Best practices in teleworking

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has taken hold around the world, it has become compulsory in many countries to work from home as much as possible. Teleworking brings advantages, but also a number of difficulties. We would like to tell you how teleworking becomes a lot easier, more efficient and safer.

What is teleworking?

Telework is work that is done remotely rather than at the company location. It can be at home, in a satellite office, in a coworking space, on the road or anywhere else. Teleworking is made possible by the presence of telecommunication links to the outside world.

Why telecommute?

Nobody likes to be disturbed at work, and many are annoyed by a plethora of unproductive meetings. Traffic jams on the way to and from work are probably the worst way to start and end the day.

It is therefore not shocking that working from home during the pandemic has had a positive effect on the productivity of employees. According to USA Today, reasons include time saved commuting (71%), fewer distractions from colleagues (61%) and fewer meetings (39%).

Other advantages of teleworking include saving on office space, increased flexibility and more independence. It also has a positive effect on absenteeism. A survey of teleworking Belgians by Knack magazine in 2020 even revealed that as many as 84% would like to retain the option of working from home in the future.

Possible pitfalls

Teleworking is a double-edged sword. It also brings some difficulties, especially in terms of communication, information transfer and innovation opportunities.

For example, it can be more difficult for employees to get answers or information from colleagues. Experience shows that when content, discussions and activities are spread across tools and channels, it takes too much time to find all the information. Moreover, it is more difficult to keep track of project progress and to ensure that work is progressing when contact with colleagues is lost or becomes more distant.

The work-life balance is also somewhat lost. A NYU study of 3 million white collar workers in 16 cities around the world shows that an average working day lasts 48.5 minutes longer. It goes even further. An employee may feel a constant pressure to be available 24 hours a day.

Fortunately, there are tools to eliminate - a large part of - the difficulties of working from home. Find out how we help employers and employees to work at home more productively.

Best practices

Working in the cloud

The first step towards efficient teleworking is to have all data and documents available at home. With a cloud solution, employees have access to all documents anytime, anywhere, without any storage restrictions. They can work on a computer in the office, a laptop at home or a smartphone or tablet on the go. Everyone who needs files can find them online.

(Tele)work in the cloud is not only convenient, but above all also safe. Are all your data and documents on a hard drive? Then the loss or crash of a device always means data loss. A cloud solution offers more security in such situations. Data is stored in the cloud, which means that staff can access it no matter what happens to a device.

Efficient and secure teleworking means the cloud. It doesn't matter if we are talking about large or small companies, everyone uses it for good reason.

Shared document management

Another important ICT tool for teleworking is the ability to work on the same documents together. Because data is not stored locally, but in the cloud, colleagues can also access and edit it remotely. Various tools even make it possible to work on the same files simultaneously.

Discover how to share documents.

Support through a telework policy

In a survey of 250 employers in Belgium, 70% said they would adjust their policy on working from home. Tools in the cloud can also help employers draw up a sound teleworking policy. The step to teleworking outside office hours will also be much easier if employees can also work productively at home and are happier.

Teleworking is more topical than ever, but this also means that our data must be handled much more carefully than usual. These can be reports, balance sheets, presentations and other documents of a delicate nature. The ability to work securely from home is therefore crucial.

Check out our possibilities or request a demo!

26 May 2021