Can Your Staff Work Remotely During A Coronavirus Quarantine?

Can Your Staff Work Remotely During A Coronavirus Quarantine?

At this point, the matter of self-quarantine is more about “when” than “if”. The real question is whether your business has the technology necessary to keep your employees productive while they’re at home.

Day by day, coronavirus continues to spread worldwide, and new measures are being enacted here in the US to limit transmission. Travel restrictions and bans on gatherings of larger than 250 people are being adopted in most states. The World Health Organization and CDC have plenty of recommendations for personal safety and hygiene.

But what about the business world? What can organizations do to limit the effect of coronavirus on their ability to deliver services, work with clients, and remain productive?

It all comes down to your business’ technology, and whether your staff can stay productive during a quarantine at home.

Do you have the right technologies and practices in place to let your staff work from home for weeks at a time?

The Need For Collaboration And Communication Apps

Since the coronavirus outbreak began, many tech companies have seen a stark increase in the use of their applications that allow for remote communication and collaboration:

• Cisco has reported 22x the regular usage of their Webex service in Japan, Singapore, and South Korea
• Microsoft Teams use has gone up 500% in China
• In response to increased user activity, Zoom has dropped its standard 40-minute time limit on free meetings.

As these services become more critical and reach greater demand, you have to determine what solutions you have in place to support remote workers.

How Can You Empower Remote Work For Your Employees?

You need to develop a comprehensive strategy for cloud services delivery – right now. The longer you wait, the harder it will be to get the right technologies in place and make sure your staff knows how to use them.

Your two priorities are:

• Ease Of Use: Your staff members need to be able to do their work, and easily. If they’re fighting against unintuitive software, a bad connection, or anything else tech-related, their standard workday won’t be all that productive. It won’t be long before your business’ productivity grinds to a halt.
• Reliable Connectivity: You need to poll your staff and find out who has a reliable Internet connection at home. If your staff lives in remote areas with poor connectivity, you may have to consider investing in cellular-data, or have a plan in place to deal with delays on their end.

  So long as they have a strong Internet connection, the rest of the work is on the IT services provider to deliver a responsive and user-friendly cloud platform with which the worker can access their business data.

What Tools Are Available To You?

There are a number of consumer and business-class solutions available to users depending on the size of the organization:

• Microsoft Sharepoint, OneDrive & Teams
• Skype
• VPN software to keep connections secure

You could handle this on your own – if you have the time and expertise, then it’s likely a project you could take care of. But if not, then you need to partner with an IT support provider that can deliver a responsive and reliable cloud solution for your staff – allow Acapella Technologies to help.

We know that you’d like to keep your business operating no matter what crisis the nation faces. If remote work capabilities can keep your staff productive and healthy, then you should start planning for it now.