Dan May writes of IT considerations for safely re-opening. He is the Commercial Director at IT support services company ramsac, which offers resilient IT management, cybersecurity, cloud migration to businesses in London and the South East.
With coronavirus lockdown restrictions being slowly lifted, many companies have started considering their options regarding how to safely integrate staff back into their work environment. With the prospective risk of a second wave, it’s important for business owners to arrange various defence mechanisms to protect staff. Take a closer look at how to achieve this from an IT perspective.
The main concern on business owners’ minds is how to put into place adequate social distancing methods. There are several considerations to make to ensure that staff sustain the recommended two-metres distance. Keep in mind the following to achieve this:
– Hot-desking, in which employees share use of hardware, will not be an option. Therefore, it might be necessary to acquire additional equipment, for creating makeshift desks in meeting rooms etc.
– Equipment that is conventionally shared, such as meeting room laptops or phones, should be removed, or reserved for use by only one person.
– Desks may need to be rearranged, or equipment (including chairs) removed from alternate desks that are situated in a row, in order to maintain a two-metre distance.
– Meeting rooms should be properly prepared to reduce capacity, such as by rearranging the room and removing chairs.
Hardware
Staff returning from furlough are likely to be faced with computers that need a little maintenance, having been switched off for several months. This could be passwords that need resetting, updates that need running, and antivirus scans that need to be performed. It’s a good idea to have IT staff on stand-by, or prepare your outsourced IT company for a potential influx of calls. Similarly, employees who have been working from home might be bringing back equipment that they have used throughout the lockdown. In this case, remember that company laptops might need to be re-setup to connect to the network, or some may even need re-cabling. Keep this in mind when allocating work to your IT team.
Hosting
It’s likely that even as restrictions are lifted, some employees will remain working from home, while others are in the office. This might be arranged on a week-by-week or shift basis, or it could make sense for the same faces to appear in the office while the rest of the team keep working remotely.
Regardless of how this is arranged, it’s important to continue to find ways to keep hosting effective meetings. In recent weeks many workplaces have used digital applications such as Microsoft Teams or Zoom to host videocall meetings. While these may have been useful while everyone was working at home, with multiple people in the office they can cause problems. This is because individual participants that are close to each other will likely lead to feedback in the sound, but multiple people cannot share one screen due to social distancing rules.
The solution to this problem can be anything from moderately prices headsets, to meeting room systems complete with a quality camera and sound system. Have a think about what would be best to put in place, and plan in any downtime accordingly.
GDPR
Part of the 2018 GDPR legislation stated that companies need to keep a data asset register, detailing all the places in which data is stored. With the sudden onset of lockdown, it might be that this list needs updating. This could be if staff are now accessing company information on local files on their own personal devices, or on USB sticks. If such occurrences are not listed, they should be considered potential GDPR breaches. Having information in multiple places like this can be problematic, but a helpful solution would be to put in place a reliable cloud platform. These can be used for storing information that your whole team can access from any device, as long as they have any necessary passwords.
Planning
All business owners need to learn from what the coronavirus outbreak has taught. This is not only in case of a second wave, but also to be prepared for a range of circumstances in the future, that may call for adaptability. Some things to think about include:
•Have staff roles changes, and could these impact your processes? It might be necessary to hire additional staff, if any weaknesses were identified during lockdown.
•Do you need any more equipment to help your staff do their job? A few extra pieces of hardware could prove to be significantly beneficial to your work force.
•Does anyone need specific training? Again, it might be that certain weaknesses have been identified when it comes to staff skills and knowledge. Appropriate training could quickly remedy this.
An effective way to learn from everything that’s happened is to go straight to the source; that is, ask your staff. Request the completion of surveys that cover all aspects of their working experience in the past few months, so that you can be made aware of any problems. This should cover a range of subjects from their set-up at home to their mental wellbeing.
The fact that your business survived the effects of coronavirus, while staff were working from home, is likely to give many managers food for thought. During this time many employees have likely proved that they can work effectively from home, and it might indeed be a more convenient option for them going forward. If this is the case, consider offering your employees the option to work remotely.
This distinct period in recent history has caused immense upset for both companies and individuals, and has led to the need for quick adaptation and resilience. It’s likely that the effects of coronavirus will have a lasting impact on working culture, and IT will have a very important part to play in this. As employees slowly start returning to work, it’s important to use this time to revisit your risk assessments and GDPR practices, to ensure everything remains fit for purpose.
