Telecommuting For Businesses; Solution or Attrition?
Telecommuting, or more commonly known these days as either Remote Working or Working From Home, has been implemented by many startup companies. This decision is made to cut unnecessary operational expenses. Now, how about companies that have a much more complex bureaucracy? They surely have a lot more to consider.
Most of the people on the internet are all over this working from home thing, however, the discussion surrounding this issue is only mainly talking about the profits (and heaps of losses too!). The decision to implement Working From Home isn’t only about profits and losses and this is mostly being overlooked. This is also why companies need to set a very clear track on how things will turn out when this decision is made.
Please, please, don’t think that we’re here to fear-monger! We’re here to help you out. How? We will go over on how to make sure that you, your team, and your company, no matter what your current position in the company is, are all aware of maintaining the security of your data and ready to get this “Working From Home” situation going smoothly.
Work From Home
Now let’s set a couple of things straight before we go further here. Working From Home isn’t exactly a novel business plan. It was actually first thought of and implemented before the Industrial Revolution. Yes, that was a long while ago!
As time progresses, technology gets better and better, and quite naturally, working from home is slowly and steadily becoming relevant.
However, this does not necessarily mean that the implementation of this plan will be easy! How so? Well, the first thing to note is that companies have different characteristics and this is what really determines the difficulty of whether or not “Working From Home” can actually be a viable option to take.
A Little Bit of History
Now that we’ve mentioned the Industrial Revolution,I had to google that one. You did too? Great, we can make sure we’re on the same page then 🙂
So, before the Industrial Revolution, most productions were done from home! Tailoring, Leather-Processing, to Manufacturing Home Appliances! Then, these crafts were forced to be done in factories since the Industrial Revolution came along.
This is, however, not something to fret about, as this only proves that technology really is the main element of progress.
Around the 80s, Personal Computer, or what most people simply call PC, was invented. This invention truly drove a lot more people to do things from home as it appeared that a lot more can be done using a PC!
Then, the 00s came along. This was when people were just starting to get into the world of IT. Everything that came out of this was really, really, fresh from the oven like a lovely bowl of mac and cheese that people couldn’t resist but to take interest in this world! Yum! I’m hungry now…
There are so many companies that thrive from the world of IT and contributed to the implementation of the Work From Home method. Some obvious examples are Google, and Slack.
Now, we will eventually catch on to all the goodness that you can bask in from this Work From Home method. However, we will need to first understand what risks need to be well-addressed when it comes to working from home.
Let’s get them rolling now!
Success Rate of Work From Home
In order to properly calculate this element, we need to have the proper “tools”. How so? Well, this is because each company, industry, or organization has their own goals that they have to meet and therefore their system will also differ.
However, this can be generally calculated by the productivity rate of the company. In a “normal” situation, the productivity of the company can be assessed and that assessment will be the determiner in the success of the Work From Home plan.
In an emergency situation, such as natural disaster, which is something that is completely out of anyone’s control, the success of the Work From Home plan will need to be assessed using multiple factors; meaning productivity is not the only thing that is accounted for in the assessment.
The Security of Employees, Level of Productivity, and the Seamlessness of Communication are some of the things that will need to be observed very closely in the assessment. Yup, it can be quite a pickle when an emergency situation arises.
“Yikes!”, I hear you yelp! Please bear in mind that while it can be a daunting task to assess the success rate of this Work From Home plan for companies, this can be used as the parameter of standard that companies must never overlook.
So, as we previously mentioned, each company has their own goals to meet and that is inevitable. With that in mind, what kind of industry is your company dealing with? How many employees does your company have at the moment? How about the cashflow of your company? How much money is being transferred into and out of your business in order to make sure that the core business activities of your company stay intact and running? These are the list of questions that will need to be considered in the assessment of this Success Rate.
Through the lens of a company that deals with IT, such as SoftwareSeni, Working From Home is a very viable option for all employees. This is because all the production activities are done using highly mobile tools, such as laptops and mobile phones.
Cyber Security
Now let’s jump straight to address the elephant in the room. When implementing the Working From Home plan, the biggest threat that companies face comes from the very element essential to the success of this plan itself. Yes, the threat is the Internet. This is especially true when you are using public WiFis.
Malicious software and hackers are out there to get all the data that they can get if you’re not careful when traversing the world wide web. One employee that got either their laptop or mobile phone infected with one of these malicious software can literally jeopardize a company’s integrity as hackers then will be able to gain access to all the data that that particular employee has saved in their equipment!
