Riding the wave with the digital workplace

The coronavirus pandemic caught every business by surprise. Some of the companies were already in bad shape, just waiting for an ill-wind to knock them over, let alone the tsunami generated by COVID19. Other businesses that had already adopted newer ways of working have fared better, with staff already set up to work from anywhere.

But for the significant tranche of firms in between these two, still hanging on to legacy systems and a more traditional way of working, the requirement for such rapid change has been traumatic. And many have implemented only temporary measures to keep things working while they figure out "what's next".

If you look at the success stories out there, you'll see that businesses that had already made plans for a storm, in whatever form it may come, were most able to keep things moving and not be left dead-in-the-water. I do appreciate though that not every business type, even with plans, could do this (e.g. Hospitality). Even retail businesses with a strong online presence have faired much better than those who did not. You only have to look at the difference between companies like boohoo and Primark, both fast-fashion retailers, to see that the online one is adaptable and trading, but the bricks-and-mortar business of Primark is in trouble. Primark doesn't even have an online shop.

Planning for such eventualities must be done in advance. There is nothing wrong with tweaking a business continuity and disaster recovery plan along-the-way, but you can't start from scratch while in the middle of the chaos that these situations bring. Businesses that had a comprehensive BCDR plan before the pandemic struck have many of the tools and strategies needed to help them.

Much has been written about the "new normal", to describe the current time we are in as that over-simplifies business and the world. The "normal" is always changing, evolving, and what is suitable for right-now won't necessarily be in 6 months. Human beings generally hate change (even when not pandemic-induced) and being in a permanent state of comfort-zone for some is their ideal. The adrenaline seekers out there will not agree, but I believe I'm talking about the majority position.

I believe it's highly likely that the "current-normal", as I'll call it, is only going to last for a short period. COVID19 won't be around forever, and whether it's a vaccine, effective anti-virals, test-track-and-trace or any other methodology, we will see the end of the crisis. But what I also firmly believe is that we will not get back to business as usual, even after the economy recovers. Not only will it take a long while for that to happen, even when it returns to pre-COVID19 levels the Workplace has changed, and businesses will need to adapt and change to stay relevant and be attractive not only to customers but employees as well.

Many employees who are working from home have had a taste of new freedom that they have never experienced before. I know some of you are craving to get back to the office for some human interaction; we're social creatures after all. But that taste of freedom is a taste you like, and it comes with many benefits and upsides, not just downsides.

Digital workplaces have enabled forward-thinking businesses to have staff who are more productive, engaged, happier and have a better work-life balance. Just some of the benefits include:

• Far less commuting
• More time with family
• Flexibility
• Lower environmental impact
• Increased Productivity
• Feeling more valued, especially around being trusted to self-manage

With employees experiencing this, why would either they or their employer want to go back to the old way of doing things?

I appreciate that not every business role is suited to home working. Manufacturing, construction and other sectors are having to find new ways of working. But even these businesses are still embracing digital workplace technologies for their office and remote staff while adopting new ways of keeping the physical workspace safe. These businesses sectors always had to focus on Health and Safety, PPE and Hygiene and would very often have teams of people responsible for ensuring its implementation.

So, with many employees now having experienced home (effectively remote) working, what digital workplace technologies can you implement properly, rather than workarounds (like remote PC access) so that the benefits are enjoyed permanently?

These are some of the problems that remote working can bring. Some of these are perceived, some very real and some depend on the individual that is working remotely.

Which ones are or would affect your business when remote working becomes the permanent normal?

And then what digital workplace solutions will solve those problems?

• Poor management of teams and individuals
• Lack of supervision
• Lack of face-to-face meetings
• Not being able to communicate efficiently (with staff and customers)
• Lack-of or slow access to data/files/information
• No access to paper files (documents, contracts etc.)
• Keeping confidential data secure
• Social Isolation

Poor management of teams and individuals

This needs to be split into two sections. For teams, workplace collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams or Slack allow a manager to keep an eye (but be careful not to micro-manage) on a team, assisting where needed.

For individuals, the part of management that has changed is communication. Managers and leaders should not focus on one communication technology either – email won't cut it long term. Making yourself available, even at set times of the day, for a video call or chat on the phone is a must. And if you have employees who'd rather hide behind an email than call you, call them.

