Are You “Remote Ready”?

Are You “Remote Ready”?

Have you learned from the COVID-19 pandemic? You need to be ready to go remote at a moment’s notice, no matter what the crisis is. Are you remote ready?

The COVID-19 pandemic could conclude sometime soon, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be done with remote work, right?

On one hand, you could choose to continue with remote work after its safe to return to the office. You wouldn’t be alone in that decision – according to 317 CFOs recently surveyed by Gartner, 74% say they expect to move previously on-site employees remote post-COVID-19.

Furthermore, although you may be able to bring your staff into the office at some point, it’s important not to forget all the hard lessons learned during this pandemic. A second wave is a distinct possibility, and so, you need to make sure you have a viable remote work plan in place that can be launched quickly.

The question is: are you remote ready?

Regardless of when the COVID-19 pandemic is over, you need to come up with a plan of action for your business now. Will you return 100% of your staff to the office? Will you continue with remote work as you have so far? Or will you take a hybrid approach?

The remote work model offers a number of benefits that you’ve likely taken notice of over the course of the pandemic. Remote workers have seen the benefits as well:

• 77% of remote employees say they’re more productive when working from home
• 76% of employees prefer to avoid their office completely when they need to concentrate on a project
• 98% of remote workers want to continue to work remotely (at least some of the time) for the rest of their careers

However, for all the ways remote work is beneficial to both the organization and end-users, it’s not without its challenges.

When the COVID-19 crisis hit, it hit fast. Despite what, in retrospect, may have seemed like a gradual build-up, it was virtually over the course of a single weekend in March that businesses across the US had to pivot to a remote work model.

Obviously, the first priority was maintaining business continuity. You needed to make sure your newly remote workers had the technology and the remote access necessary to do their work.

But the process doesn’t end there – security is a complicated undertaking for remote work models. In fact, 36% of organizations have dealt with a security incident due to an unsecured remote worker.

Continuing with a remote work model, whether entirely or in part, will require:

• Enhancing security measures
• Providing the right hardware for users working permanently from home
• Implementing more permanent file-sharing, collaboration, and communication tools

If you plan to continue with remote work in one way or another, you may need to change your model of IT support – as you and the other c-level executives at your business have likely discovered since the start of the pandemic, your ability to work remotely depends directly on your IT support.

Centerpoint IT can help – over the course of the pandemic, we’ve gained extensive experience in helping our partners to launch, optimize and secure remote work capabilities. Now that the mad rush to go remote is over, it’s time to perfect your processes – and you don’t have to do so alone.

Get in touch with the Centerpoint IT team today to get started.

Like this blog? Check out the following articles to learn more:

Keeping Our Clients Connected During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Coronavirus: The Human Virus’s Impact on Tech Businesses and More

Seven Things You Need To Know About Cloud Computing