The early days of COVID-19, social distancing and work from home practices involved a heavy learning curve.
It’s been a few months now, and a lot of us feel like we know our way around some new technologies that made it possible to operate a business from home. As many states begin slowly reopening, and getting back to the office seems imminent, there’s no reason to abandon the tools you invested in and learned these past 12 weeks or so.
Here are some of the remote work tools and resources you might want to keep utilizing as you get back into the office.
Remote Tools that Still Help as You Return to the Office
Lessons learned in the transition to remote work forces don’t have to be abandoned now that some are returning to the office.
Related: IT Challenges As We Return to “Normal”
In many instances, your office is likely returning at a less-than-100% capacity, which means many of these tools will still be helpful. Plus, we now know that things such as business travel and conferences are going to take much longer to return than normal office work.
So, what tools might not be going away any time soon that you should continue to use?
Remote Servers
Remote server access caused a lot of headaches in the early days of COVID-19.
Now that many businesses have remote servers set up, there’s no need to stop using them. In fact, as many employers continue to stagger employees and in-office days, remote servers are going to continue to provide employees with the connectivity they need to stay flexible.
If a case is traced back to an employee, remote work might become essential yet again for a short period of time. There’s no need to remove these tools just yet; plus, they’re convenient to have.
Office VPNs
VPNs, or virtual private networks, helped to keep employee information and company documents secure as people worked from home.
Related: Business Continuity Challenges Caused By COVID-19
Firewall capabilities for your home are often much less trustworthy than a corporate network, so VPNs are the peace-of-mind needed to keep things secure. As some workers continue to stay home until childcare is sorted, and a regular schedule is put back in place, VPNs should not be discontinued.
They are often the tool that keeps the rise in cybersecurity during 2020 from striking your business.
Video Chat Technology
This might be one that you actually need to add as you return to the office.
Many people that work from home on laptops have webcams built-in for Zoom or Skype chats.
Desktops at the office are usually less likely to have them built-in. So, it might be time to ensure everyone is set-up for video chats back in the office. Many conference planners are setting their 2020 and early 2021 plans to virtual spaces.
Ensure you can attend the necessary shows and conferences to stay afloat during the current uncertainty by investing in quality video chat hardware.
As the world starts to reopen, that shouldn’t mean the complete abandonment of technologies and systems you invested in and learned these past months. The gradual transition back to the office is going to take patience and flexibility; those are two things inherent to a lot of the remote work tools you have in place now.
Rather than cut them loose to return to normal, learn from what experiences you’ve had these past months, and use them to enhance your capabilities moving forward.