With the current coronavirus outbreak causing mandatory self-isolation and social distancing practices to take place as the best way to slow the spread, many businesses are asking their employees to work from home. But telecommuting practices are nothing new and have been growing the last few years. If you manage a business that is looking to have employees work from, home here is some of the things to consider.
Have a telecommuting policy. This policy will ensure your employees will know what to expect when working from home. It should include and not be limited to the following. Compensation and Work hours, Equipment that the company will provide, such as computer hardware, software, phones, and emails. Details of how the workspace should be set up. Office supplies that are supplies by the company or out of pocket and how to get reimbursed and who approves them. The liability of the workspace should also be considered in case there are any job relocated accidents at home during working hours. Please consult your workers’ compensation insurance to see if you are covered. Make sure you have a professional look over the policies.
Communication is vital when working from home. Businesses should consider using a voice over IP or VoIP based phone system to make and receive calls from home. Setting up periodic meetings with each other can help keep the morel of the company up. Use Microsoft Teams, Skype, and Google Hangouts, just to name a few to have video conferences with your managers or team members.
Have your remote employees log in to your network using a Virtual Private Network or VPN. This will help ensure that all your private traffic is encrypted to your office networks when going through the internet. I recommend against using GoToMyPC, LogMeIn, or any third party. If employees are using their personal computers to access the company resources, make sure that they are equipped with antivirus and firewalls are working correctly.
Set up multi-factor authentication when accessing any cloud service such as Office 365 or Gsuite to access email or any cloud information. This step will help ensure that hackers are unable to get into your account, even if they steal your password.
Also, beware of hackers trying to taking advantage of this time to break into your company’s network and take advantage of new opportunities that are brought to you by working from home. We can take care of some of these risks with our security services.
Interested in having your employees work from home, but not sure how to get started? Let us help you along the way you can reach us at 626-533-1436.
