Remote Work

Everything you need to know about remote work. The joys and pitfalls of employees working away from the office.

What is remote work?

Remote work allows professionals to work outside of a traditional office environment. The concept hinges on the assumption that work does not need to be done in a specific place to be properly executed. Instead of commuting to an office each day to work from a designated desk, remote employees can be wherever they please.

The beauty of remote working is that people can choose to work in a way that makes the most sense for their lives.

Some people have the opportunity to work remotely for the majority of the week, but commute to occasional in-person meetings. Others rely on co-working spaces as hubs of productivity, community, and technology.

Co-working spaces are the halfway point between a traditional office and a non-traditional workspace. They provide the comfort of working from home, combined with the professional amenities and networking opportunities found in a corporate environment.

How remote work benefits employers

Higher productivity

Remote employees are more likely to put in extra effort in their jobs. They'll go above and beyond to get their work done in comparison to in-office employees.

According to the State and Work Productivity Report, 65% of full-time employees believe that working remotely would increase productivity - and their bosses agree.

Two-thirds of managers surveyed reported an increase in productivity from their remote employees. Forbes magazine

Cost savings

If a team is fully distributed, companies can see decreased overhead from money saved on costs like rent and office furniture.

Engaged employees

Beyond profit margins and higher-quality, more efficient work, employers enable remote work opportunities to keep employees happy and engaged. In a recent Softchoice study nearly 75% of employees surveyed said they would quit their current job for one that offered remote work.

What are the benefits to employees?

A more flexible lifestyle

Parental duties become easier to fulfil when less time is spent away from home. People can also find more time to pursue further education courses or hobbies and improve their work-life balance.

Better health and wellness

In a report published by the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK, it was found that 55% of participants felt more stressed as a result of their commute. Letting remote employees work in a comfortable environment nurtures less stressed employees.

Renewed passion for their job

Remote employees tend to do their best work outside of the office. They are more inspired by their surroundings and can filter out unwanted environmental distractions.

How to make remote working a success

If you want to make sure your business benefits as much as it can from remote working opportunities, it’s worth educating your staff on how to make it work for them. These are some tips you can share with them:

• Proactive communication

Use email, phone calls, video calls, online chat software, and whatever other tools you have at your disposal. Be prepared to over-communicate and follow peoples’ preferences about when and how they want to hear from you.

• ?Clear expectations

Build trust and ensure you and your teammates are on the same page by making sure you know what they expect you to accomplish and when. And vice-versa.

• Regular working hours

Create a schedule to ensure you don’t risk working consistently long hours and maintain a good work-life balance.

• Dressing for the job

Getting dressed in the morning will alert your brain to ‘work’ status. And wearing comfortable clothes can help with concentration – maybe dress up for online meetings.

• Planning each day

Create to-do lists, set goals, and draw up a daily schedule, complete with breaks and times for focusing on deep work.

• Creating a dedicated office space

When you set up a home office space that is specifically for your work, you’ll inevitably have fewer distractions. It helps ‘frame’ your brain for the activity too.

• Task lists and scheduling tools

Create and use daily task lists, noting what you hope to do and how long it should take. This helps with resisting distractions and spending too long on projects.

• Regular breaks

Without the rhythm of an office around you, it’s easy to get in a groove and forget to take re-energising breaks. Maybe use an alarm to remind you?

• Avoiding domestic jobs

It’s essential to not let household chores take over your time. Constant little interruptions will impede your productivity and performance.

• Exercising

Regular exercise will help combat the sedentary lifestyle that remote work can lead to. Walks or runs during breaks and yoga sessions at the start or end of the day are really beneficial to concentration and motivation.

• Support and socialising

Working remotely can lead to loneliness and isolation, but staying connected helps keep these feelings at bay. Virtual coffee breaks and lunches, interactive happy hours, and post-work Zoom meetings can keep you feeling a part of a community - making the most of cafes and co-working spaces is a great idea too.

Cyber-security: a real risk to Remote work

Let's not beat about the bush here. A remote work environment can raise the risk of a data breach or other cyber-attack. Cyber-criminals are seizing on the shift to remote work environments by exploiting vulnerabilities in the infrastructure that enables it, and adapting how they target the workers themselves.

Cyber-security risks associated with remote work include expanded ‘attack surfaces’, security skills shortages, vulnerable networks, cloud-based infrastructures, and employee work habits.

Extended ‘attack surfaces’

With more employees working remotely, organisations have more endpoints, networking, and software to secure.

Less oversight by security staff

Remote work moves some of the system access, network traffic and data outside the conventional perimeters of the business space. Companies can't always extend monitoring out to all the endpoints and along all the networks now supporting remote work environments.

Inadequate data practices and procedures

Remote workers might download sensitive information to their local devices, which may not be encrypted. For the sake of efficiency, they may also share sensitive company data over unsecured channels such as unencrypted emails or files, without appreciating the risks involved.

Phishing risks

Phishing continues to be a threat, especially for remote workers who are more dependent on emails for communications and less suspicious of sophisticated phishing attempts.

Vulnerable hardware

The increase in people working remotely has happened quickly since the Covid pandemic, and many don’t have the skills to ensure their routers, laptops and smartphones are properly updated and adequately secured.

Vulnerable networks

Remote work increases the chance that employees will use unsecured networks, such as public Wi-Fi.

Unsecured corporate network

Hackers are now targeting vulnerabilities in the enterprise networking equipment companies use to enable remote work.

Misconfigurations in the public cloud

The cloud enables remote work, but it comes with risks such as misconfigurations, particularly relating to access. Organisations can inadvertently grant users too much access or fail to put in place access controls.

Webcam hacking and ‘Zoombombing’

Cyber-criminals can sabotage or disrupt online conferences or prowl around undetected to find information, such as proprietary data or corporate emails.

Sophisticated socially engineered attacks

Hackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. According to the security software provider Proofpoint in their 2022 Social Engineering Report, ‘Despite defenders' best efforts cybercriminals continue to be successful at exploiting the human element to recognise financial gain.’

Skills gap for security talent

There’s a massive shortage of cyber-security professionals trained and ready to protect remote working environments.

In its 2022 Cyber-security Skills Gap Global Research Report, network security provider Fortinet revealed that 60% of the 1,223 IT and cyber-security leaders surveyed said they struggle to recruit cyber-security talent and 52% struggle to keep qualified workers, while 67% acknowledged that the shortage of qualified cyber-security candidates presents risks to their organisations.

Staying safe: remote work security best practice

Companies that follow cyber-security best practice can drastically reduce their chance of suffering a costly or devastating cyber-attack.

There are some simple best practice guidelines to follow:

• Establish and enforce a data security policy
• Equip employees with the right tools, technology, and education
• Frequently update network security systems
• Regulate the use of personal devices
• Institute a ‘Zero Trust’ approach – always verify IDs, devices and services
• Make sure all internet connections are secure
• Don’t overload the Virtual Private Network (VPN)
• Require employees to use strong and varied passwords
• Use multi-factor authentication
• Track employees’ remote work practices
• Train employees well and supply them with robust IT support.

Conclusion

If you can overcome the challenges of cyber-security risks and potential staff disengagement, pursuing a policy that makes remote working an option for your business will mean you reap the rewards of increased staff morale and productivity.

With robust security measures in place, together with adequate tools and training for online collaboration, a little investment and planning will go a long way to ensuring your business rides the tide of the movement to remote working.

But ultimately, the success of any remote working arrangement will ride on the well-being and motivation of your staff – consult with them, get their regular feedback and make sure they have all the training they need – the new generation of employees will be expecting it!