While many people are still working remotely, others are beginning to start the commute back into the office, either full time, or as a hybrid worker. Businesses all over the world are making decisions on the safest approach to regain their office presence. As with everything in life, there are many variations of what “safety” means to each individual employee/employer, and how to implement a safe return.
With this said, safety does not just apply to the physical and mental wellbeing of the person going back to work. It also applies to the health of the environment they are returning to. Business owners need to ensure they have proper security protocols in place to accommodate both a return to the office and continued remote work.
Here are a few essential considerations for employers considering a hybrid workforce:
Beyond the Physical workspace:
While many employees are set to go back to the office, several that were temporarily working remotely, will be staying remote permanently. A large percentage of these workers were initially forced to use personal devices and Internet connections that were never intended for protecting sensitive business information. In addition to the security risks that remain, cyberattacks are on the rise, forcing companies to take a harder look at how to secure their employees’ work-from-home environments long term. Cybersecurity will only continue to increase in importance as many employers continue some of their work from home policies once coronavirus subsides. Stay Secure While Staying At Home will provide a complete checklist on how to protect these essential remote workers.
Meeting Spaces and Conference Rooms:
These communal spaces will become difficult to come by, as companies will need to reorganize and rethink their workspace, to enable social distancing for their employees’ meetings. There may need to be limitations on the number of people allowed in the conference room or applications for employees to reserve these spaces in advance of a meeting. In addition, if employees are still working remotely during these conferences, person-to-remote meetings will need to be made more productive with the use of video conferencing. Over the last year, conferencing companies have started to make these technologies more interactive with the use of surveys, questions, and whiteboards. Companies such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams have made conferencing much more efficient and effective!
Is it Time to Assess Your Current Technology Setup?
This new dynamic, work from anywhere/hybrid workforce, clearly has its challenges, but will be rewarding upon the implementation of these key components. Wellness checks should be top of mind to determine the health of your environment. Consider a network or security assessment to kick off the start of this journey. Contact us for more details: https://techwerxe.com/contact/.
