[Updated March 21, 2020]
The “new normal” of living through the coronavirus pandemic is here. Remote working is now standard operating procedure, whether an organization’s workforce numbers in the dozens or the thousands. It’s all about Job #1: Keeping employees, vendors, clients, and customers safe.
Your next priority is the operational continuity of your organization, and Digital Workplace technology is the key to it.
Todd Felton, StitchDx’s Chief Customer Officer, has written about Five Intranet Features That Will Make a Difference In a Crisis. Now it’s time to check your digital workplace tech to make sure it—and your people—are ready for an extended, productive period of all hands working from home.
Your 9-point tech checklist for effective remote working
- Hardware and support. If employees are borrowing company laptops, monitors, etc., they must be inventoried, signed out, and accounted for. Also, IT teams need to write up, implement, and distribute hardware support procedures.
- UPDATE: Home Internet. Not only has remote working become the new normal, but with schools and universities closing and instituting distance learning and online classes, entire families are now home full-time. Employees MUST confirm that their home internets have ample, reliable bandwidth to support their demands for work, school, and, yes, streaming services to keep the kids diverted.
- Video conferencing. What’s the capacity of your current platform and license? Can it handle the highest-volume situation you can reasonably envision?
- File storage/data governance. What naming and filing conventions are in place? How compliant are your employees? Who is responsible for managing and enforcing compliance? Content search in a digital workplace only works when all users speak the same language of file naming. And people won’t be able to tap their office mates on the shoulder to ask, “Hey, where can I find…?”
- Passwords and security. Review all your permissions to ensure employees can only go where they belong. This is also the time to initiate multi-factor authentication across your digital workplace.
- Project management. A cloud-based project management platform such as Microsoft Project, Asana, or Monday.com is one of your most valuable tools when it comes to day-to-day continuity and delivery—and that value multiplies with remote workers.
- Time reporting. Likewise, a cloud-based time-tracking platform like Harvest or Toggl is priceless for managing project budgets. Even better: time-tracking that integrates with project management.
- Speaking of which, look into any opportunities to integrate tools you’re currently using. Yes, some integrations admittedly work better than others. But when your tools are “playing nice together,” less friction and more efficiency result. That’s what you want in times like this when your workplace is disrupted.
- And one more little thing that can figure big for business continuity: If you use desk phones, make sure employees forward theirs to their cell phones.
Anything to add? Share in the comments section.
About StitchDX
We are a digital experience agency focused on helping organizations engage with all their customer audiences—internal and external.
Our brand-first approach delivers services and solutions that help you optimize user experience, improve marketing, and leverage technology to achieve high-impact growth goals for employee engagement and customer acquisition.
An Akumina Gold Implementation Partner and a HubSpot Silver Certified Agency Partner, StitchDX threads together expertise in digital workplace, content creation, UX/UI design, brand strategy, digital marketing, lead generation, employee engagement, and website development for a diverse client roster of SMBs and large enterprises.
Whether you seek to improve work management and collaboration, or drive strategic marketing efforts, let’s talk. We’re here to guide you through the dizzying landscape of technology choices and help you leverage the digital experience platform that’s right for you.
CONTACT STITCHDX:
800.535.1314