The homework strategy is a valid and proportional response to a pandemic (and many other disaster recovery scenarios). The problem facing many businesses is that while some employees are able to work and work from home, the vast majority of office workers are not equipped and perhaps should not be. Consequently, this perceived panacea in the current situation requires further thought and practical examination before companies implement it across their entire workforce. For more than 20 years, I have worked with thousands of companies on business continuity plans, and the following 5 key considerations should always be considered:
Devices and connectivity
If you're a laptop user, with a mobile plan and corporate data, you're a mobile user and can already work from home (or anywhere). If you are a "regular" office worker, you probably have a desk phone with a standard extension or DDI and a desktop computer; you are not set up to work from home. Therefore, the company should ask itself if it is technically possible for you to work from home. There are some popular options: i) Equip users with a company-owned laptop, created by the IT department ii) Allow users to use their own devices and give access to a virtual desktop iii) Allow users to use their own devices to connect to their work desk in the office iv) Allow users to have professional applications installed directly on their own devices (not recommended) They solve the IT but not the network connectivity challenge. If you have broadband at home, it's not unreasonable to use it, with a corporate VPN. If you do not have broadband, the company must purchase it or equip staff with a dongle or 4G/5G MIFI phone. This brings us to the broader issue of communications. There are great messaging and collaboration tools (for example, Microsoft Teams or Slack) that also include video conferencing to provide meaningful human interaction. However, for client roles, you will need to consider how voice communications can be delivered remotely. If users do not have a corporate mobile, they can use a personal phone or personal mobile, but this causes problems with billing for business calls and the confidentiality of personal numbers shared with customers. The best solution is to use one to use a cloud-based VoIP "softphone" that uses the Internet to route calls. Users can remotely make calls from their laptop simply by using a headset as if they were in the office. Those who have used them will have experienced the frustration of sometimes missed calls. If the calls are internal, it is tolerable, but not for external calls to customers. In addition, the risk of poor voice over the Internet will increase due to the additional use of broadband in the home.
Applications
If you have resolved all of the issues listed above, you can now use a desktop computer and make and receive calls. However, can you do everything you need? Many companies use Office 365, and therefore email, office applications, and shared documents are accessible through an Internet connection. However, many companies still use legacy applications. These can't or can't be easily done on the internet and therefore it's worth thinking about the options detailed above. Remotely connecting to a desktop PC that can run the legacy application may be the only way, but then you have some technical preparation and user training to factor in your response plans.
WFH capacity
Assume that 10-20% of the staff typically work from home. Now you are faced with a scenario where it can be 50% (assuming you have divided your office between home workers and office workers) or 100% if an office has closed. Your remote work technology (routers, firewalls, VPN) may not have been defined for this capability. Does your organization have the infrastructure, network bandwidth, and licenses to support the number of users? Beyond the scope of your business is that of public networks, both Internet and mobile. Almost all home and personal communication networks operate in a contested manner. We all share the available capacity. The best way to think about this is during rush hour freeway traffic, where many people going in the same direction at the same time create bottlenecks. Speed and quality will suffer if a large portion of the workforce uses all home and mobile broadband connections at the same time. Therefore, prior choices of voice applications and solutions should take bandwidth requirements into account and minimize them as much as possible.
Work environment
You may remember the BBC correspondent whose little boy happily squashed a live interview! In this case, he actually had an office where he worked from his house. Many workers do not have the luxury of an office. Young workers in big cities probably live in shared housing. An executive committee making decisions about working from home will have a perspective based on their own home environment. For many, the reality is very different: working at a dining table, perching on top of a kitchen, or working on your knees on a sofa. These are fine for the few hours of email recovery after dinner, but not for eight hours straight for weeks or months. Companies have a health and safety obligation to their staff, wherever they work. In the office, staff may have special chairs, RSI mitigation devices, radiation shields, etc. Most staff will settle in at home, but some will need help, so consider a simple homework self-assessment.
Security and confidentiality
Finally, assuming all of the above can be overcome, there is a basic question to ask: are we allowed to work from home? Since the last pandemic epidemic in the mid-2000s, we have conducted fundamental reviews of data privacy regulations (GDPR, PCI, etc.). We've also learned from breaches that data is subject to enforcement and monitoring wherever it lives. The worst example would be a home worker using his own PC; own mobile; work from a common space in a shared apartment; speak and access company, personal and perhaps financial data. This work-from-home method is simply not acceptable in terms of benefits. This won't apply to all staff, but for many companies, it highlights potential problems and the possibility of considering other methods or discontinuing their role. Some general tips for remote work security: · Require passwords for all devices · Turn on MFA for all applications · Encrypt all hard drives · Lock devices if wrong password is entered too many times · Automatically disconnect or lock devices after a idle period. · Activate wipe or remote wipe features The government is planning the next phase of its response and businesses are already implementing their business continuity plans. While working from home is a long road, the reality for many is that it will be the devil in the details that will make it happen or not. Mike Osborne is Non-Executive Chairman of Databarracks