There is an increasing possibility that remote work will become a more mainstream way of doing business in the months and years to come. 

To enable business continuity, and seamless collaboration among teams, IT teams can help employees improve home office setups. 

Several IT leaders have to significantly increase the support they offer to employees who work remotely. Today, it is not enough for organizations to hire people, give them a laptop computer, email account, and password information. The onboarding process for remote work setup is much more elaborate. IT leaders should not presume that all their employees’ home networks will be adequate for business needs. 

Let us explore a few ways IT teams can better support their remote workforce. 

If businesses are committed to supporting remote work for their employees, they should share valuable networking advice with their workforce. 

Help your employees choose an ISP and internet plan 

Any IT professional worth his salt can easily come up with a list of good Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in the employee’s locality. The IT team simply needs to collect some basic information i.e. the number of people in the home and the general internet usage habits. 

The IT team will usually have a fair idea about the optimum internet speeds that can complement the organization’s business functions. They can help employees steer clear of budget plans that have slow speeds and older connections such as DSL. 

Recommend upgrading equipment  

The IT team can do a quick recce of the employee’s home to identify which equipment they are using. If necessary, IT should recommend equipment upgrades. The IT team will generally review an employee’s modem and WiFi equipment and see if they will be suitable for home office purposes. 

Upgrading to a high-performance modem can significantly widen the WiFi range across the house, making connectivity much easier. 

Offer employees remote support to enhance network performance 

Employees in a remote work setup can greatly benefit from technical support offered by their company’s IT teams if they need to upgrade firmware or networking equipment, tweak DNS settings, and so on. The availability of the company’s IT professionals, although remotely, will reduce the employee’s dependence on the services of the Internet Service Provider’s technicians, thus saving time. 

Employers can cover internet costs 

During a relatively stressful time like the pandemic, employees are already burdened with the stress of lockdown and other difficulties. It would certainly mean a lot to the employees working remotely if their employers consider offering a stipend to cover the monthly internet bills. 

A few companies give their employees prepaid cards to use while making office-related purchases, while many others reimburse the payments in the following month’s salary. 

Give employees alternate connection options 

The organization’s IT team should also consider offering remote workers suitable alternatives to the traditional broadband connection setup at home. These options might include a dedicated 5G or LTE modem, a mobile device with a hotspot option. IT teams may also consider using laptops and tablets with built-in 5G/LTE support. 

With the emergence of a plethora of shared workspaces, organizations can also suggest that their employees work from these locations where the subscription includes a workstation with stable internet connectivity. 

We hope these tips and suggestions helped tell you how an organization’s IT team can make remote work a seamless experience for employees.

Also read: How to Support Your IT Teams in 2021?