Remote Workers? 4 Things Your Company Needs to Keep Them Safe and Productive
Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, about a third of full-time employees were working from home. By the second half of March 2020, the number of employees working remotely jumped to about 61%.With employees using personal devices to get their work done, security concerns increased. One survey of C-level executives revealed that 86% worry about the security challenges created when employees work from home.
4 Things Your Company Needs to Keep Remote Workers Safe and Productive
To ensure that your remote teams are securely protecting your company’s assets and being productive when working from home, there are four things you need to consider:
• Enhanced security.
• More efficient tools.
• Improved communications.
• Increased collaboration.
Enhanced Security
When employees were forced to quickly adapt to working remotely, they were using a mix of online tools, which created a lot of security issues.
For instance, Zoom was the video conferencing tool of choice for some employees. Then hackers learned that they could join video calls uninvited, andthere were reports of hate speech and pornography occurring during business meetings.
You can protect your company assets and employees by encrypting communications. A hosted private branch exchange (PBX) creates a secure connection between web browsers and servers using a cryptographic protocol. Look for one that uses Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.2, because this version is significantly more secure.
The right unified communications and conferencing solution can provide additional security measures such as authorization levels, employee credentialing and even whether participants can share links to meetings .
More Efficient Tools
A hosted PBXenables you to install apps or soft clients on remote workers’ devices. This gives remote employees access to the same advanced functions your business phone service would have if they were sitting at their desks.
By accessing the app on their computers and mobile devices, employees can take advantage of your business Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) phone service. When calling a customer or potential client, the person receiving the call will know that it is coming from your business, which increases the odds that they will answer. When customers call, their calls can be instantly forwarded to employees regardless of where they are. It also prevents employees from having to expose their personal phone numbers and run up their phone bill.
Improved Communication
When workers are spread out, communication is more difficult because there are no water-cooler conversations or impromptu chats in the manager’s office. Unified communications and conferencing tools such as hosted PBX provide services like voice conferencing, voice and video calling, and instant messaging so that theseactivities can occur virtually.
Working at home can be isolating. Although some employees may be comfortable and even more productive, not everyone will be. Therefore, it is important to maintain regular structured and unstructured communication. Experts recommend scheduled check-ins for remote workers and defined processes on how to handle problems. A combination of video conferences, one-on-one meetings and instant messaging helpseveryone stay in touch.
Increased Collaboration
One of the biggest productivity killers for remote workers is a lack of access to the information they need. It is frustrating when they cannot access company resources, network servers, data centers or collaboration tools.
Unified communications and complete unified communications, conferencing and collaboration tools consolidate all of a company’s communication channels ontoa single platform. When an employee needs to access account information, launch an application or download a file from a data center, they can do so as if they were in the office instead of working from home.
Remote Work is Not Just a Temporary Thing
Remote work is here to stay for many companies. A survey of CFOs revealed that nearly 74% of businesses plan to permanently shift some of their employees to remote work. If you have not made changes to give remote employees the tools they need to operate securely and efficiently, now is the time.
If you need help with business phone service, business VoIP phone service, hosted PBX, or launching unified communications and collaboration tools, LOGIX Fiber Networks can help. With more than 280,000 miles of dedicated fiber serving more than 10,000 of the most demanding companies, LOGIX can design an affordable technology solution to keep your remote employees secure and productive. Contact LOGIX today for a quote.