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COVID-19 has affected the world in an unprecedented way. With the social distancing measures and lockdown affecting most of the world, everyone is having to adapt to a new normal.
One of the areas that have seen the biggest change is the workplace. For many, the workplace is now their living room or spare room as companies are forced to close the doors and ask their workers to carry out their duties from home.
But working from home throws up many challenges from security to communication. So, how do you manage your business when you’re employees are all at home?
Here’s how you can keep your company in business during the COVID-19 crisis.
Improving Your Home Networks
One of the biggest challenges that your business will face will be getting your employees to be able to work from home safely.
Home broadband networks are not only likely to be slower than those found in the office, but they are also vulnerable.
Cybercrime has risen by 37% since the start of lockdown measures. This is because hackers are taking advantage of the fact that businesses are having to work remotely. They are now hitting home networks, and these make for easy targets.
Have a virtual private network set up on employees laptops so that they can still access the company data and servers that they need to without putting the data in jeopardy. Having the extra layer of protection on the connection will make a considerable difference to cybersecurity,
Creating Remote Communication Channels
Your team needs to communicate with each other. In the office, you probably take for granted the ease with which you communicate. But at home, it becomes more of a challenge.
It is important to implement communication tools across the board so that your employees can continue to work in an effective manner.
To help you with managing your team remotely, use services such as Slack to allow your employee’s channels to communicate on. Because it is immediate, Slack is an effective tool that is useful for creative thinking and collaboration. It saves a lot of time in comparison to emails.
You should also try and have face-to-face meetings over services such as zoom. Try and schedule these meetings as you would your regular work meetings.
Choosing A Managed Service Provider
To guide you through the difficult challenges that you might face while you adapt to the new situation, you may want to consider hiring a managed service provider such as Zypes.
By making use of a specialist outsourced IT service provider, you’ll get support with your cybersecurity. With round-the-clock assessments of your systems, your MSP will keep you safe.
In addition to that, your MSP will also be able to help to install useful tools such as VoIP which will allow your customers to still get in touch with your employees without you having to give out personal phone numbers.
MSP services such as remote desktop will be useful too, as they will allow you to access your office computer from home.
