COVID-19 And Remote Work

The Nexus IT Consultants team recently gathered online to discuss remote work best practices and recommended solutions to help businesses maintain continuity in a work-from-home model during the coronavirus pandemic.

Remote work capabilities are extremely important for businesses that need their staff to work from home during a crisis like the current coronavirus pandemic.

Have you been able to manage your staff effectively while they’ve been working from home?

“A lot of businesses perhaps didn’t have a contingency plan in place, and they’re not ready for the situation, and they don’t know how to stay operational in a secure and compliant manner,” says Earl Foote, CEO, Nexus IT Consultants, in a recent webinar.

Watch the full webinar below:

Note: the webinar was cut short due to ongoing earthquakes in Utah.

Are You Able To Manage A Work-From-Home Model?

Throughout the webinar, the Nexus IT Consultants team covered the many considerations businesses have to make when adapting to and managing a remote work model:

  • Connectivity: As you can’t realistically lay cable to connect your employees’ homes to your office servers, they will need a viable Internet connection to access business data and applications.  This only becomes an issue if your staff members are located in rural or remote areas that still lack a strong Internet option. If that’s the case, then you’re urged to consider investing in mobile hotspots, or reimburse staff for the increased cost of relying on their personal cellular data connection.
  • Home Devices: Your employees require the right technology in their homes to continue working like they usually would in the office. In this day and age, you could assume that your employees all have laptops or desktops at home, but that may not be the case. You’d be surprised how many people rely on a smartphone or tablet for all their personal computing needs.
  • Video Meetings: You’ll want to invest in a way for your staff to meet, both together and with clients. While an audio-only conference call can suffice, many prefer to use video meeting software like Microsoft Teams. This allows for a more personal and connected experience in meetings.
  • Softphones: If your staff has been using their smartphones for business calls so far, you’ve probably noticed some challenges. Does everyone have everyone else’s contact info? What about clients? Are you going to reimburse employee phone plans for the additional charges?  The more straightforward option is to roll out a softphone solution for your business, which provides business phone lines through the cloud to remote users. Many of these solutions are simple, allowing you to plug in and use at home, or integrate through a computer or smartphone.

While the webinar was cut short due to ongoing earthquakes in Utah, the team was able to share some valuable insight for businesses that are struggling to manage their new remote work environment.

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