Many businesses have embraced flexible work, including giving employees the ability to work remotely permanently. However, the shift in operations from relying on in-office employees to WFH environments comes with challenges. Businesses must develop a long-term strategy to manage and support remote workers to meet those challenges.
Thankfully, modern technology keeps remote employees connected in a secure, productive environment. Implementing the right tools and training employees, clients, and contractors on how to use them enables new opportunities to grow your business and foster a team environment for the long haul.
Empowering Remote Employees with Technology
The ability to create virtual teams of remote workers is fueled by cloud-based technology. Gartner’s analysts note the cloud services market grew 17.5% in 2019 and is expected to grow exponentially through 2022. This includes cloud business process services (BPaaS), cloud application infrastructure services (PaaS), cloud application services (SaaS), cloud system infrastructure services (IaaS), and cloud management and security services.
Leveraging these technologies enables four critical connectivity and productivity boosts for remote employees.
1. Managing Remote Work with Enterprise Content Services (ECS)
Enterprise Content Services is the foundation of managing remote workers. An ECS platform provides automated workflows and rules-based routing that send email notifications and activity monitoring as projects move forward or meet unexpected obstacles. Advanced platforms, like Laserfiche, include Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to eliminate or minimize manual, repetitive tasks and create greater efficiency in your document processes.
2. Enabling Automatic Workflows for Remote Employees
CIO Magazine discovered remote employees working in a variety of environments need automation to boost productivity. Streamlining and automating multi-step processes with electronic content management (ECM) makes it easier for current employees to navigate their job duties, and shortens the time it takes to onboard new employees.
Easing this common pain point is a simple way to motivate your remote employees. Whether working from home or in the field, automating simple tasks like receiving, updating, or completing assignments optimizes the quality and production of remote work.
With ECM in place, it’s easy for your remote employees to collaborate on projects, create checklists, and track the progress of the project through each step. Real-time reporting is crucial to forecasting and understanding progress across hundreds or thousands of projects an organization has in the pipeline at any given moment.
3. Managed IT Monitors Connectivity and Security
Business News Daily suggests opening communication lines to provide a necessary personal connection between a business and its WFH employees. However, 24/7 connectivity isn’t secure without 24/7 monitoring, device security, and real-time alerts. Unfortunately, many companies don’t have the IT resources to dedicate proper connectivity and security solutions for remote work.
Managed IT Services ensure a secure, reliable connection using military-grade encryption, industry-leading VPN technology, and a team of experienced tech professionals using AI to monitor system resources and proactively identify vulnerabilities and respond to possible inconsistencies.
4. Secure Mobile Printing Increases Productivity
Remote employees need the same benefits in-office employees have access to. This includes access to office resources like printing, scanning, faxing, copying, and even 3D prints/scans. These network-connected devices must be configured to allow secure cloud-based print jobs without opening the business to cyberattacks.
With a secure mobile printing infrastructure, processes like inventory, sales, and mailroom operations can be streamlined and eventually automated, incorporating remote workers in satellite locations around the world.
Keep Remote Workflows Efficient and Protected with ImageNet
Remote work is the new norm, but managing remote workers comes with challenges. Modern technology relieves these issues, using AI-powered anti-malware, cloud-based data redundancy, encrypted VPNs, and more.
ECS systems streamline workflows and enable remote productivity that matches or even exceeds in-office work. Collaboration tools increase engagement and communication, while managed print services incorporate in-office resources.
Each business requires a custom set of tools and technology to empower their hybrid workforce.
Contact ImageNet today to learn how to implement efficient and secure remote workflows in your business.