We’re currently living through unprecedented times for businesses. Never before has the country shut down economic activity to this extent – not even during times of war. We’re in uncharted territory. 

The state is asking companies to do something extraordinary – switch from working in an office to working from home. And it is a massive organizational challenge. Nobody is quite clear about how to orchestrate it. Having a few workers connecting from their regular laptops is par for the course. But running the entire network remotely – that’s something entirely different for the vast majority.

So how do you get your team online at home? What can you do to shift your company to a remote work model immediately? 

Set Your Expectations

For many of your employees, remote working will feel a bit like a holiday for the first couple of weeks. It is essential, however, that employers snap their people out of this mindset. While there will be a welcome end to commuting for some, the work ahead for all of us will be a challenge. With the Covid-19 recession now in full swing, companies will need to adjust their business models to reflect the new realities that we face. 

Setting expectations, therefore, is the most critical aspect of getting your team online at home. You need people to adjust the way that they approach their work and even their office spaces in light of the changes that we’ve seen across our society. 

Ask For External Support

Getting your entire team online and set up to work from home is a massive challenge for even the largest of businesses. Small businesses, therefore, may struggle to shut down their commercial premises and get people working from home. 

IT support companies, therefore, suggest that people get external help. In today’s cloud-based, remote-working economy, there’s no longer any need for companies to feel as though they have to manage all their computing in-house. Today, you can outsource practically everything. 

This notion dramatically changes how you might want to respond to the current crisis. You could try organizing your systems remotely and risk downtime and failure. Or you could go to an agency with all the expertise that you need to keep your systems running throughout the current lull in business activity. 

Make It Easy To Access Company Resources Remotely 

While setting up a remote network can be a challenge, you want the experience to be as seamless as possible for employees. It should be easy for them to fire up their laptops, log onto your servers, and access all the relevant programs that they need. 

Creating a company portal accessible through the cloud means that you need to migrate your critical systems. If you haven’t done so already, you should do so now. By operating a distributed computing model, you can eliminate long periods of downtime and improve productivity. 

Dealing with a crisis is never easy, but once this is over, remote working could make your team stronger and lower your operating costs.