Long-Term Remote Work Comes With Expenses That You Should Be Prepared For
Are you thinking about continuing with remote work, even after it’s no longer necessary in order to keep your staff healthy and safe?
You’re not alone — according to 317 CFOs recently surveyed by Gartner, 74% expect to move previously on-site employees remote post-COVID-19.
However, if you’re planning to make remote work a permanent part of the way you do business, you can’t continue with the ad-hoc approach you’ve taken so far. While it was at first just a matter of getting your staff working again quickly, now that the mad rush is over, you should optimize your remote work practices.
Check out part five of our six-part series featuring our president Keith Heilveil, detailing what a remote work environment requires, and what additional expenses you should expect:
The Benefits Of Remote Work
There’s plenty of reason to continue with remote work. After trying out remote work for a few months, many business leaders and employees have seen the benefits firsthand:
- 77% of remote employees say they’re more productive when working from home
- 76% of employees prefer to avoid their office completely when they need to concentrate on a project
- 98% of remote workers want to continue to work remotely (at least some of the time) for the rest of their careers
That said, whatever your current remote work setup is like, it can almost certainly be improved.
Optimizing & Securing Your Home Office
The goal is to set up your home office with the same tools, standards, and processes you have in the corporate environment, allowing you to be as productive and secure as you would be in the office.
- Equipping You With The Right Tools: While the bare minimum for remote work at the start of the pandemic was likely just a computer, phone, and VPN, if you want to optimize your setup, you’ll need a lot more:
- Laptop
- Monitor(s)
- Keyboard and mouse
- Phone system and headset
- Business-class firewall
- AV Software
- Printers
- Webcams
- Wi-Fi
- Enhancing At-Home Cybersecurity: Security is a complicated undertaking for remote work models. In fact, 36% of organizations have dealt with a security incident due to an unsecured remote worker.Continuing with a remote work model, whether entirely or in part, will require:
- Enhancing security measures
- Providing the right hardware for users working permanently from home
- Implementing more permanent file-sharing and collaboration tools
Advantage Industries Will Guide You In Optimizing Your Remote Workspaces
The bottom line is that you shouldn’t be accepting any obstacles to your productivity, or vulnerabilities in your cybersecurity just so you can work from home. If you’re going to choose to continue with remote work, do it right.
Get in touch with Advantage Industries to enlist our expert help in equipping and securing you and your employees’ remote workspaces.
Click here to get started or call us at 410-992-7925.
