3 WFH Areas to Consider for Employees

Here are 3 areas to consider for your WFH staff to help get the new environment off to a good start.

1. Available Space
   How much space does your employee have? Some have only the Kitchen table others have a home office, but that may be shared with their spouse and kids who are now schooling from home. Your employee needs a dedicated space, an area where they can work in peace with the least amount of interruptions as possible. Once they have identified that space, you need to work with them to see what is the best setup, what hardware will they need to accomplish their job.
   1. Do they have space for a full computer or multiple monitors?
   2. Do they need a printer, and how much space do they have for that?
   3. Do they only need a laptop or Tablet?

2. Flexible Capabilities

Now that you know how much space they have; you need to consider what do they really need to do their job.

1. Do they need to continue visiting with clients? Will they do that via Zoom or in person?
2. Do they need access to company data? Can you do that via cloud or VPN?
3. What about the phone system? Is your office system VoIP or do you need to make some arrangements for other phone equipment?
4. Is their internet service fast enough? Will you be paying for their internet service or to bump up their speed?

3. Additional Functionality

Other items to consider that they may not have in their regular office position but will need to have to continue doing business may include:

1. Camera, Mic and Speakers for their computer. If like most WFH they will be conducting and attending Zoom or other meetings these are essential.
2. We have already mentioned a VoIP phone, but consider this; if you do not have a VoIP system, did you know you can still add a VoIP phone and forward any numbers from your company that they may need to answer? Or perhaps a soft phone, this is a VoIP service that utilizes the computer as the phone system.
3. Access to software. If your data is stored on your office servers, they will need a VPN connection to get to the data securely. If your data is Cloud based, you may still need some special setups from your software vendor or IT vendor to access it outside of your office.
4. Do not forget about security and compliance. Although HIPAA and other compliance has been relaxed, that will not last and you will need to make sure your WFH employees are meeting all the security standards of your office and compliance entities very soon.

Of course, you should always consult your IT company for any of your questions, and if your IT vendor is not bringing these items up in your Quarterly Meetings and you would like to meet with a company that does. We would love to give you a free Network Assessment and see what we can do for you.

Just fill out the form on this page and we will setup a time to meet with you.

Greg Durnan
CEO
AcaciaIT