The New Normal: Business Challenges of the Remote Workforce
As the COVID-19 nightmare settles into reality we are now accepting life in what some are calling the “New Normal”. For businesses that means less travel, virtual meetings and workers working from the home office.
COVID-19 has forced a new workplace environment on all of us, and it looks like there is no turning back even after COVID-19 is a distant memory.
The most looming is figuring out the technology that allows workers to work from anywhere, connect to sensitive corporate data, use corporate software (SaaS) and collaborate with other team members securely.
Many businesses are still struggling to make the transition from an office-based workforce to a remote workforce. From a business perspective, it is a very different landscape and there are challenges for the business, but over the long term the benefits will outweigh any downsides.
From the IT perspective, what has happened in the last 10 months is not all that shocking. Workers have been pushing for years to use their own devices and opting to work from home when possible. It took the reality of a pandemic to seal the deal and make the remote workforce a reality.
Many businesses are still struggling to make the transition from an office-based workforce to a remote workforce. From a business perspective, it is a very different landscape and there are challenges for the business, but over the long term the benefits will outweigh any downsides.
From the IT perspective, what has happened in the last 10 months is not all that shocking. Workers have been pushing for years to use their own devices and opting to work from home when possible. It took the reality of a pandemic to seal the deal and make the remote workforce a reality.
In the words of Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft:
We’ve seen two years’ worth of digital transformation in two months. From remote teamwork and learning, to sales and customer service, to critical cloud infrastructure and security—we are working alongside customers every day to help them adapt and stay open for business in a world of remote everything.
Even tech savvy companies such as Microsoft and Google are now coming on board and letting their employees work from home. They have officially changed corporate policy to accommodate this on a permanent basis.
Across the US, thousands of square feet of office space now lies vacant.
From a business perspective the pluses of having a mobile workforce far outweigh any negative points, and overall the cost savings can be a huge windfall for the company with little or no decrease in worker efficiency. Sure there are challenges during this transition, but nothing insurmountable.
Not having to rent office space and the associated infrastructure an office involves (desktop computers, monitors, copy machines, internet connections, local servers, phones, electric bills, office management team, etc.) can be huge.
All said, the physical office is a good slice of the bottom line in any company.
Benefits of a Remote Workforce: Happy Employees = Loyal Employees
Aside for cost savings, one advantage of employees working remotely is they are generally more content, loyal and happy to work harder for the company.
It seems that having the ability to make a flexible schedule; work from anywhere; not having to commute; and the ability to spend time with family; all have a positive impact on the employee’s attitude about their work and the company they work for.
Source: owllabs.com
And that all that happiness translates into loyalty to the company and increased worker productivity by going the extra mile and putting in that extra effort.
So it is obvious that having the company workforce working remotely makes sense on many levels, not to mention positive bottom-line figures.
The advantages of a remote workforce do have their challenges though and management must be aware of those moving forward.
Source: owllabs.com
The Biggest Struggles of Working Remotely
As many managers have found out during the COVID workforce transition: remote work is different from the “typical work structure” based in an office.
Buffer, a social media company, recently released their report on the remote workforce and found employees and businesses often suffer challenges when working alone from home, which I will outline here.
As long as management is aware of these challenges, they can be minimized and even offset so as to not become a problem and decrease workplace morale and productivity.
The challenges of keeping the employees engaged and feeling connected can be a huge challenge for management. Regular one-on-one meetings, small talk with employees, taking the time to check-in on employees, all play a vital role in fostering a feeling of connectedness among the team members.
Communication is an area that suffers for teams working remotely. We might not think about it but much of our communication is non-verbal and expressed through body language.
Surprisingly, Dr. Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that a whopping 55% of our communication comes through non-verbal body language. 38% was through voice and tone, and 7% was the actual spoken words.
Imagine trying to make an important decision with only 7% of the information. Yet, we do that every day with chat and email with your remote team members.
One good rule of thumb as a manager of remote teams, it is important to stress that whatever anybody says, assume positive intent. It will completely change the meaning of any written text communication.
