A few decades ago, an employee’s only choice was working from the office. Nowadays, you can work from virtually anywhere. Working remotely has certainly come a long way—but companies now have to take additional steps to accommodate various types of employees. Not just those who plan to work on site. And according to the International Data Corporation, this trend is not going to change anytime soon. By the end of 2020, they forecast that remote employees will make up 72.3% of the total workforce in the U.S. By using cloud-based technologies like Office 365, these employees can easily access office files and work collaboratively with other team members from the comfort of their remote locations. However, remote employees also require extra support from their employers, as they face some additional difficulties.
Four Common Problems Faced by Remote Employees
Almost all remote employees face the same issues, whether they travel a lot or work from home. While an on-site employee may not struggle with accessing basic files, for instance, a remote employee may encounter considerable challenges when trying to obtain files, contact their colleagues, or keep themselves up to date with their projects.
The following are some of the major issues that are commonly faced by all remote employees.
Flexibility
Employees naturally use different devices, so the ability of a system to run on all the operating systems and devices will significantly improve accessibility. A system needs to be flexible enough to run on the device that is most convenient for a given employee. This allows remote employees to immediately start working with a device of their choosing without any technological setbacks.
Connectivity
Connectivity is one of the most important characteristics of a successful team, but it’s even more important for remote users. A system that allows seamless communication and transfer of information will greatly improve the team’s overall efficiency by ensuring everyone stays in touch.
Access
All remote employees require access to their company’s server so they can stay up to date with the latest developments and complete their work. A system that provides all members of a team with access to critical files can enable both on-site and remote employees to stay on top of their work.
Security
In the bigger scope, all these problems fall short of the most important concern—security. Establishing a secure connection between a company’s server and a remote employee’s device ensures that they can communicate without exposing sensitive company information to intruders. All employees should be provided with the necessary software (e.g., a VPN like Cisco AnyConnect) to work securely and limit breaches. The company should also promote Internet best practices to ensure its employees avoid risky behavior while remotely connected to company’s servers. If an employee falls for a phishing scam or unsuspectingly downloads a virus to their personal laptop that they use for work, it could cause company-wide problems.
What is the Solution?
If all this seems like too much to handle, you’re in luck—Microsoft Office 365 presents tools that solve all the common problems that remote employees face. And because Office 365 is powered by the cloud, you can rest assured that applications, files, updates and features are automatically updated.
Below is an overview of some of the most useful features that are included in Office 365. We’ll discuss some of the ways these can support remote employees.
SharePoint
A convenient and secure document management system, SharePoint allows remote users to easily access, share, store and collaborate on a variety of documents with their colleagues from a single cloud-based platform.
OneDrive
As its name suggests, OneDrive is a storage service that lets you organize all kinds of data on a single “drive” on the cloud. With OneDrive, a company can share information among all its employees and even assign variable access rights. Moreover, instead of having to make multiple copies of a single document for distribution among different users, employees can simply co-author and collaboratively edit a single document. This helps address the issues of access and connectivity that many remote employees face.
OneNote
OneNote greatly simplifies note taking and allows remote employees to stay organized and share their notes with their colleagues for real-time feedback. Even if you write a note offline, OneNote will share it with your team members as soon as you go back online, eliminating the need for you to keep track of what information you’ve already shared.
Teams
Remote employees often miss out on the active communication that their on-site colleagues enjoy. To fill this void, Microsoft included the Teams application in its Office 365 bundle. This app allows employees to actively communicate with each other through texts, calls, and video conferencing. In short, the Teams app is an excellent solution for any remote employee looking to stay in touch with their office colleagues.
Mobile Device Manager
It is common practice for employees to access emails and documents anywhere, from a range of different devices. This can be great for productivity, but it also weakens security, opening your business up to more risk. Employees can also lose their mobile devices, which may contain sensitive company information. The Mobile Device Manager feature fully addresses this concern, allowing you to remotely wipe data from any of your lost devices.
Advanced Threat Protection
Religiously conducting local backups may make you feel like you are being proactive with your security, but it will not protect your mailboxes from unsafe attachments or malicious links. Unfortunately, malware campaigns are now an everyday occurrence, but Advanced Threat Protection protects you and your business in real time. Plus, if someone attempts to attack you, you can easily investigate which messages have been blocked, and why, plus who in your organization was targeted. This way you can make sure all your weak spots are covered!
Making Office 365 Work for You
Business trends are quickly changing, and remote employment is rising in demand as companies look to expand their workplaces. It is critical for a business to find ways for its mobile workforce to stay connected, motivated and effective.
In a recent Forrester report, they found that Office 365 increased mobile worker productivity by approximately 15 minutes per day, simply by streamlining the process by which teams access, share and synchronize files. And the fact that employees can access Office 365 on up to six devices, collaboration between teams improved as teams were connected and reachable even when they weren’t sat at their desk.
A comprehensive cloud-based platform that offers full customization and support, Office 365 is arguably the perfect solution in the era of the global workplace to help teams work together.
The post How to Support Remote Teams with Office 365 appeared first on SherWeb.