The mandatory remote working many businesses are currently facing, is entirely different from a work from anywhere culture. A work from anywhere culture is about creating a business mindset that supports employees in their decisions to work, at the office, from home, from coffee shops, or a hybrid model that works for their unique needs. In this article, we explore three steps to building the technological infrastructure to support your employees to work from anywhere.

 1. Ensure Remote Access for Workers

When your team transitions to remote work, or a work from anywhere culture, outside of the expected like a computer and a solid internet connection, the next major technology resource, is software access. Fortunately, many applications that our team require access to are now cloud-based.

However, for those in the tech world, our employees occasionally require access to on-prem software and resources to do their job to the best of their ability. That’s why its important to make sure your employees have access to the technology they need to do their jobs.

Here are a few things to check:

Confirm You Have Enough Concurrent Licenses

Ensure you have the right number of licenses that allow access for employers who are working remotely, through VPN or cloud services with the appropriate software installed and available.

Ensure On-Prem Applications Are Available Through VPN

If employees require access to on-premise applications whilst working from home, you can provide them with access through the use of a VPN.

Whilst typically a great solution, some of the most popular VPN solutions are licensed on a pay-per-user model. If you have a surge in those needing VPN access, you may not have enough licenses to cover the entire company. Speak with different department heads, to find out who needs access to on-prem solutions and give out licenses from there. If applications are cloud-based and public internet accessible, such as Microsoft 365, users will not need VPN.

 

 2. Collaborate Effectively With Teams

We have worked with Microsoft Teams since its inception, we recommend it to our customers, to our network, and our family and friends. It makes it easy to work together, regardless of where you are working, with seamless video and voice communication, instant messaging, and document sharing.

If you are interested in learning more about how Microsoft Teams could work for your business, contact us and we can set up a Team’s Meeting so you can see the platform in action. 

Whilst the technology you implement is vital to support a work from anywhere culture, providing training and upskilling your employees on how to effectively work remotely is vitally important too. Here are some tips to share with your team, when they are working from home or in another remote location:

Clearly define your document management and collaboration best practices and implement data governance policies. These should be shared with all employees and located in a widely accessible area. Be thorough, remote work introduces additional tools and a lack of governance can cause serious problems.

Encourage your teams to utilise video conferencing, phone calls can be useful for quick communication, but you lose visual cues and context that can be vital in effective communication. With the option to bring in more participants, it can aid in collaboration and engagement.

Encourage employees to set up a specific work area organised with the sole purpose of acting as an office. Working from a desk is going to create a more productive workspace.


 3. Make Security A Priority

When working from anywhere, especially from home, we can become complacent with security. If you haven’t already, ensure that your organization is enforcing important security protocols, including:

Multi-Factor Authentication– all employee and admin logins should require two pieces of evidence to verify identity.

Conditional Access – enforce access control to different applications, team sites, and software.

Alert Users to Phishing Scams – a report from Verizon, shows that 90% of breaches originated as a phishing scam. Make your employees aware of the risks and if they are ever uncertain ask a member of the IT team.

Investing in a work from anywhere model, provides ongoing support for employees during an uncertain time, by ensuring access to the technology and resources they require to effectively do their jobs both now and in the future.  

If you are looking to implement a work from anywhere culture, get in touch today and we can support your business throughout this process.