As of this week, lockdown restrictions are beginning to ease slightly and with life after Covid-19 becoming an ever increasing topic of conversation, it’s time to look at what steps you’ll need to take when your business does eventually return to the office.
Plan ahead
The process of working from home proved difficult for some, but by putting plans in place NOW for returning, you’re getting a head start on what could be another stressful process.
Unfortunately, it’s not quite as simple as everyone rocking back up to the office at 9am on a Monday, there’s actually quite a lot to consider…
- Your team
It’s looking like there will be a gradual phased end to the lockdown period, in which case the team won’t be returning to the office all at once. You may have people working for you that are at higher risk (or live with someone who is high risk), so they may have to stay home for longer.
There’s also the remote working element – you may have found that allowing your team to work remotely has proved successful and this may be something you want to consider as a long term prospect for some members of the company. It could aid productivity and flexibility across the board!
- Your equipment
There are a few aspects to be considered here:
- What changes would you need to make to allow home working for any of your team on a regular basis?
- Do you need to purchase extra devices or licenses for apps?
- How will you manage the safekeeping and return of any company equipment during this process?
- Did you or your IT service provider keep a list of what was handed out?
- Will your IT service provider need to spend a lot of time with you setting everything back up in the workplace?
- Your data security
Ok, we do like to talk A LOT about data security BUT this bit is crucial.
Access to your data has been moved across devices from your workplace to homes, and now needs to come back to the workplace again. Has your data security been compromised in any way during this process?
Of course, if you have a tip top IT service provider (like us!), then this transition will be as straightforward as ABC. If you made the switch to working from home in a rush, then there may be some elements of your data security which have been compromised in the process.
Whatever the case, when people and devices start coming back to your workplace, it’s a great opportunity to update everything, check the strength of passwords, and ensure all data is constantly backed up.
So, if you need a plan in place ready for when we’re given the go ahead, then we’re on standby and ready to get going. Get in touch and we can look at everything you currently have and how to ensure the move back into office life goes without a hitch.
