Do not panic. There are some very simple things you can and should do.
You have a receptionist or guard guarding your front door, an alarm system at night, antivirus software that protects your computers, and a firewall that protects your servers. Everything is fine except for one thing. You just sent your staff to work from home. You cannot allow your business information, including some data with compliance requirements that must be protected, to be exposed to the Internet. If you suddenly find yourself in this position, consider providing your employees with these basic tools so they can work from home safely.
We live in a time when the level of risk of our confidential information increases every day. The need to safeguard digital communications places a huge burden on a business and requires constant diligence to mitigate these ever-evolving risks. During a Black-Swan event like the spread of COVID-19, where you are forced to make a critical decision like sending your staff home just days in advance, it’s critical that you don’t let your guard down. Using a secure encrypted email application is the first line to avoid risk to your business.
Email encryption is a must
You need an application that your entire team can use safely, easily, and affordably. You don’t have time for lengthy training sessions or to find out who has what capacity at home. You need a product that is easy to install, easy to use, and highly flexible, including a compatible mobile app. If you are sending secure emails to customers, suppliers, or others outside of your business, you will need an application that allows you to send an encrypted email to recipients to purchase the application in order to receive secure email.
See Protected Trust Send_It_Secure https://envoy.protectedtrust.com/ Your free trial will be extended to 30 days during this crisis with no additional financial commitment required. Group rates are available if you decide to continue using them in the future.
Team Communications
Communicating with your team of employees in the easiest and most transparent way possible helps keep your team focused and motivated, even when working remotely. There are several products on the market that provide text messages and group chats, video conferencing, scheduling and conducting team meetings online, and collaboration and file sharing. To keep things as simple as possible for employees getting used to working remotely, combining these capabilities into one easy-to-use app will eliminate a lot of headaches and get your team back to work quickly. The Microsoft Teams app is a good way to do this. There are some minimal upfront fees, but they are small if you can keep your employees productive.
Visit https://www.protectedtrust.com/ They specialize in creating virtual teams.
Culture change
Employees like to work from home and see the ability to do it at any time as a benefit. No traffic, no gas, and work in your pajamas if you want. Then they finish their first day of remote work and soon add that their roster may change. No quiet office, no escape from the kids, no business lunches, loss of contact with coworkers, and delays in getting work done because they can’t just walk down the hall to ask the boss a question. Let’s face it, people also have many reasons why they like working from the office. Your employees may be in a culture shock. Some can handle it and will see it as a benefit, and some will not.
Working with remote employees is also a culture change for managers. Can you run a business without the ability to see your employees’ fingers running across the keyboard? Many managers are “old school” and have greater problems with culture change than their employees. Much of the change occurs in the manager’s mindset. https://paulemcmahon.wordpress.com/2020/03/15/6-tips-in-10-minutes-for-successful-working-from-home/
I recommend a book titled “Virtual Project Management” by Paul McMahon. It was written for software administrators, but it has wide application in any virtual environment. www.pemsystems.com
There are many reasons to believe that the days of working in tall office towers are over. What 9/11 did not accomplish, the 2020 pandemic can. Of course, I recognize that there are jobs that cannot be done remotely … but many of them can. The overhead to run most offices, rent, electricity, cleaning, and insurance disappear when you close the doors and let your employees work from home. Reducing overhead costs is often a good trade-off for a perceived lack of control over your employees. Use the current situation to try telecommuting with your team of employees. You may be pleasantly surprised.