With the government saying that a third of the workforce could be absent as a result of swine flu, one expert has said that remote working could be the key for small and medium sized enterprises.
Speaking to freshbusinessthinking.com, Ben Rapp of Managed Networks said that businesses should think about how they will cope if significant numbers of staff are unable to make it into the office and advocated facilitating remote working.
Mr Rapp added that firms can learn from the experience of bad weather earlier in the year, which saw some companies thrive despite mass absenteeism.
"The snow and tube strikes were great prompts for businesses to review remote access. By setting up home or out-of-office access for their employees, one PR company, ENS, was able to operate as usual during the snow and won some new business as a result," he continued to say.
Also speaking to the news provider, Rebecca Hopkins, ENS' managing director, urged other small business owners to look at how their staff can work remotely, saying that even if workers are out of the office there is no reason they cannot make phone calls, respond to and send emails or access documents.
Nigel Hawthorn, from Blue Coat Systems, recently said that companies with enough management skills to allow staff to work from home can actually benefit from increased productivity as workers tend to start earlier and finish later.
Is your company setup to allow home working? Has this changed since the snow and swine flu events of this year?
Printer-friendly version
Comments
Not too bad really. I can access emails and stuff from home but don't have access to any files. I don't think I can get my calls from home either, but could be mistaken on that. So not too bad, but could be better.
A third of the workforce? I thought the figure was an 1/8th? Or is it that this statistic refers to 1/3 of the workforce being ill over the course of this year, whereas the 1/8 stat means at any one time?
We are just finalising plans for this if staff/students can't make it in. We will need to be able to both access and transfer files. I can also see a lot of use being made of Skype.
I think working remotely can be a challenge for most management teams, but working remotely can have it's advantages when it comes to swine flu.
I've just seen other research that suggests that the Swine Flu epidemic could cost the UK economy almost £50billion. Although the government seems to be doing well providing information to the public, there doesn't seem enough support for businesses. Many companies I deal with daily are down to skeleton staff already.
All employers should plans in place for dealing with Swine Flu. However, in addition to working remotely, the employment solicitors www.employmenlawhelp.co.uk suggest that employers could also consider:-
2. Training staff to cover key functions and roles;
3. Job sharing/agency workers;
4. Identifying staff with the skills who can provide cover for absent colleagues.
With unemployment levels as they are at the moment, support from agency workers may be a good idea...
With remote access software, working at home from the couch is not only possible, but productive as well (depending on how you feel, of course).
Remote access software enables employees to access the office computer and all of the applications, files and folders on it from any Internet-connected computer. LogMeIn (www.LogMeIn.com) offers a free version of remote access software that is easy to deploy and makes an office computer remotely accessible at a moment’s notice. The Pro version includes file transfer, desktop sharing and other productivity-related features great for heavy-duty telecommuting. There’s even a version for the iPhone that lets you remote control your desktop with just a touch of your finger.
A benefit of remote access software, too, is that it comes to the rescue during an epidemic or disaster (like a snowstorm), but also helps keep you productive during routine times out of the office as well – like when your child is home sick or you leave work early for an appointment, and so on. You’re only a few clicks away from your work desktop wherever you are.
Allyson Pelletier
Director, Consumer & SMB Products, LogMeIn, Inc.
The use of Virtual Private Network's (VPN's) is increasing to allow people to remotely access their work computers over the internet.
My only concern would be the security and integrity of the information once it leaves the "office" and I don't think enough businesses have considered the potential security risks nor trained the remote worked on these risks.
In the UK, if you fall foul of the Data Protection Act, you could face a substantial penalty.
I love working from home :-)
At my previous company I had the ability to remote log on from home with access to the whole network (and the appropriate DPA training to go with it). It worked well for me in several roles that I carried out some of which meant travelling a lot.
I have also logged in remotely to a clients system for a piece of work where it was cheaper and better for me to work mainly from home rather than them paying the higher cost of having me on site all the time. We did this on two separate projects at different time.
The first piece was working in the Compliance department and there was no problem setting it up at all. The second time was with the Training department and it was very difficult to get it approved and a lot of hoops to go through even though I had had access before. It was easy for them to restrict which networks drives and systems I had access to both times though.
Colin is right to raise the DPA issues - the fines can be horrendous, especially in the Financial Services Industry - HSBC having just been fined over £3million.
Unfortunately all the training in the world won't stop the problem.