BNMC Blog

If you haven’t already gone back to the office for your work duties, are you ready to do so? Research shows that employers and employees have very different answers to this question. Why is this the case?

Productivity is of critical importance for businesses, but with the COVID-19 pandemic still ongoing, there are many professionals who are still stuck in crisis control mode and struggling to keep revenue coming in. Let’s take a look at how businesses have been able to make it thus far, despite the circumstances, and how technology has helped to shape the trajectory of this movement.

Since the beginning of the Coronavirus pandemic, remote work has exploded, and many organizations expect to continue it to some extent after the pandemic turns to an endemic. Let’s take a look at some of the technology choices your business can make to make your remote workforce more effective.

While historically, the idea of a 9-to-5 job in a company has been the established way to make a living, there is now a large section of the workforce who now generates income through shorter contracts—gigs. The stay-at-home orders passed in March and the millions suddenly seeking work during their displacement (and in many cases, unemployment) from the office space recently made it much harder for these gig workers to find such opportunities.

With COVID-19 creating the challenges that it has for so many, there is little wonder that creating a vaccine is such a major focus. Unfortunately, hackers are aware of this focus, and how it makes the organizations conducting vaccine trials particularly vulnerable. Let’s examine this situation, and the lessons that all businesses can take away from it.

While remote work has been possible and somewhat popular for some time now, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made it indispensable for many businesses to survive. Nevertheless, as it has spread, it has become apparent that remote work isn’t likely to go away as our immediate need for it does. Let’s look at how remote operations are influencing businesses to see why.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way that a lot of businesses are approaching cybersecurity. In normal times, businesses will periodically try to make improvements to their organizational security and pounce all over events that could put their network and data at risk. While this strategy has worked, the new normal brought on by COVID-19 has IT administrators and business decision makers focused on maintaining resilience regardless of the financial and operational stressors they encounter. In today’s article we will look to identify the major shifts businesses have had to make, and how a consistent approach to cybersecurity is giving some companies an advantage.

In a recent security update, most Android and iOS phones received a new opt-in setting related to the COVID-19 Exposure Notification system. What is this? Is your phone being tracked? Let’s take a deeper look at what is going on.

While it is very, very hard to say that much good has come from the COVID-19 pandemic, much less to make light of it, it is an important exercise for all of us to take. That’s why we wanted to take a few moments to reflect on the advancements—including an objectively silly one—that this time has helped foster.

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, many companies are working from home to facilitate social-distancing and keep their workforce healthy. However, it’s not as simple as sending your employees home, firing up personal laptops and getting back to work. Here are seven things you need to have lined up in order to successfully deploy your remote workforce.  

• Secure Remote Access: Employees should not have open access to everything on their work systems from their personal computers. This keeps company data protected. In order to be productive through this pandemic, however, employers will need to provide a secure connection utilizing VPN or remote access software. These solutions will mirror the employee’s work desktop without housing all of the data on the individual’s personal system, allowing them to seamlessly continue work.
• File Sharing Capabilities: While people will be working in isolation, they must still be able to collaborate. File sharing/group editing software will be critical to moving forward creative or documentation projects through real-time editing, commenting, and versioning. Software like Microsoft Office 365 Teams / Sharepoint,  Google G-Suite Docs or Dropbox for Business fill this need securely.
• Enterprise Level Antivirus: Basic home-level antivirus is not sufficient, particularly in secured industries. Extend your enterprise-level antivirus to home systems that will be accessing your network to create an added layer of protection. You may also consider deploying firewalls on top of individual’s home networks to create the same secure connection employees experience in your office.
• Video Conferencing: Meetings must go on while people work remote; however, voice-only leaves much to be desired in terms of tone and context. We highly recommend putting in place video conferencing options. You can implement something as simple as Google Duo/FaceTime, or something more feature intensive, like Zoom or GoTo Meeting.
• Messaging Software: You can’t just spin your chair around to talk to your co-worker when working remote, yet it’s not efficient to always pick up the phone. We recommend implementing a messaging software like Microsoft Teams or Slack to open communication channels and allow employees to continue to interact quickly and accurately. Utilizing these tools, you can set up one-on-one conversations or set up channels to facilitate team communication.

• Phone: A strong VoIP solution will allow employees to take their phone numbers remote to their cellphones without giving out their cellphone numbers. Office calls will transfer seamlessly to the employee’s cellphones, voice mails will be sent via email, and the employee can dial-out using a phone application to maintain office functionality.
• Remote Access Policy: Prior to providing access to your employees, put in place a clear access policy that acknowledges that your company monitors whatever they do while connected. Employees should be encouraged to act as if they are on site even while working remote and reminded that punishments for doing something illegal/against company policy will apply.

The COVID-19 situation is ever-changing. Schools across the nation have been closed and events have been cancelled. While it may make sense to keep your employees on-site for now, we believe it’s important to have a plan should you need to close your physical offices. Getting these seven pieces of the puzzle in line will prepare you to take your workforce remote. For assistance implementing these things, contact us at (978) 482-2020 or  .