Lack of supervision

Most studies show that remote workers are more productive than their office-based counterparts, Once the other issues above have been addressed. However, real problems due to lack of supervision come can come from poor communications and the inability to provide structure to an employees workload. Managers need to be available when an employee needs managerial support, and if this doesn't happen, employees will feel their managers are out-of-touch and are not supportive.

Lack of face-to-face meetings

This is probably one of the simplest things in the list to solve. Technologies such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Cisco WebEx etc. are all providing great ways for two or more employees or managers to get together online in a video chat or conference. However, these technologies do not solve the problem of meetings per se; namely that a poorly organised or run session in the physical world will be just as bad – or even worse when online. Have a rigid start and stop time, have an agenda, stick to the timings and only invite those who need to be present. In the physical world, some meetings were unnecessary because a simple email would have done the job, with employees being exposed to too many meetings and wasting productive time. Of course, this is still true of a digital workplace as well. Nevertheless, digital sessions create the possibility of more "micro-meetings" which can also help replace the lack of human interaction from the shoulder-tap or water-cooler moments.

Not being able to communicate efficiently

By now, you may feel that some of the technologies I've mentioned can easily ward off this problem. But just as a tradesperson needs the right tools for the job, you and your employees need the right communication tools for the job.

Once again, email-only is not good enough. Neither does phone, on its own. And so a mix of digital tools are required to solve this issue correctly, and you must ensure you have omnichannel lines of communications. The combination you choose will depend on your business, staff and customers. Consider these options:

Email: Great for announcements, transactions and instructions. Pretty hopeless at conversation-style communications and interaction.

Instant Messaging ("Chat"): Great for asking quick questions where you can act on the info quickly and promptly or to provide advice. Also useful when you need a short-form question, answer or make a comment. There is no rush for the reply – because although we call it instant messaging or chat, your communication will be waiting for the recipient when they next sign-in. Features like "Do not disturb" or "Away", which will boost an employees productivity if they are the sort of person that works well with flow. Managers take note though – it may be fine to have DND turned on for periods, but have publicised times when you are available (see "lack of supervision" above).

Phone: Again, very similar to Instant Messaging. Don't keep someone on the phone for an hour but use the phone for quick things and even the "Just calling to see how your day was". Employees will appreciate the human touch, and it will help with an employee's well-being, sense of feeling valued and help reduce the risks of social isolation (see below).

When you bring customer communications into the mix though, you need a phone system for your business that's flexible and unified. It's no use just having remote workers using their mobiles with a load of diverts set up in the office; that might be suitable for a short pandemic lockdown, but it's not going to work in a permanent or flexible remote working scenario.

In this case, you need a phone/communications system with a complete array of choices, from a traditional desk phone to soft-phone on a laptop with a headset, to an app on a mobile and even a phone system like Horizon that can integrate mobile phones into the system as extensions.

These solutions have so many more benefits, such as being able to call a customer from a mobile but present your businesses landline number, call transfer and compliance and call-recording – again even when calls are made from mobiles.

Integrated (or "Unified" / "Converged" / "UC") communication solutions are now mainstream and becoming mature. Examples include Microsoft Teams, the addition of Direct Routing, or solutions like Horizon with the Collaborate option these tools are all enablers for remote workers to communicate with both colleagues and customers as though they were in a traditional office environment.

Lack-of or slow access to data/files/information

This is probably one of the most significant impediments to remote working. For businesses using a traditional "file server" environment, centrally stored files work great when everyone is in the office. But when workers are outside of the network, the solutions available become a real fudge.

Some businesses have dealt with the problem by using "Remote Desktop" solutions like Microsoft RDS (formerly terminal server) or Citrix. Others use VPN's to make network features available. Also available is VDI – Virtual Desktop Infrastructure, where a "Virtual" Windows desktop runs on the companies servers and then accessible remotely with employees storing nothing on their portable devices. There are sometimes excellent reasons to deploy these, such as access to legacy applications or systems that are not "web-connected". But for file access, primarily when offline, they are pretty useless.

Newer technologies like Datto Workplace get around some of these difficulties by making files and documents available on every device, at any time. They still support "online" usage and even manage to cope with things like file-locking, preventing a colleague changing a file you are using. Yet, they also work well when you are offline, allowing access to everyday files and documents.

