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Implementing remote working at speed - benefits, pitfalls and compliance

THE REMOTE WORKING PLAYBOOK

01273 091 495 info@zermelodigital.com

Zermelo Digital

www.zermelodigital.com

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Remote Working Overview The requirement for staff to work remotely and effectively has never been so pertinent or urgent. This document aims to provide a summary overview of the benefits, pitfalls and policies to be aware of when moving to a remote working environment.

DISPELLING REMOTE WORKING MYTHS

For Businesses: “Productivity will decrease” Businesses new to remote working often adhere to the common misconception that staff will abuse the lack of management oversight and productivity will decrease. Whilst this can certainly be the case with a few individuals, businesses will find that, with correct implementation, most staff will perform more effectively when working remotely. The reasons for this are many but mostly boil down to staff having more control over their working hours, a greater feeling of work-life balance and a greater feeling of ownership of the tasks at hand. For Businesses: “Managing a remote workforce is difficult” Another common misconception is that businesses will find it difficult to manage a remote workforce. In fact, any business that makes use of conference calling or video conferencing between branch offices is already implementing some of the tools of remote working staff management. The move to having all staff away from a central location requires a change in management mind-set which some companies find easier than others. More often than not, the ability of a business to easily transition to remote working is largely dependent upon the openness of the executive management. For Businesses: “Remote working breaks teams” Managed correctly there is no reason why remote working should cause any disruption to the team environment. With the many technology tools available, morning meetings can continue as normal, team and one-to-one conversations can continue and office “water cooler banter” will remain alive and well. Companies that make the transition to full remote working find the money they save on office rent can also be well used for team meet-ups and team building exercises in the real world.

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For Staff: “I will finally have control over my day” It is important for staff to be aware that most remote workers experience what is called ‘work-time-bleed’. This is where the freedom to access work tasks at will creates a scenario where work and leisure time become blurred. Many remote workers report working much longer hours than when at the office which, had a natural hard-stop to the day, as quickly picking up a work task at home can often result in embarking on an open-ended project. It is important to have clear work-life boundaries to avoid work encroaching on all parts of your day. For Staff: “I will miss my colleagues and become lonely” Correct use of technology can easily avoid this. The number one imperative for any remote working environment is a good internet connection. With a strong connection to the internet, the communication tools available should mean that pining after the office environment quickly becomes a thing of the past. For Staff: “I will lose control over my projects” Remote working works on a foundation of trust – both from the employer and the employees. The employer needs to loosen the reigns and allow their staff to work, at their own pace, to get the jobs done. If an employee’s productivity falls off a cliff with the transition to remote working, it will be apparent for all to see. Employees need to adapt to a more trusting working environment with their colleagues. Project management tools can provide complete transparency over project ownership and avoid on member of staff jumping on another’s work.

THE PHILOSOPHY OF REMOTE WORKING Remote working requires a change in mind-set from all parties. For remote working to be truly successful, the number one foundation must be that of trust. For many businesses, the transition to remote working will require the adoption of hitherto alien concepts such as cessation of micro-management and allowing access to company data outside of the office environment.

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For many staff, the transition will require a more independent mind-set and the ability to take greater responsibility for their tasks execution and deliverability.

REMOTE WORKING POLICIES AND COMPLIANCE Once the decision to adopt remote working has been taken, the task at hand is to equip each staff member with the necessary tools to execute their tasks in an efficient and compliant manner. Data Security The primary risk associated with remote working is lax data security. Within the office environment a business can and should control data access and lock down sensitive data to minimise breaches. This becomes all the more important when implementing remote working. Whilst IT departments can minimise cyber attacks across networks, the weakest link in any business is its staff. Therefore, away from network security, data security is primarily a staff training issue. The majority of businesses currently faced with remote working requirements will not be organisations with secure enterprise intranet systems. As such, these businesses need to focus on what data their staff need to access and how this is to be performed. Given that most staff will be relying on their home internet connection, at a bare minimum, businesses should check the network security in place for each staff member:

• Are the using cable connection or wifi? • If wifi, is the network secured properly? • Is the device used to access the internet also secure? • Does the staff member need to hold company data remotely to

perform their role? • What security measures are in place to protect company data held off-

site? • Are staff member permitted to work away from home – in co-working

spaces or coffee shops? if so, is their access to company data secure?

• What policy is in place in case of a remote data compromise?

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General Data Protection Regulation – GDPR GDPR is an EU regulation and applies to all companies, regardless of size and lays the responsibility for data security squarely at the feet of companies and their employees. Fines up to 4% of global annual revenue and GDPR not only applies to all nations within the EU but also to companies which hold and process personal data of EU citizens. The best way to comply with GDPR and to implement robust remote working practices in general, is to establish a company Remote Working Policy. The Remote Working Policy should cover all aspects of the remote working practices adopted by the company and especially ensure that remote working employees have been trained and understand their responsibilities with regard to GDPR. Since ‘personal data’ is classified by the EU as ‘personally identifiable information’, GDPR is a pretty broad brush, so it is vital that employees understand their responsibilities within their company GDPR framework. GDPR Training This should not be a ‘set and forget’ process. Since GDPR is so wide in scope, it is highly likely that remote workers will encounter different responsibilities at different stages in their remote working journey. Therefore, GDPR training should be an on-going process and approach from a number of different angles:

• Online learning courses. • Group training workshops (in person or online, allowing for discussion

within the group, re-enforcing learning). • Spot tests. • GDPR check-lists on formal project submissions. • Encouragement of individual research.