Now, this sounds really scary, and I’m not going to lie to you because yes, it is THAT scary, but we here at SoftwareSeni are ready to help you out! With good fundamentals, you will be able to ready yourselves up to fight against these criminals. It’s just like how it is in real life really; you learn martial arts in order to protect yourselves.
So, we will now get into what you can do in order to prevent hackers from invading your tools:
1. Self Awareness
Yup! It all starts within you. It wouldn’t matter if a company has the greatest DevOps. If an infection already starts, the chances are, it can already be too late as hackers work in a very swift fashion. The least that could be done at that point is to minimize the damage.
So, yes, if you had to use public wifi, make absolutely sure that when logging in, that public wifi does not ask for your bank information or any sort of personal identification. Make sure that the “Public” WiFi you will be using is actually operated and administered by the owner of that particular WiFi. Let’s say, it’s the coffee shop’s. This type of WiFi is the safer option of “Public” WiFi as it will ask for a password in order to access it and you can get that password by asking the proper administrator of that WiFi connection.
Alright, that seems easy enough, so you just have to go to a nearby coffee shop, make sure that they have WiFi, ask for a password, and it’s good to go! Well, yes, but not quite. There is also another thing that you will need to pay very good attention to; your emails. Make sure that you double-check before opening the emails. Check who the sender is, then move on to the title of the email.
It can be quite telling when you actually read the title closely, so yes, make very sure that you do not open emails EVEN if that is coming from the sender that you know as they might be the one that was infected. So, what you can do at that point is to notify the sender if possible, and inform them that their email has possibly been hacked. That particular person can then be aware of this and attempt to gain their email back by resetting their password and all the essentials.
Check this website out to see if your email address has been compromised. If it is, you will need to reset your password and set this on the right track again.
2. Training
Yup! It is now the company’s turn to get on the action. Companies will need to facilitate a training regarding Cyber Security so that their employees are all aware of what to do and what not to do when it comes to accessing the internet. Readying up your employees against online criminals will highly enhance the safety of not only your employee’s cyber integrity but also your company’s data.
We here at SoftwareSeni have facilitated our employees with knowledge of Cyber Security since we understand the significant importance of sharing this information. As a software house, it cannot be even more telling of our professionalism if we aren’t able to provide this knowledge to our employees.
Effective Implementation of Work From Home
One thing to note before we get to the nitty-gritty of this section, work culture matters. Yes, building a work culture cannot be done overnight, however, this is the golden key to the efficiency and the effectiveness of Work From Home plan. So, what needs to be done in order to kick-start a good work culture? The answers are the following:
1. Policies / Protocols
Having clear and set policies is the first and always the foremost in a company, so naturally, a Work From Home plan will need them. The HR Department will be one of the chiefs in this particular area, the other being the owner of the company.
Some policies that will need to be properly thought-out is what condition allows for Work-From-Home plans to be applicable, the utilities required by the employees in order to do their duties properly and correctly, as well as the employees’ access to the Internet. When all of these policies and boundaries are set, the finance team will very much appreciate this assistance.
Now, there are 3 ways you can connect to the internet. The first one being fiber optic, the second is Mi-Fi modem (Mobile WiFi), and the last one is Mobile Tethering. Companies will need to clearly define the possible reimbursement for their employees’ access to the internet.
With all of the above being said, planning for Work-From-Home really requires well-thought-out strategies or companies will be at a serious risk. This is also another reason for a company to really take care of their employees by having good communication. Having good communication will not only get your company going as intended, but it will also stimulate and grow a very healthy work culture.
2. Simulation
Have you ever made a very thorough and clearly-defined plan, only for it to end up crashing down and not working out? Well, you’re not quite the only one out there. Now, in order to evade the imminent failure that’s lurking in every corner, the answer is Simulation. By having a simulation session, companies will be able to properly assess how well the Work-From-Home will work out. There will be holes that will need to be filled and that is what the Work-From-Home simulation is for.
Normally, the biggest concern of a company is the employees’ lack of focus as they now are working where there will be a whole lot more distraction. Employees that have kids will have their kids interrupt their work, those that have pets will also be distracted by their pets, all of these distractions will definitely impact employees’ productivity.
With a simulation in place, a company will be able to assess this and properly address this issue. This is also where, again, good communication between teams must be held high up in the must-have list. Each team will really appreciate a good online stand-up meeting session as that will not only stimulate good teamwork but also entice employees to be fired up every day as they will know that there are people that care about them and people that they need to care for.
