COVID-19: GUIDE TO WORKING FROM HOME (PART 2)

Work from home and stay productive 

Some organizations and employees will be working from home for the first time, which means figuring out how to stay on task in a new work environment that may not lend itself to productivity. But there are many seamless ways to deliver results and avoid being hysterical, from setting up a good workspace to the way you collaborate with your team/colleagues.  

Tool for Effective Work from-home-Policy 

Many businesses, institutions, and other organizations are advising their employees to work from home and students to stay home or use online learning resources to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus. This in actual fact, will result in an unprecedented number of remote users on home and public online services accessing their employer and institution resources.

Furthermore, IT departments will be expected to monitor network bandwidth, VPNs, and access controls to various resources, ensuring that employees can still do their jobs. If your organization is still operating in the dark ages, using outdated technology or still battling with manual processes, now is the time for an update/upgrade. For remote workers, using cloud-based technologies and mobile-friendly software is a must. Cloud-based software tools like Dropbox, Bitrix24, PBWorks etc offer the flexibility and accessibility that remote teams/workers require. Your remote employees will be able to access and share information across multiple devices, no matter where they are in the world.

Businesses should also give serious consideration to the set of tools used by their remote employees. In such a context, a collection of tools must be chosen as a “tool stack” rather than individual tools; i.e. tools are evaluated on how they function and integrate rather than being considered separately. 

Some of the following tools would be require for employees to be able to complete basic functions outside of their normal work environment: 

• Designated work space 
• Laptop or computer
• Stable and reliable internet access
• Secure remote access to the organisation’s internal network/intranet and other online shared resources  
• Access to electronic document and records management system
• Access to corporate emails
• Work phone
• Corporate policy/guideline

Defining a structured on-boarding process that focuses on getting to know and understand the new environment, understanding different tools and resources that the company uses regularly, will go a long way in helping employees to get acclimatized to the new work environment. There are many innovations in technology that will make remote working life much easier, so it’s worth regularly researching what is out there to assist you.  

Amb. (Dr). Oyedokun Ayodeji Oyewole is the President/Chairman – Governing Council, Institute of Information Management (IIM) - Africa and President - Records and Information Management Awareness Foundation (RIMA Foundation), a Not-for-profit NGO that seek to promote proper management and security records and information for the benefit of the society and humanity. He can be contacted at:  [email protected] or [email protected]