Today's circumstances have moved major universities to send students to “learn remotely” and to shut down campuses. Businesses and industry have cancelled global conferences. What are four practical actions that Enterprise IT can take today?
First, whether policy or not, more people will be working from home or remotely – just because they won’t be going to the same places, or they have to be home with family and kids. So, IT must ensure there’s enough bandwidth, security surveillance, and help-desk support to take care of people. Employees might not have ever needed to work on a shared-computer-desktop and conference line, but they will do a lot more starting today.
Second, make sure that people have access to tools that are “always on” in the office – but not necessarily at home. Portable scanners and all-in-one printer/scanners—these are all things that weren’t necessarily needed last week – but are needed today. Simple answers are needed for lots of people right now. Setup the desktop-support answers, send around links to approved scanner/fax/picture capture software, and make sure that people who will use their cell phones to take image pictures know how to do security for the images. (Erase? Capture only in an approved app? Only use the secure work phone?)
Third, keep the productivity up for technical, paperwork driven, and creative people working remotely. If there was a productivity justification for three screens in the office, then authorize people to add an external monitor (a good one can be had with the cabling for $150 or less for office grade use) to their laptop or home computer (BYOD use). Just pay for the delivery (online deals can be cut, but Amazon, and online vendors can be fine) – and keep the productivity up. Helpful hints: put up a list of what kind of monitor/specs will work with the enterprise laptops, a link to a YouTube video on how to set it up, and give pointers to how to get this done while getting the paperwork done for reimbursement. (This may even end up on a business continuity claim with the enterprise insurer.)
Fourth, make sure that first-line supervisors know good supervision guidelines for a tough and stressful period. Have HR prepare a short note coaching supervisors how to work with remote employees and reminding them of some obvious enterprise culture rules. Set a management expectation that cultural norms for conference and video calls need to be expanded to include things that happen when people are forced to move to work remotely – children’s noises in the background, or household noises from people living in now-cramped spaces. Understand that good employees may work weird hours because coverage hours for global enterprises are going to be all out of ‘normal’ for a while – and give solid guidance on how people will be recognized for the extra efforts in a tough time.
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