The whole world has embraced remote working. In a global survey of over 3,500 organizations, Statista estimates that around 30% of companies work entirely remotely, 43% have both remote and on-site teams, and 15% allow employees to work at home as needed.
While remote working has proved to be a crucial tool for companies in the new normal, not every employee is prepared for transitioning to remote work. So, how can managers and other business leaders better take care of their employees during this difficult transition?
Leverage the right technologies
Properly reinforcing your teams from a distance starts with providing the technologies that your employees need to do their best work from home. This includes familiarizing your team and yourself with video conferencing tools like Zoom and Skype, as well as remote collaboration platforms such as Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex. This type of tech is useful not just for actual work, but also for keeping remote employees wholly engaged. You can reinforce your team's capabilities with these technologies by integrating KLIKBoks or KLIKStik with the aforementioned platforms, which allows you to connect your home’s television screen to your computer. This lets anyone on your team with a television at home to use that screen for viewing work-related content, training modules, or team video conferences. For managers concerned with their employees’ physical health, this system can also be used for home team workouts or free online yoga classes. You can also use it to provide online psychology sessions for members that need it. By investing in and leveraging the right technologies, you can provide support and keep your teams engaged in different ways. Hire a cybersecurity expert As the popularity of remote working grows, so do the cybersecurity threats that come with the corresponding technologies. And while the demand for cybersecurity professionals who can address these threats continue to rise, the good news is that the world’s top tech universities are well-poised to respond to these demands and challenges. At the Cyber Fusion Lab on the physical campus of long-standing tech institution Maryville University, hundreds of future cybersecurity experts are getting hands-on training in ethical hacking and other skills by working directly with real-world companies. “We provide cybersecurity services to about 20 organizations,” explains Tammy M. Gocial, interim dean and associate academic vice president of the John E. Simon School of Business, who oversees Maryville University’s online cybersecurity degree programs. “We help them understand their potential vulnerability from a cyberattack and offer them support to shore up where they might be vulnerable.” These are just some of the key services you can expect when you reinforce your own operations by hiring a cybersecurity expert. This can help your team to freely explore even the newest remote digital collaboration tools, without endangering themselves or your company. Give your remote workers some much-needed flexibility Reinforcing your teams from a distance isn’t just about adapting to new technology. Apart from cybersecurity threats, another huge caveat to the conveniences of remote work is how it forces employees to juggle the responsibilities of both their work and home lives. Many organizations are responding to this challenge by affording employees with increased flexibility in their immediate work environments. This can be seen in how Santa Clara University’s tenure program has adjusted to accommodate the new needs of its faculty. “We understand that your work as a teacher-scholar may be impeded by the sudden and dramatic changes required from faculty this winter and spring to teach online, as well as disruptions in research and conference travel, additional need to care for family given school closures, and more,” said the university in a statement. “Faculty may request a tenure clock extension from the provost, citing these disruptions as a reason.” Apart from teachers, there’s no doubt that many other remote working professionals in different industries face similar challenges. Providing flexible options, not just for regular work but also in terms of advancement, is a direct way to reinforce how your employees are adjusting to juggling responsibilities. In short, reinforcing employees from a distance entails identifying and responding to their most immediate technical, physical, and emotional needs. By providing them with the right technologies, ensuring that those technologies are safe, and being flexible in terms of work requirements and expectations, you can help to reinforce and prepare your remote teams for the workplace of the future.
Written exclusively for Klikboks.com by Polly Capper. Polly Capper is a business advice writer. Since the workforce was forced to become more remote she has made it her goal to help businesses of all sizes adapt. In her free time, she loves to hike.
About KLIKBoks™
KLIKBoks is an engineering-driven startup with a mission to create technologies that enhance the way people collaborate in offices, classrooms, meeting spaces and anywhere else ideas are exchanged. Founded in the Seattle area in 2015, the company builds the KLIK Boks line of wireless presentation systems, sold by a network of dealers, integrators and distribution partners in the US, Canada, and over 20 countries worldwide. Visit www.klikboks.com.
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