As the number of reported cases of the virus increases, organisations are worrying about their work force and business continuity. This article is advice and practical steps you can take in your business on how you can best work and use IT for members of staff who need to self-isolate.
What is Coronavirus
Coronavirus or COVID-19 is a new illness that can affect your lungs and airways. Common signs of infection include respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties.
The advice given by the NHS is stay at home for 7 days if you have either:
- a high temperature – you feel hot to touch on your chest or back
- a new, continuous cough – this means you’ve started coughing repeatedly
How will this affect your Business?
If your business has employees who shows signs of the symptoms, the advice given at the time of writing this article is to self-isolate for 7-days. This means to stay at home and isolate yourself from contact with people, this could mean businesses loose key personnel from work. So how can you use technology to provide business continuity with your office staff?
What You Can Do?
- Consider reducing the amount of contact with your customers, use email more efficiently
- Consider using VoIP services to communicate to customers, by doing so, customers can still contact the company and calls will be diverted to key sales and technical advisors even though they are working from home.
- Review your Work from Home Policy and make sure you are covered under GDPR and the DPA 2018
- Consider implementing remote working by using cloud services like Azure and Office 365, staff can work from home and access files and documents and collaborate with others.
- Use communication tools like Skype and Microsoft Teams to have branch meetings, training sessions, discussions.
- Setup VPN access so that your staff can access on-premise servers and resources
- Use social media more effectively for advertising and updating customers on your own COVID-19 procedures.
- Use social media to speak to your customers by using Live Streaming services on Facebook and YouTube.
- Smartphones can be used to connect with the back office and customers with tools like SharePoint, Teams and Skype.
Conclusion
Companies should consider what technology can be employed to support those who must work from home during the crises and self-isolation. Using readily available IT resources like Office 365, Skype and social media can all be used to guarantee continuity in your business.