Hybrid Remote Working Solutions

Remote working is easier than you think

When you decide to instigate working from home there are usually three main challenges to overcome, and it may surprise you which of these are easier to solve than the others. However, there are some pitfalls you might not have considered. Let’s break them down.

Mindset

Perhaps the greatest challenge is convincing yourself that you and your colleagues will be able to work, productively, away from the office. Home is where we settle after a hard day at the office and is usually full of distractions and comforts. The key is to create a space free of these distractions; a space that you can label ‘the office’, even if it isn’t in its own room, and, a space you can withdraw from at the end of the working day. This will maintain structure and routine in your day, and allow you to continue working as if you were in the office environment.

I took home my deskphone, plugged it into my router, and in came my next call!

Communication

Many workers share an open-plan office and the ability to communicate with colleagues on a daily basis is crucial to the smooth running of a business. Projects require collaboration and meeting spaces to share ideas and agree actions. Connectivity, a VPN, and the right software can make seamless the transition from office working to home working. Nearly every home is connected with a high-speed broadband connection and innovation with the Internet has made it possible, not only to communicate by messaging, but by conference calling or video link – there are even virtual whiteboards on which participants can draw! With the best technical expertise on hand, it can be as easy as just plugging in at home and being ready to go before the first coffee break.

Hardware

Flexibility is key when it comes to reducing the amount of effort it takes to work from home. We usually think of two types of home worker, one who uses company supplied devices and one who uses their own devices - sometimes there’s a mix of both. The net result is the same, and the experience should be the same for the worker too. When you start home working there will inevitably be the odd technical teething problem, but once bedded in the technicalities of keeping remote working effective is much the same as supporting users and maintaining hardware in an office set-up.

Keep it professional

A common mistake with home-working is allowing the lines of personal and professional to be blurred. This can make it difficult to leave ‘the office’, it disrupts the office/home mindset, and reduces trust with your clients. The best home working set-up should be completely invisible to the client and there should be no change to the way they make contact with you or your colleagues.

Telephone

Many remote workers use their personal smartphone for calling clients and colleagues, revealing their personal mobile number. You should continue to use the business phone system through a remotely connected portable deskphone or specifically designed mobile app. This allows outbound calls continue to display the business’s main number and inbound calls can be directed to individuals or departments as if they were in the office.

Email

There should be no excuse for using a personal email address to communicate with clients and colleagues. Not only does it look unprofessional, and potentially untrustworthy (given the amount of scams committed by email), it creates a disorganised workflow and can unintentionally leak sensitive information. Domain names are inexpensive, can be securely authenticated, and device compatibility with business cloud-based email services is now widespread and standard practice.

Messaging

It’s easy to slip into social media or personal messaging apps for a quick question to a colleague or client. Before long, you’ll find your office doesn’t stop pinging you updates beyond the end of the day. For this reason, business messaging apps have been developed specifically for workplace meetings, collaboration and chat, allowing you to protect commercially sensitive info from accidental leakage.