Business Continuity: A Remote Workforce

As a New Orleans native and a Business Technology Strategist professionally, Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery are always on my mind due to our area’s susceptibility to hurricanes. Therefore, I’m always looking for ways to help my clients prepare for natural disasters and other unforeseen events, such as our current COVID-19 Global Pandemic. One of the best ways to keep the business operational (and hopefully profitable) is to set up a remote workforce.

If a business model is conducive to working remotely, the first step is to put some ground rules in place. This is done by introducing policies that outline data protection and cybersecurity requirements, remote access systems, and HR-related procedures.

Data protection and cybersecurity policies are going to be vastly different for each company depending on whether or not you have to follow any federal compliance, such as HIPPA. For remote access systems, there are numerous ways to work this out, and I’ll go over some of my recommendations a little later. HR will need to work with your IT team to determine the company’s technological capabilities and then write the necessary procedures. Then they can notify employees who are approved to work from home and detail what reporting requirements they will need to follow while working out of the office. This can even go beyond business continuity and become an employee benefit.

The next step is to choose and set up the tools needed for a remote workforce. Let’s breakdown some options that I often recommend to my clients.

1. Collaboration Tools
   • Microsoft Teams: This is a one-stop shop for collaboration. Teams is a program that facilitates instant messaging, chat rooms, file sharing, and both phone and video conferencing. (Bonus – many companies using Microsoft’s 365 email platform probably have Teams included in their pricing tier.)
   • Microsoft OneDrive & SharePoint: This is cloud storage that not only allows ease of access to work files from home, but also grants the ability to work on documents simultaneously with coworkers. For example, multiple members of my team proofread this document simultaneously so we did not need to email the document back and forth, worry about version control (overwriting each other), and we can talk in real-time about it.
   • Slack: This app is similar to Teams with instant messaging, chat rooms, and file sharing, but phone and video conferencing requires setting up integration with other software, such as Zoom, Skype, or GoToMeeting.

2. Connectivity Tools

• VPN (Virtual Private Network): This feature, usually setup through your company firewall, gives you access to the company network while out of the office. This way you can still reach your file shares.
• RDP (Remote Desktop Protocol): This feature can be enabled on both servers and workstations. It can be used in conjunction with a VPN to allow employees to connect to their desktop located at the office while using their home computer.
• TeamViewer: This is a popular software that you can install on a computer or server that allows you to remotely connect to your work desktop. They took VPN and RDP and combined them into a user-friendly interface.

3. Hardware

• Laptops/Tablets: These devices are simply essential for a modern mobile/remote workforce. If your employees are already working in the field or if their positions allow them to work remotely, I highly recommend moving to laptops and/or tablets. Especially if your servers are in the cloud or you are using cloud file sharing systems like OneDrive and SharePoint.
• Mobile Phones: This might sound self-explanatory, but I’m not just talking about smartphones here. If your company is using VOIP (Voice Over IP) phones, many come with “soft phones”. Softphones are apps that can be installed on your smartphone or computer that allow you to use your work phone number as if you were sitting at your desk in the office. This way you don’t have to give out your personal phone number to customers and when you are making calls, it will show the company name on caller IDs. Some VOIP systems even allow you to take your actual desk phone home with you and plug it into your home network, but they may require a separate power cord.

While this article is about business continuity, I would feel remiss if I did not elaborate on my earlier point of using remote work as an employee benefit. I actually have many clients who offer this as a standard benefit to their workers and there are two major reasons to consider incorporating this into your company’s standard benefits as well.

• Recruitment: If you allow for a remote workforce, then you are no longer confined to looking for talent in a certain radius around your office. You also don’t have to entice anyone to move to your location. This opens up the ability to recruit from across the globe. How’s that for expanding your talent pool?
• Work-Life Balance: Let’s be honest, who wouldn’t want to skip their daily commute or have flexible work hours or even sleep longer at night? The ability to work remotely easily translates in higher productivity and lower attrition due to a happier, better-adjusted workforce.

Speaking from experience, while setting all of this up is not difficult, it is time-consuming. So, if you weren’t set up for remote work before our current crisis and are now leaning hard on your IT team, just remember that this isn’t something that can be turned on with the flip of a switch.

If your company needs assistance with creating, enhancing, or maintaining business continuity and disaster recovery plans, ECS + My IT can provide the necessary expertise.