There are definitely challenges to a remote workforce and the most looming is figuring out the technology that allows workers to work from anywhere, connect to sensitive corporate data, use corporate software (SaaS) and collaborate with other team members securely.
The IT Reality of the Remote Workforce
While management might be ecstatic about seeing office leases disappear and worker productivity rise, IT departments are scrambling to make the transition from a relatively stable office tech environment (hardware of the same make, model and operating system) in a closed network; to the seemingly chaotic mobile world where users are using their personal devices of varying makes, models and operating systems are connecting to the internet from varying locations with varying levels of cybersecurity risk.
Outside the office environment, IT has little or no control over the individual users and how they are accessing corporate files and software. Most users are not that tech savvy and might not have the latest patches applied or software updated to the current versions.
If all of that is not enough, hackers are having a field day with users that are now connecting from outside the “secure office”. The “air-gap” from the user’s device to the corporate files and software apps is the single biggest entry point for malicious attacks, and hackers know that.
It is enough to keep any seasoned IT manager up at night.
There are a slew of new apps and technologies that are helping make the transition to a remote workforce possible.
Integrating all applications and data access into a single sign-on solution is one step that can sidestep many problems of compromised user login information. A user will have one single login they use to access all the corporate apps and data files.
Another solution is using Software as a Service (SaaS) where the software is largely run off cloud-based servers. The benefit of this is users do not have to worry about version updates as those are taken care of from the central server and delivered to each user’s device in the background.
Many AEC software applications have now moved to this model. Trimble has been leading the charge in this area for some time and now have their popular apps available as cloud-based SaaS applications.
ProjectSight construction management software, Vista construction ERP solution and Prolog construction management solution are now all available on a subscription basis.
One challenge for management is how to integrate all of these separate applications, manage users and their single sign on credentials and store employee data for HR. Thankfully there is now a viable solution to this headache, and it is called Apache Kafka.
Kafka is an open-source, lightweight, high-performance platform that is used to connect applications and databases in real-time. Data is shared across apps creating a highly efficient system.
For example adding a new employee might take days of time filling out multiple forms and creating profiles in different systems and applications. With Kafka platform, user data would be entered in on place and be distributed across the different corporate applications and databases.
The remote workforce IT environment is different, but with the right expertise the transition can be seamless.
The problem many corporations are running into is that most IT managers are not all that familiar with working in a remote workforce environment. Their expertise lies in the hardwired office with local servers.
Many companies are finding that their “traditional IT staff” do not have the expertise to make the transition to the mobile office.
As a business owner, you know the value of your company and would not risk that by shortcutting on something as critical as solid tech support during these COVID times.
Architectural, Engineering, and Construction Firms Partner with AECCloud for IT Services and Cloud Hosting
AECCloud has been working with major Fortune 500 AEC firms nationally and internationally since the late 1990s. These large construction firms trust the proven track record of AECCloud.
The current COVID pandemic has closed offices around the world. The fact is business must go on and the logical step is having employees work from their homes.
AECCloud has been working on remote workforce technology long before COVID arrived and already has the tools and expertise to help any organization make the transition to a remote workforce environment.
And it does not mean the company has to get rid of their IT staff. On the contrary, AECCloud works side-by-side with the in-house IT team providing insight and solutions to common problems we all find ourselves in these times.
We found it was critical to work with IT professionals that had previous experience in working on remote workplace environments to help us transition our company to a remote workforce due to the COVID pandemic. AEC Cloud were instrumental during these most difficult times. — MF Williams, President MS Corporate Communications
And the organizations that trust, and have worked with AECCloud are impressive:
Bright Horizons, Glenman Corporation, Torcon, Hensel Phelps and Rosemont to name a few.
The New Normal Remote Workforce
The changes that have swept over the business community in the last ten months have been huge. Businesses have had to scramble to make the transition to a remote workforce and are having to learn how to accommodate employees now stationed outside of a physical office.
There are certainly challenges as we get used to our new normal lives, but overall the long-term benefits will outweigh any downside.
As a business owner it is critical to get help from experienced experts that can help successfully transition your business for survival long after this pandemic is over.