Having a remote workforce will become the new normal, outlasting the Coronavirus pandemic. Even in the earliest days of COVID-19, back in April, 35 percent of workers had already gone to remote work full-time. The percentage of people in the remote workforce is certainly higher now, and with more workers remote and staying remote, ensuring best practices is paramount.
Employees working from home or remote offices is the new norm. That’s due to the lockdowns during the COVID pandemic, but also because of the many benefits of remote workforces. These include increased productivity, more flexible work for team members, and savings on office space. Moving to remote teams can also attract top talent by offering flexibility.
The article “Why We’ll Be Working From Home Long After Coronavirus,” puts it this way: “Companies that have invested in their digital workforce during the pandemic will see reverting to the old normal as a step backwards.”
But remote work also brings with it plenty of problems. And remote employees working from home will drastically change company cultures.
The article “5 Best Practices for Managing Your Mobile Workforce in the Age of COVID-19” offers advice on how to solve remote work problems. It suggests that employees always use a secure WiFi connection. And that, in turn, means companies must educate the workforce about what’s safe and what’s not.
If your company uses mobile device management (MDM) software, it says, you should make sure to configure the settings to shift all corporate liable (CL) devices into secure Wi-Fi networks whenever possible.
People working remotely can mean spikes in mobile usage. The article said that could be 30 percent or more than in the past. So companies should monitor “data/voice pools to identify patterns of increased usage over time and adjust their plans accordingly to absorb additional costs.”
Before the pandemic, companies should have already had policies in place for mobile use. They should have included corporate liability rules, individual liability rules, reimbursement and more. But with new employees joining the remote workforce for the first time, companies must revisit these policies and guidelines. The article advises, “To help smooth the transition from the office to a work from home environment, we recommend reviewing and updating your mobile policy. As a best practice, be sure to communicate any changes to employees and have them acknowledge and sign-off on the policy.”
Also, the article suggests companies consider “offering a temporary stipend to help cover mobile plans and lessen the financial burden on your employees.”
Next, keep in mind that because of the upsurge in remote work, there may be a backlog when trying to buy new mobile devices. Plan accordingly. The article recommends, “Utilizing Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) during this time will eliminate your organization’s constraints on device availability to enable employees.”
Finally, you should “Get ahead of potential vendor delays now with a strategic plan.” Audit all your mobile devices, anticipate long wait times for mobile customer service, and start now on contract renewals and negotiations.
How to Boost Productivity for Remote Workers
The article didn’t cover what to do about writing apps to boost productivity for remote workers while keeping company assets safe..
First, companies can help the remote workforce work effectively by building new apps that bringing critical legacy databases to remote workers. For example, Alpha Anywhere can rapidly move Microsoft Access applications to the web and mobile devices. And the software allows It teams to quickly build and deploy cross platform apps on laptops, tablets and iOS or Android smartphones with outstanding user experiences. These highly secure applications run like native applications on both personal computers and mobile devices. They’re ideal for remote work. Companies of all sizes can use Alpha Anywhere to build mobile apps, web apps and mobile forms for remote work.
Second, with powerful offline app capabilities, companies can protect company data while ensuring remote workers are productive, even if they lose their WiFi connection and cell signal. In fact, Alpha Software won the InfoWorld Technology of the Year Award for its offline capability that ensures remote workforces are always productive and apps remain secure.
Learn about the power of Alpha Software products for building apps for remote workers or try Alpha Anywhere Community Edition and you can build apps for remote workers for free. Once you build your app with Alpha Anywhere, Alpha Cloud enables one-click deployment for your apps. Easy and secure deployment keeps your business applications safe while speeding them to mobile workers' mobile devices. Alpha Software also offers a range of mentoring, training and professional services to help speed and scale cross-platform mobile app development.
Get employees screened for COVID-19 and back to work with the AlphaMED Workplace Wellness App.
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