Remote Working Policy This should cover every aspect of your employees remote working requirements and should not just be a boiler-plate document. The Remote Working Policy should be specific for each job role, ensuring that each level

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of employee is clear about his or her responsibilities. In its most basic form the policy should cover:

• Working hours policy: Will you continue to enforce set working hours or move to a more results-based method of monitoring staff performance?

• Working environment policy: is the remote working environment fit for purpose? Does it have adequate lighting and has ergonomics been taken into consideration with regard to desk and seating?

• Data access policy: this states what data access the specific job role has and makes it clear that, even in the event of inadvertent access permissions being granted, specific roles should only access certain data.

• Wifi usage policy: as mentioned earlier, this should state which networks may be used (office, home, co-working space) and ensure that such networks are suitably secure, or adequate security has been implemented on the access device, such as the use of a VPN.

• Device security policy: all devices used to access company data should have adequate security measures in place, including but not limited to: suitable anti-virus software, the use of VPNs for network access and device encryption software.

• Data security policy: all data to be gathered, used or forwarded to another party should be suitably encrypted and password protected.

• Notification policy: in case of a data breach, staff members should be clear about their responsibilities to report such breaches, who they should report to and the legal timeframes for doing so.

REMOTE WORKING TOOLS Communication Trust and good communication is key to productive remote working. There is a plethora of software tools designed to assist the remote working environment. Some of the most common include:

• Slack Keeps conversations orgainsed within teams and individually.

• Facebook Workplace Workplace collaboration tool.

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• Google G-Suite

All-in-one cloud office productivity software.

• Microsoft Office 365 • All-in-one cloud office productivity software.

• Box

Cloud data storage and sharing.

• Dropbox Cloud data storage and sharing.

• Zoom

Individual or group video meetings / conferencing.

• Skype • Individual or group video meetings / conferencing.

• TeamSpeak • Individual or group video meetings / conferencing.

• Salesforce

Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

• Pipedrive • Customer Relationship Management (CRM).

• Trello

Project management

• Monday Project management.

• Jira Bug tracking for software development.

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Voip Telephone Systems Your business may already run a voip system, but if not, voip telephone systems are the easiest way to set up cloud telephone with minimal cost. A hosted voip system operates as its own Private Branch Exchange (PBX) which can be logged into from anywhere in the world and operates just like an on-site office exchange. With a hosted voip system, businesses can be up and running with extensions, hunt-groups, messaging, all to a distributed workforce, within a matter of hours.

IMPLIMENTING REMOTE WORKING AT SPEED Most organisations still treat remote working as something of an employee perk – allowing maybe a day a week working from home as an incentive to attract new and maintain existing talent. With the on-set of the coronavirus outbreak, remote working is set to expand significantly, in a very short timeframe, so businesses need to consider the quickest, most affordable and effective implementation methods available to them. With that in mind, we have created the following remote working implementation checklist:

1. Remote Working Policy Develop your Remote Working Policy now. Don’t wait until the last minute to implement it – have it ready and waiting for when you need it – likely in the next few weeks (as of March 2020).

2. Internet Do those who will be remote working have an adequate internet connection to perform their role? It is likely that some staff do not even have a wired connection and purely use their mobile service for recreational use. If a new or upgraded connection is required, will the business arrange this for staff or will the business reimburse staff for upgrading their connection themselves? Whichever is the case, action needs to be taken now.

3. Virtual Private Network

Does the business know which VPN it will use to allow staff to access its servers and is the chosen VPN robust enough for commercial use?

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4. Devices

Will staff be using company equipment at home or their own? Company equipment can have the advantage of being pre-configured for security but is more expensive to deploy. If staff are expected (and willing), to use their own equipment, has the company checked the equipment for stability and security? If not, who will do this?

5. Software Tools Does the company know which software tools it will use in its remote working deployment for team communication, project management and telephony? In the current world environment, speed of implementation should be the primary consideration. Choose robust tools which are quick to learn and easy to maintain.

6. Mindset

Remote working needs to be approached as a whole new corporate mindset. This is not simply the company asking its staff to spend a few days at home and carry on as best they can. Today, every company has an opportunity to embrace a new way of working which, quite possibly, the working society will never return. As such, businesses need to look at remote working as a permanent step into the future and start on the right foot: Collaboration: remote working is a collaborative endeavour. Old-school authoritarian managers should stand aside, as their mindset is not conducive to this new working environment. Each and every employee should be encourage to talk about their work via the communication channels and others should feel free and empowered to contribute. Time for learning: you will be asking a lot of your employees. The change they must undergo in work process and mindset is significant. Ensure you have allowed enough time for your staff to embrace this new way of working, to collaborate with each other in this endeavour and as well as ensuring time is allocated for learning the new technologies. Remote leadership: existing managers must step-up. Either they can embrace the new working environment and lead through new

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communication channels, or they will fail. Those that cannot adapt cannot take the company forward. New leaders may emerge who are better suited to the new working structure. Keep it human: just because your staff are now communicating far more by text on screen rather than in person, doesn’t mean they have ceased to be human. Ensure the company remembers this and arrange down-time within the virtual environment, just as you would in the office. If Friday beers and a quiz was the office thing – keep it going, albeit virtually.

REMOTE WORKING IN CONCLUSION Current world events are forcing companies to move towards remote working at an unprecedented pace. Inevitably, it will be difficult to deploy the ideal environment in the likely given timescales. However, with just a little thought and guidance, companies can smooth the process considerably and build strong foundations for the future. If you would like to learn more about remote working deployment, the vast selection of software tools available, or think your company needs some expert guidance in this regard, do not hesitate to contact us for further information. We look forward to hearing from you. Zermelo Digital 01273 495 091 info@zermelodigital.com www.zermelodigital.com

Copyright Zermelo Digital 2020