It’s the Working From Home Revolution
25.08.20
In early March 2020, lockdown occurred and almost literally overnight, working from home switched from an option to an outright necessity as organisations across the country said goodbye to their offices to help combat an emerging health crisis gripping the world.
Over 10.5 million Australians (68% of working Australians)1 reported that their working arrangements had changed as a result of the forced lockdown. Globally, 88% of organisations have implemented some kind of working from home scenario. A statistic strongly highlighted in two of the world’s biggest economies.
- 62% of employed Americans were working from home as of April 2, 2020 (31% rise from two weeks prior)2
- 200 million people across China were working from home as of February 20203
Although flexible work practices have been accelerating for some time, this sudden and unexpected event only intensified pressure on IT teams and business leaders to ramp up new or expanded support for their work from home initiatives. Critical systems had to be safely accessible remotely, from flexible devices that would allow staff to work as productively as they normally would in the office.
The global health crisis may have been the catalyst for the sudden migration, but one thing is certain, both now and in the long term, it will change the workplace landscape forever.
Why?
- 98% of remote workers across the globe want to continue doing so in some capacity for the remainder of their careers4
- Gartner reports that almost half of employees will continue to work from home at least part-time once the pandemic has passed (pre-pandemic – 30% / post-pandemic – 48%)5
- 85% of business leaders highlighted that employee productivity increased across their business as a direct result of delivering improved flexibility for staff to work from home6
So, staff want to continue working from home at least part of the time, and business leaders have highlighted that doing so improves productivity across the business. We’re experiencing a working from home revolution, and it would be smart for Australian organisations to use it to their advantage and embrace a new workplace that is increasingly decentralised. But in doing so, there are a number of key areas that need to be addressed to not only facilitate your remote workforce, but also keep your business secure.
1. The Right Technology
Staff require the right technology to suit their requirements. For optimal productivity, staff need devices and systems in place that allow them to work as productively as they normally would in the office. Staff that work heavily in data administration for example don’t need the most powerful of devices, but multiple display monitors and a docking station that can attach to the laptop would be ideal for them. On the other hand, someone who works in development might not need as many monitors, but they would need a considerably more powerful device to complete their tasks.
HP EliteBook PCs powered by Intel® Core™ processors cater to all types of user needs, with mobility designed for modern requirements should the staff member split their time between the office and home.
2. Management that Supports your Workforce
Those in charge of managing your IT environment and device fleet need visibility into everything staff are doing from their home. This includes maintaining device health remotely and keeping critical systems running. Additionally, you must be able to ensure all necessary collaboration tools are available at all times. With a decentralised workforce, collaboration is key. This means video conferencing tools for important meetings that would traditionally take place face to face, and instant messaging applications that are great for quick questions and discussions that would traditionally take place next to the water cooler or at a staff members desk.
3. Security that Follows your Workforce
A recent report by HP found that 78% of IT leaders believe more remote work leads to more security risks.7 And they’re absolutely right, the threat landscape grows in sophistication and reach every day, and security challenges multiply as staff spend more time working from home. On top of the regular patching and monitoring that would occur if staff were in the office, the more data that is accessed from remote networks, the more vigilant your security measures need to be.
With a time and resource-poor IT team, let your hardware do the work for you. Your endpoint devices are the frontline of your defence against the threat landscape. HP EliteBook PCs powered by Intel® Core™ processors give you hardware enforced security tools designed to protect your device, identity and data at every level of the operating system.8
At Infinet, we are a passionate and experienced team of ICT professionals who go the extra mile to help you operate at optimal productivity. We can handle the day to day management of your staff’s working from home requirements, leaving your IT team free to focus on what really matters – growing your business. Get in contact to discuss your current requirements and get on the front foot to embrace the working from home revolution.
1 Roy Morgan, May 05, 2020, Hard to switch off work for may Australians working from home – http://www.roymorgan.com/findings/8401-coronavirus-working-from-home-may-2020-202005050514
2, 4, 6, 7 HP Development Company, L.P. © Copyright 2020, Empowering today’s anytime-anywhere workforce, 4AA7-7551ENW, May 2020
3 McKinsey Digital, July 7, 2020, The future of work: Reskilling and remote working to recover in the ‘next normal’
5 Gartner, Inc. 2020, Future of Work Trends Post-COVID-19 – https://emtemp.gcom.cloud/ngw/globalassets/en/human-resources/documents/trends/gartner-future-of-work-trends-post-covid-19.pdf
8 HP Development Company, L.P. 2019, The World’s Most Secure PCs: A complete guide to HP security, August 2019