Covid-19 has turned our world upside down and dramatically changed every aspect of our life. It’s changed our daily routine, our working habits, or how we interact with people. It has challenged business leaders in many ways: adapting to the new working norms, understanding the progress they enacted during the pandemic and creating a new path forward. The way we live may never be the same again. Most employers are struggling to adapt to remote work. Most of us have worked from home, juggled family, and work duties, done countless numbers of video calls and tried to stay calm during these uncertain times. What does the future of work look like and how can we adapt to it?
9-to-6: A thing of the Past?
The evolution from fixed working hours to highly flexible working hours is a journey undertaken by many employers. Recently, employers have allowed their employees flexible working schedules. Working from home requires us to balance personal lives and work in the same environment. The new norm is about having trust and respect for your employees. Does this mean that your employees will never leave their houses again? Certainly not. They will still visit the office when it’s needed. Beyond doubt, the traditional 9 to 6 daily working hours are behind us. The new workplace structure also generates more equity at home because it allows both women and men to contribute to household duties and spend more quality time with their families. We are moving towards a new era, which has truly adapted to the technological, social, and economic influences of the global pandemic.
Say Goodbye to Many Face-to-Face Meetings
Virtual communication is an idea that many businesses have been playing with for a while. Now, it’s more realistic. Virtual meetings have become more popular than ever before. With video conferencing services, you can stay connected to your colleagues or business partners from anywhere in the world. Solutions like Cisco Webex, that can offer everything from a sharing solution to a video call, will become essentials for the future of work. These last months showed us that physical meetings are often not necessary. Meetings can be redundant and time-wasters, forcing people to travel great distances when they could have the same conversation over a productive video call.
What does this Mean to Employees?
Leaders, executives, and managers are facing new challenges. It’s harder to create a full employee experience when you are not physically present in the office, leaders don’t have the same control over their team, which makes it harder for them to maintain trust. Working from home benefits the employees with reduced commuting costs and flexible time schedules. Remote workers work up to 1.4 days more per month than their colleagues in the office, which means they deliver increased productivity and more outcomes.
Remote working can make employees feel more lonely, isolated, which can lead to mental health issues. Even if your employees are not physically in the office, it’s still possible to virtually nurture good company culture and show your employees that you care about their wellbeing. You can still virtually celebrate a promotion, milestones, the birth of a child, a successful project, and so much more.
The Future is Remote
The global pandemic has changed the way we work in 2020. It’s time to adapt. Your physical location does not matter anymore, you can work from a coffee shop, from the comfort of your couch, or even from the beach as long as you have a secure internet connection. In a post-COVID workplace, many employees will prefer to continue working from home. Remote working has a lot of advantages. It allows employees to be flexible, shortens commute time, and also saves their company money. This new era of working needs leaders to trust more in their employees by giving them accountability and responsibility for their work. For those going to the office, safety will be crucial. Features, like masks, hand sanitizers, virus-testing kits, regular room disinfection, and social distancing in common spaces will be part of the daily routine.
Covid-19 has set the remote work revolution at a fast pace. And with that, security is the most important in a time when most of the employees are connecting from home. Your team must be able to access all the internal documents from a secured network. VPN usage has reached new heights and it’s not slowing down. For safe remote working, business VPNs are essential for creating safe network infrastructure. Free VPNs for work purposes should be completely off the table. Since remote working is becoming the new normal, as businesses are turning towards SSL VPN to be able to remotely access their network resources and connect their employees to corporate resources. SSL VPN settings help your business maintain network security regardless of your employee’s location.
A recent report from Deloitte proves that the future of work will face many challenges with regard to cybersecurity. Effective cybersecurity is crucial to reducing cyber-attacks and protecting both organizations and individuals from malicious exploitation of networks, systems, and technologies. Leaders should regularly remind employees about cyberthreats and what can be done to prevent them. The global lockdown could last longer than expected and choosing the right VPN is crucial now more than ever.
SD-WAN for Remote Work
SD-WAN has gotten more and more visibility recently for remote businesses because it ensures that their company data is heavily guarded and easily accessible from their global branches. It helps improve network security by segmenting the network and encrypting traffic to minimize the possibility of damage. A secure SD-WAN solution includes security solutions such as anti-spam, firewall, and web filtering. SD-WAN has quickly become an unsung hero in this new era of remote working. The COVID-19 pandemic has already heavily impacted our ecosystems and driven changes in areas like healthcare, financial services, and the telecom industry.
With all this in mind, choosing the right solution can be tricky and you should consider all the important aspects before jumping into it. At IX, our experts are ready to answer all your questions and find the solution that works best for your business needs. Feel free to drop us a message. We understand diverse business requirements and are ready to help you.