Having simulation sessions will also then have a highly positive impact on the way employees expect their companies to resolve issues. They will be much more confident with their job as they know they are with a company that has multiple solutions when trouble arises and this, in the end, will also influence them to have the same kind of mindset.
Yup, this then leads us to the next point!
3. Work Culture
This is quite possibly one of the toughest to crack as this is quite reliant on what line of work the company is on, as well as the people in the company themselves. Companies that have defined their culture to be adaptable and those that have “easing people’s lives” as their motto will have a higher likelihood for healthy work culture. Having this element set-up properly will definitely give a head start on becoming a company that is ready to face any emergency, and yes, even COVID-19.
Healthy work culture impacts the way employees see themselves and their colleagues. Some employees might not even consider them colleagues, but extended family. If a company is able to shape this, they’re on the righttrack and with that, they can virtually overcome any obstacle as everyone will care for each other and will have each other’s backs when push comes to shove.
There will also be another thing to note; natural selection. Yup, natural selection really is the ultimate judge at the end of the day. Companies that can pull through in emergency situations are ones that can preserve, adapt, and act at the right time.
4. Professionalism
This might be what holds companies back in terms of actually applying the Work-From-Home plan. Professionalism in employees really is something that is hard to come by and even harder to maintain.
Companies can stimulate professionalism by actually leading them to it. How? One of the first things that companies can do is by having good absence management. An absence Management system that is concise and easy to use is one of the driving forces that can influence employees’ professionalism as they can easily access the system and log in without any hassle.
Another thing that a company can do to get their employees on the right track is by having a good moral support system. This will be easily achieved by companies that already have a good track record of healthy work culture.
If you’re one of the employees that always stay professional back before the pandemic, you are one of those that can definitely survive this outbreak and know that you are one of those that your company is holding on to. Don’t get swayed by the calls of your pillows and bed or Netflix! So, stay strong, and stay professional.
CONCLUSION
The implementation of the Work-From-Home plan has really got to be very well-thought-out and closely observed. Not every company will be able to implement this method, let’s get that straight first and foremost. This is because each company has their own goals and ways to achieve them. There are still people that will need to get to the office because some of the tools might just not be that mobile. However, it doesn’t mean that the company can’t do anything about that as they will still need to ensure the safety of the employees that indeed have to get to the office to keep the cogs from getting stuck.
The stability of a company will really hinge on the people that are inside of it. What this means is that the employees themselves will need to know how to take care of themselves, as well as the tools that they are using when implementing a Work-From-Home method.
Cyber Security is one threat that employees will need to pay very close attention to. This can literally be the death of any company as once an employee’s tools, let’s say his laptop, got infected with malware, or they were using an unsafe public WiFi and got snooped on, all the files and the data that are inside of that laptop can be compromised and jeopardized. A company’s job now is to make sure that their employees are made well-aware of how to defend themselves against countless of these malicious things that are out to get them when surfing the internet.
Now, those in the HR Department will know the hardships that come when dealing and ensuring the Work-From-Home method works seamlessly. We here at SoftwareSeni have a bit of tips to get that rolling.
The first thing that your company needs is a set and clearly defined policies and protocols. There must be standards that are set as the priority and fulfilled by the employees. It’s not to induce fear to the employees, but this is to ensure that employees are working safely at home and that their connection is reliable enough that they can do their job without any sort of intrusions.
The second thing to note is Simulation. Simulating Work-From-Home prior to actually implementing this method is a crucial step in ensuring this plan works. By having simulation, flaws will come up and they will be able to be tagged and companies will then be able to address this and come up with a solution.
The third is Work Culture. Having a healthy work culture may not be easy to achieve, but when a company is able to get this right, they will see a significant boost in the productivity of their employees. That wouldn’t be the only thing that they will be able to see, but they will also see that having a good work culture will ensure that employees will not see the people in their office as colleagues, but as an extended family. With that, everyone will look after each other and any obstacles can easily be trampled.
The last, but definitely the most important, is professionalism. For those that are already committed and professional when it comes to doing your job, STAY PROFESSIONAL. Obstacles may come in the form of those that you know well (your family), or even your very own bed! Yup, there are so many things that can hinder you from being professional, but looking at the bigger picture, if you’ve already got a company that hires you and looks after you, you really have nothing that holds you back from giving your all.
So how is your Work-From-Home experience? Has your company successfully implemented this method? We’d love to hear your stories! The comment section is all yours!