These systems are like "Dropbox on steroids", because unlike simple solutions like Dropbox, they also support offline access of live company files and not just a synced, shared folder within Dropbox.

Added to that, solutions like Workplace add compliance and control, preventing company data leaking out.

If employees don't have access to everything at their fingertips, remote worker productivity will fall, rather than improve and having to search through emails for attachments or having multiple versions of the same file in different places will only lead to confusion and mistakes.

No access to paper documents

While many businesses have implemented the paperless office, the reality is that few have put in the systems to eliminate paper. A small business might be able to just get away with a simple scan-and-store solution, but a proper document management system is a must where multiple employees need access to the files. The first DMS systems were very much on-premise, but with newer DMS' being available in the cloud (Software as a Service, or SaaS for short), they are now accessible everywhere. This further empowers remote workers because they can even then use their often-simple scanner on their all-in-one printer at home to scan documents directly into the DMS.

Of course, eliminating paper in the first place should be the goal of many businesses (thereby removing a lot of the need for scanning). However, documents are still arriving in other forms like PDF and need to be filed appropriately.

One area of document management that has also significantly progressed in recent years is that of electronic signatures. If your business can send automatic proposals to its customers, it also needs to be able to receive electronic orders. If these require a signed contract, then an e-signature option should be considered. Once the e-signed document is returned, this should then also be stored in the document management system. There are now many e-signature systems out there, and most are cloud-based.

Keeping confidential data secure

OK, there is no perfect solution, but you can go a long way to keeping your data safe and your business compliant. Providing access to data remotely need be no less secure than if employees are accessing it in the office. Still, if not done correctly, there is more scope for that data, be it customer or proprietary and possibly secret company data leaking out.

Businesses that use remote access solutions need to consider how that data is being accessed. If an employee is using a work laptop, especially when it has features like disk-encryption enabled can be a little less worried. But an employee who is using a personal device to access systems is a higher risk and mitigation is your best option. Preventing employees from copying files to their "C drive" or USB stick will be one way you can help mitigate this but consider limiting company data to only being emailed to safe locations, for example. If an employee is scanning documents remotely and they are using their own devices, make sure your solution does not allow for a copy of the material to be stored, or remain, on the local machine.

When using file-sharing technologies, ensure employees cannot merely share folders here-and-there, by putting appropriate permissions in place. And try and use file-sharing technologies like Datto Workplace, which also have capabilities like access auditing and remote-wipe.

As with all of these systems though, planning is critical – try and not make your solution ad-hoc or rush to provide something without setting this up properly. That's easy to say when there isn't a pandemic in play, but even if you've rolled something out now that's temporary, look at the possible risks (and what clean-up might be needed) and then the permanent solution and plan going forward.

Social Isolation

With all the solutions above, you now have the ability for employees to work from anywhere, permanently. But most of your staff will not be happy with complete social isolation once the lockdown ends and will benefit from some workplace interaction.

During the working day, you can help minimise isolation by using some of the collaborative tools I have discussed above, like Teams meetings, Zoom calls etc. But also consider other options for some of the downtime as well. Many businesses pre-pandemic organised "First Fridays", pub nights and socials to help with employee bonding and as a reward for a worker's efforts. While these are impossible during the current COVID19 crisis, there will come a time where they are possible again, and businesses should continue to organise these events.

With employees working further from the office, regular events should be used (along with the offer of travel and accommodation) so that the whole team can get together. And while the social-distancing rules are still in place, why not consider alternatives like having a Pizza delivered to your staff on a Friday night before a "Zoom" pub quiz.

All the above will help prevent social isolation, which not only leads to job dissatisfaction but also can have a significant impact on mental health. Happy, engaged employees will not only be better employees, but you will be rewarded with productivity boosts and a better bottom-line. It's a win-win for everyone. Goodbye new normal. Welcome to the digital workplace.

I'm Darrin Salt, managing director and CEO of The Technologies Group, an award-winning IT Service provider. We support and help businesses grow through the smart use of technology, with services such as outsourced support, helpdesk, cybersecurity and collaborative technology. If you have any comments on this article, please leave them below. If you have any questions, including an explanation of any of the technology I've referenced, do reach out to me on here. I can also be emailed directly at [email protected].