If you haven't yet incorporated a teleworking policy into your organization's strategy, your employees have probably been begging you to let them work from home or take their business on the road. While you might think that these privileges are luxuries that should only be given on an infrequent basis, think again.
Offering remote access capabilities to your staff can bring powerful, positive results if you incorporate the right rules into your policy. With up-to-date technology to ensure quality, secure connections for your remote workers, you'll have a top-notch teleworking program running in no time.
Significant benefits
Before diving into the details of proper teleworking policy and IT support, there's a chance you still aren't convinced that remote access is a good idea for your organization. This is understandable given the traditional lay of the land in the business or government environment - conventional wisdom suggests that workers need to be in close proximity to their fellow staff members and superiors in order to produce at their best level. However, the opposite is true in the digital age. These mobility strategies can offer a range of powerful advantages to an organization when done right.
A recent article from Voxy pointed to AUT University's New Zealand Work Research Institute's "Telework Briefing," a report highlighting the state of remote access in today's corporate world. The source revealed that the growing popularity of teleworking has led decision-makers to focus on developing their policies and coordinating data center optimization efforts to put their organizations ahead of the curve with regard to mobile enablement. This has led to stronger, more effective strategies that deliver tangible productivity and quality boosts.
"Telework is increasingly becoming just another way of working. It is about giving your employees the flexibility to make their own decisions on how to work best and giving them the tools to achieve outcomes," Professor Tim Bentley, director of the NZWRI, told the source. "If a proper teleworking policy is implemented across the company both employers and employees will reap the benefits."
Cultural perspectives
Ready to embrace remote access? Start with making it a normal part of daily life in the workplace. A key priority in creating an effective teleworking outlook is integrating remote access into the fabric of your organization's culture. If employees feel out of place when asking to take their work out of the office, you probably won't realize the complete range of benefits this strategy has to offer.
Workers should be comfortable with requesting and using remote access policies as a natural part of their workplace privileges. This will let them focus on the task at hand, knowing that they are fully supported by you and your upper-level colleagues.
"It is important to have a culture that places a high value on employee empowerment and trust, and then develops and maintains leadership and resources."
The tech factor
Even with the perfect policy in place, you won't be able to get your teleworking initiative off the ground if you don't have the technology to support on-the-go users effectively. To let employees tap into mission-critical applications and data, you must develop a network capable of facilitating mobile device management best practices and secure connections throughout.
"Managers can lead teleworkers effectively by maintaining an open line of contact and communication of expectations, as well as providing them with infrastructure support so they can work effectively off site", said Bentley.
How should you begin to enhance your tech resources for remote access? Virtualization Review recommended prioritizing the big four - applications, data, collaboration and cyber security - as a jumping-off point. With these components, virtualized servers and the guidance of a forward-thinking IT partner, you'll be more than ready to gain the teleworking edge.
.png)
