in place is critical. In order to effectively manage and support the remote workforce, businesses must do the necessary due diligence, establish the necessary plans, and define and implement the required processes and procedures.

Without being aware of these considerations, deploying and managing a remote workforce will be much more difficult.

© 2020, Richard Hatheway, Catalyst Strategic Marketing

All Rights Reserved

Remote Employees – Are They Right For Your Business

Overview

Employers are beginning to realize that the COVID-19 virus will not only impact their business operations today, but it will also continue to impact them into the foreseeable future. Due to this, the standard employer-employee business model needs to change and new options, such as remote workers, need to be considered.
 
This blog provides a few things for businesses to consider about using remote employees.

Benefits of / to Remote Employees

Many employers have already embraced the remote work model, while many more are looking much more closely into changing their employment model to incorporate remote employees. The businesses that have already made the change find that there are numerous benefits that accrue, both to the employer and employee.

Employers see benefits such as:

• Increased employee satisfaction
• Increased employee retention
• Increased employee productivity
• Reduced employee absenteeism
• Reduced expenses

Employees see benefits such as:

• Reduced travel time to/from work
• Increased job satisfaction
• More schedule flexibility
• Ability to work when/where/how they need to
• Better work-life balance

These benefits are a mixture of both tangible and intangible, and many of them directly impact how effectively the business functions. Some of these also positively impact the bottom line. All of them provide good reasons businesses should seriously investigate having an option for employees to work remotely.

What Functions Can Be Done Remotely
 
While it is true that not every role within a company can be performed remotely, new communications and collaboration technologies have now made it possible for a significant majority of business functions to be remote. A partial list of functions that can now be done remotely includes:

• Front office (client-facing and interacting)
• Back office (business support)
• Accounting
• Content writers
• Customer service and support
• Database development/management
• Engineering
• Human resources
• Marketing
• Product development
• Product management
• Sales
• Software developers
• Technical support
• Trainers
• Web developers

As you can see, a wide variety of business functions are able to be performed remotely, and the list continues to grow.

Challenges to Implementing Remote Workers

Now that you understand the benefits of having remote workers, there are a few challenges you must be aware of before you implement that policy. From the employer side, most of these challenges have to deal with managing and communicating with the remote employees, so you’ll need to ensure expectations are properly set and processes are clearly defined.

From the employee side, one of the most significant challenges that may arise is that not everyone is cut out to work remotely. While remote work sounds enticing, and many employees may think they want to do it, the truth is that working remotely is incredibly difficult. Remote workers don’t have other employees around with whom to discuss things, so isolation is often an issue. You can’t just walk down the hallway to another department to ask questions or clarify something. If you can’t maintain your own office equipment and you have a problem, tech support is not located in the same building. And meetings are most often held via con- or video-call, which often makes it difficult to be an active participant. These things and more contribute to some of the challenges that the remote employee has to deal with on a daily basis.
 
The truth is that most remote workers are more self-driven, self-motivated and self-managed than their in-office peers. They have to be if they want to be productive. But not everyone is capable of that degree of independence, so knowing how to identify the necessary traits for success in a remote position is critical.
 
Being aware of these challenges before you begin will allow you to put the proper policies and procedures in place at the beginning. This will help to alleviate problems down the road.
 
Summary

While there are a few challenges you must deal with when implementing a remote workers policy, the benefits to your business are many.
 
Is your business ready to make the change and reap those benefits?
 



© 2020, Richard Hatheway, Catalyst Strategic Marketing
All Rights Reserved