The Ultimate Work-From-Home Refresher for Autumn 2020

Introduction

If 2020 has taught UK businesses anything, it’s that resilience and adaptability are essential.

As we head into autumn and winter, companies are once again being asked to adapt to a change in working arrangements by moving back to a work-from-home model… where possible, at least.

If your business returned to the office over summer and are now shifting back to home working, you’ll want to make sure you’re still set up for success. Or perhaps you’re moving to work-from-home for the first time?

In any case, our refresher should be all you need to move your team to a remote working arrangement – and maintain productivity, too.

Let’s make a start.

Refresher #1: Digital collaboration and the power of the cloud

When your team is entirely off site, it’s difficult to find yourself reliant on hardware and servers which are still on site.

While there are great solutions for this, (as we’ll soon see), it’s a good idea to start making the most of cloud-based software for both productivity and communication.

Luckily, you can take care of both of these factors in one go with Microsoft 365.

You can find out more about the full suite of apps from our dedicated guide, but here are the key benefits for remote staff:

• Microsoft Teams. Now one of the world’s most popular digital collaboration tools, Teams can help you communicate either in groups or one-on-one. You can also use it to collaborate on documents in real time. Find out more about Microsoft Teams.
• Microsoft Office. The classic Office apps are available as part of Microsoft 365, either as installable applications or cloud-based web apps. Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and more – they’re all included.
• Microsoft OneDrive. While Teams is great for storing shared files for use across your team, OneDrive is a great option for individual employees. With most 365 for business subscriptions, each user gets a whopping 1TB of cloud storage to access from any device. Learn more about Microsoft OneDrive.

Refresher #2: Remote desktop connections

For many businesses, even when working remotely, having a connection to the office is still essential.

This might be because you have data on-site which you’d prefer to keep on site, but still allow access for your team. There are a couple of options for this, but the easiest by far is the use of remote desktop connections.

With a remote desktop connection, your staff will be able to log in to using their credentials, then have full access to their machine – as though they were sitting right in front of it.

All you’ll need is to be using a flavour of Windows which is suited for business – specifically Windows Pro and Enterprise with an appropriate remote access gateway solution. (If that sounds too technical, don’t worry, we can take care of everything for you).

Once you’ve got the prerequisites in place, your team will be able to remotely connect to their workstations from anywhere. Even better, they can use any platform they choose to make the connection, including Windows and Mac, or even with mobile operating systems Android or iOS.

Refresher #3: Make sure your team’s hardware is up to the job

If you’d prefer not to use cloud-based solutions, or if remote desktop isn’t an option for any reason, you’ll need to revisit your hardware.

To maintain productivity when employees are working from home, you need to be sure they’re using machines which are fast and reliable. You should also try to make sure they’re not simply using their own laptop or home computer. Not only is this a potentially security risk for your data, employees might also be limited by speed, reliability, or configuration issues.

The simple fix? Invest in a fleet of laptops for your remote workforce. It may seem like a large cost, but don’t forget that the improvement you’ll see in sheer productivity can soon offset it.

Of course, it’s not quite as simple as just popping into Curry’s and buying 20 laptops – you’ll need some expert advice. And that’s where we step in.

Ideally, we’d recommend one of our IT support agreements, which comes complete with our IT Director service, where our team will assist you in making the right hardware decisions. Of course, we’re always happy to answer any question you might have about business IT support – so don’t hesitate to give us a call.

Refresher #4: Maintaining motivation (and keeping team spirits up)

Let’s face it: working from home can be an isolating experience. This has become clear for many businesses since the initial shift to work-from-home in spring 2020.

We all miss those water cooler conversations, (sometimes, anyway), so it’s essential that business owners and managers do their best to keep spirits up.

Here are our top tips on keeping your team engaged, motivated, and productive from a distance:

• Create a dedicated social channel in Microsoft Teams. All work and no play makes… well, you know the rest. Using Teams to create a dedicated ‘breakout’ area for your employees can help them relax and reduce feelings of isolation.
• Hold regular 1:1 meetings. Sometimes, employees just need to talk. With a standing meeting with their line manager, employees will have the chance to talk about how they really feel – and surface any issues before they hit boiling point.
• Create some friendly competition. If there’s one thing that always motivates, it’s being in competition with someone else. You can make this a fun part of your working day with a digital leaderboard (and even some small prizes) to keep staff motivated. (You could even use Microsoft Lists to keep track!)

Keep your team together, even when they’re apart – with Get Support

Whether your team have become work-from-home aficionados already, or you’re moving back to a remote arrangement after some time back in the office, we hope this refresher has been helpful.

The Get Support IT support team has been helping businesses make the jump to working from home for decades. Whether you just want some advice on setting up remote desktop, or you need a primer on Microsoft Teams, our experts are on hand to assist.

Get in touch now by filling in the form below or calling us directly on 01865 59 4000.