The tech keeping employees ticking – even from home

"While protecting employees from catching a virus is currently top priority, ensuring they carry out their tasks securely should also be a focus to ensure it won’t be their laptops catching the virus instead,” suggests Jay Ryerse, CISSP, VP of Cybersecurity Initiatives at ConnectWise. “With employees continuing their work from home, organisations must ensure they have access to the latest security tools and solutions as well as the right training on how to use it. It’s common knowledge that many company data breaches or leaks are due to human error or believing a phishing email, so making sure employees can access critical documents on a secure network is a necessity."

Sam Humphries, Security Strategist at Exabeam, agrees that the shift to widespread remote working and collaboration is a steep learning curve for most security teams. “Security leaders need to make sure remote teams can work securely, applying best practice despite the unprecedented changes. On one hand, the security organisation needs to ensure remote employees remain vigilant and maintain sufficient cybersecurity awareness. However, security teams themselves will need to place more focus on email security and deploying threat intelligence solutions that can help identify new campaigns. Using behavioural analytics can support teams in identifying novel abnormalities and malicious attempts – this could include suspicious attachments, abnormal user domains or unusual email countries of origin. By baselining normal activity, behavioural analytics can automatically look for deviations from the norm and identify attacks as they happen, so security teams can respond faster when an attack occurs.”

Organisations still need visibility

According  to Bob Davis, CMO at Plutora, many of the changes affecting our lives due to Covid-19 will stay with us permanently and addressing these head on may mean your business can not only survive, but also thrive in the current conditions. “Among the challenges for enterprises is how they continue to transform their software delivery factory in a world that has gone beyond decentralised teams to decentralised – remote – teammates. Maintaining high-quality, efficient software delivery that delights customers and delivers value to the business has been dealt quite a blow with a suddenly mandated remote workforce. What is needed is complete portfolio and pipeline visibility, smooth handoffs between teams, governance and compliance, and a system that facilitates collaboration, even in a distributed world.

“Value Stream Management Platforms (VSMP) provide the foundation and visibility necessary to do just that. Visibility while working remotely during the COVID crisis and beyond is extremely important, especially if your development culture, like most, has been face-to-face. People, process and technology all play a role in achieving this, and technology leaders should address them all now in order to succeed in the new world we are stepping into.”

Become your employees’ support system

While remote working is not a new phenomenon, many organisations were still underprepared for the global remote working environment faced today. Steve Wainwright, Managing Director EMEA at Skillsoft recommends that putting in place “an effective team strategy that allows employees to stay engaged and functional in a fully digital way will be paramount for successfully navigating the challenges we are facing.

“In the long term, business leaders need to ensure employees continue to feel valued, engaged and professionally rewarded. This means encouraging employees to embrace learning while working remotely, which will in turn boost their productivity, ability to collaborate effectively and help them seize control of their own professional wellbeing.”

Tom Cotton, Agile Workspace Technical Director at Six Degrees, advises putting procedures in place to help employees’ be efficient at home. "Working from home may well be a big change for a number of users in your organisation, so it’s important to put processes in place to establish the remote working culture as soon as possible, which will help to make that transition easier. Set out clear expectations for users when they work from home. Just like in the office, users will need time to focus on tasks throughout the day. Just because you don’t see a green tick beside their name doesn’t mean they’re not working. Communicate, be flexible, and be understanding."

“This global pandemic has also revealed that companies have powerful remote capabilities inherent within their organisations,” concludes Nicole Sahin, CEO at Globalization Partners. “As businesses successfully address the immediate needs of transitioning teams formerly working within HQ into working remotely, most are experiencing positive results in terms of productivity. In fact, you’ll likely want to consider expanding your remote workforce moving forward. And your business and employees could thank you.

“For example, Deloitte reports that almost 75 percent of millennials believe that a remote work policy is important. In a study by Owl Labs, 86 percent of survey respondents attribute working remotely to reduced stress and improved health. So, it makes sense that companies that allow remote work report a 25 percent decrease in voluntary employee turnover. With this decrease in turnover and increase in productivity, it is a short step to start thinking about the benefits a global workforce could contribute to diversifying your business in terms of target markets, target geographies, and creative thinking.”

As all organisations – from small local businesses to global household names – get used to the new remote working environment, it’s crucial not to forget the key points that will enable employees to work from home efficiently and effectively. Remember to communicate regularly across the board, and your organisation is more likely to make it out the other end of this crisis.