Anywhere Operations is the new frontier of work, as organizations of all sizes are embracing their teams’ ability to work from anywhere and serve their customers worldwide. By the end of 2023, approximately 40% of organizations will implement Anywhere Operations.
Even post-pandemic, about 82% of company leaders intend to offer remote work as an option to their employees. However, implementing Anywhere Operations is not free of challenges. Let’s discuss the top five mistakes to avoid as you transition to this new business model.
The Most Common Pitfalls to Avoid
Pitfall #1: Gaps in Onboarding & Offboarding Remote Workers
Moving to remote work is not always an automatic and smooth transition — it takes careful and strategic planning. Managing a remote workforce has several requirements related to the employee onboarding and offboarding processes. Having clear procedures streamlines the employee onboarding experience.
Organizations with a robust onboarding process improve new hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%.
When bringing in new remote workers, it’s essential that you:
- Establish an effective HR & IT collaboration: Your HR and IT departments should collaborate closely during the onboarding process. They will need to work together to provide new hires with the proper hardware, software, and network access.
- Conduct training and regular check-ins: Arrange training for the tools and processes necessary for new remote workers to perform their tasks efficiently. Check in often to resolve any technical issues. Pairing experienced workers with new hires also eases the onboarding process and helps them settle in much faster.
- Create team-building activities: Remote work offers no chance to socialize with other employees. You should schedule virtual meet-and-greet sessions and other opportunities for non-work interactions.
- Support continuing education: Invest in your remote workforce with professional development initiatives to upgrade their skills.
Implementing appropriate remote workforce offboarding is also essential. Ensure you have:
- A procedure to transfer control of software licenses, digital documents, and other assets to each employee’s manager.
- A list of equipment your company issued to each employee to facilitate smooth retrieval.
- Feedback collection from outgoing employees to improve your company’s retention rate.
Pitfall #2: Failure to Adapt Technology with Collaboration Tools
A remote workforce needs the right collaboration tools to be effective. Mature cloud collaboration tools abound in the market, and companies should choose the most suitable options. Implementing innovative collaboration tools helps your team work better together to serve your customers.
Pitfall #3: A Lack of Essential Policies
A productive remote workforce doesn’t happen without sufficient planning and structure. Implementing a successful Anywhere Operations business model means having the appropriate policies in place. For your employees to be able to work from anywhere effectively, your organization should define and implement the following:
- Remote Work Policy: Offers guidance about when and how your staff members work from locations outside of the office.
- Acceptable Use Policy: Outlines the constraints and practices each employee should adopt to get access to your organization’s network.
- Secure Communications Policy: Protects your company’s network information, supports data processing, and maintains all information transfers' security.
- Media Disposal Policy: Ensures your organizational data is completely erased from all old and unwanted computing devices.
- Clean Desk Policy: Safeguards proprietary and confidential information by having employees leave workstations clean at the close of each business day.
Recommended Net Friends Articles:
- Creating A Media Disposal Policy for Remote Workers
- Top 5 Policies to Consider for Anywhere Operations
Pitfall #4: Inconsistent Cybersecurity Awareness Training
While it is attractive to work from anywhere, doing so creates additional avenues for cyberattacks. Invest in regular cybersecurity training and cloud security solutions to keep your employees and company network safe.
Recommended Net Friends Articles:
- Top 10 Basic Security Trainings to Build Your Cybersecurity Culture
- Why Security Awareness Training Is Important For Compliance
- 5 Tips to Improve Your Cybersecurity Culture
Pitfall #5: No Dedicated IT Support System
A remote workforce needs strong IT support or a responsive help desk. With your staff working from various locations, you need an IT department (or a managed IT services provider) to troubleshoot and solve technical issues quickly. You want your remote workers to be up and running close to 100% of the time for maximum productivity.
Implementing Anywhere Operations
You don’t need to worry about keeping track of all the details necessary to implement Anywhere Operations, while avoiding the pitfalls. Net Friends is your expert managed IT services provider who will guide your organization’s transition to Anywhere Operations. We offer a suite of services that helps your distributed workforce stay productive and effective from anywhere. Contact us today to discuss how we can help you leverage Anywhere Operations to grow your market share and dominate the marketplace.
WHAT TO READ NEXT:
- Are You Ready for Anywhere Operations?
- 18 Questions to Ask When Adopting Anywhere Operations
- Is Your VPN Solution Optimized for Anywhere Operations?
