Business Disaster Recovery Plans While work-from-home strategies are an important part of any recovery plan, it’s important not to overlook the logistics and possible issues that could and often do arise including, prolonged down-time, decreased productivity, loss of billable hours, IT security issues and more. Here are some tips and considerations to help any organization prepare and execute a successful wide-spread work-from-home strategy. Tips for Telecommuting/Working From Home: Equipment: Determine that you can have employees work from home by ensuring employees have access to Internet, phone and any necessary equipment to work from home. Security: Confirm whether or not using public Internet is safe for your organization. If not, explore options for using a secure Internet connection. Phone Redirection: Consider forwarding/redirecting phone lines to cell phones or instructing employees that will be working at home to update their voice mail greeting at the office. Home Work Environment: Learn which employees may have environmental issues at home that could create distractions (i.e. children, pets, etc.). Consider whether or not to have them work from home or not if this will be a major factor for servicing customers. IT Support: Confirm that employees will have access to support to help them with IT-related issues that may arise throughout the day. Make sure any third party IT vendors can support any remote employees that may need assistance while working remotely. Check-in: Establish a plan to check in with employees who are remote to ensure they’re adequately supported and productive. Test it: Practice having a small group of employees work from home for a day next week. Try to get as many groups of people use to it without impacting daily operations. If you’re not able to work-from-home: Ensure you will have adequate staff in the office to respond to clients, prospective clients and/or vendors. Consider proactively communicating with these audiences if a delayed response is likely. Inform them of how you will be able to continue to service them throughout this time. Proactively address any potential issues with time-off, vacation days, etc. with staff that may be forced to use these days.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Jul 2014 19:59:41 +0000