insight360: The Blog

This pandemic has created three types of businesses:

• Companies that have no choice but to shut down
• Companies that have been forced to move their employees home to keep working
• Companies that have been judged to be an "essential" company, and need to stay open

If you have to close down - then close down .. this is not worthtaking any chances on. We all understand. This post is for those that can work from home OR need to be in the office. If you have to have your people stay in and work - the rest of us thank you for your service. Take care of them.

If you have to have your employees work from home, you need to aware of the challenges (technologically,) that come from moving your whole workforce to the four winds. Start by understanding that communication becomes the primary tool in allowing all the parts to interact with each other. ("No kidding, " says everyone, right?) But let's face it: it's more complicated than JUST having people call each other with information needed.

Start with electronic messaging ACROSS systems, A standardized system (Microsoft Teams, for example,) allows you to have a robust, scalable suite of interactive tools that let you communicate by text, voice, and video. Getting spun up with Teams and Microsoft Office in general is a relatively quick process and not terribly complex to use. There is a cost to this, however, the cost is most definitely worthwhile. (Shameless plug: WE KNOW MS TEAMS!! Contact us at insight@i360-llc.com for a free consultation!)

If you don't want to spend money - Skype is also a great tool, but it does not have the same level of collaboration that Teams does.

If most of what you do is communicate with each other, then Teams / Skype are your best bet. If you have to have your people communicate with the rest of the world .. now you have a new challenge. If you don't have a cloud based voice-over-ip as a phone service, this is something that you should really think about investing in.

Cloud based Voice-Over-IP allows you to use your computer network to be the final leg of your telephone network. It adds a number of features that you would not normally see a regular phone or an on-premesis VOIP network, at a reasonable price. Many of these services (include, and yes, another shameless plug, we offer this as well,) have a "softphone" that you can install on a computer and use with a headset microphone. This gives you crystal clear communication, without having to rezone every remote worker! (It can be hampered by internet speed, though, so be aware.) 

There are plenty of other considerations in providing an effective environment for remote workers, but this is a good start.