It is anticipated that over the coming weeks and months, a large number of businesses will see at least some of their staff returning to offices, following a period of home-working.
There will be many aspects for business owners to think about when planning such a move – including HR issues, Health & Safety, and the physical layout of the office.
When it comes to your technology, you will want to avoid unnecessary downtime due to equipment not working or people being unable to access what they need when they return.
Preparation is key and should include the following considerations:
- Power and network cabling. If you are moving people around to create more space between workers, are you able to connect computers in all the places you will need them?
- PCs that have been idle. Arrange for someone to be in the office before the majority of people return, to switch on PCs, check that they are working, and run any updates that may be queued up.
- Network devices. Check with your IT support provider that all switches, routers and firewalls are still operational if they haven’t been heavily relied upon during recent months.
- Equipment requirements. Does anything need replacing / upgrading? Do you need additional items? Consider headphones, especially if working practices have changed and you are now using video calls to communicate with each other or with customers.
- Office printers. Check that they are still connected. Do a test print. Are any replacement toners required? Are paper stocks sufficient?
- Return of equipment from home. If employees have been using company PCs, laptops or printers at home, which are now needed in the office again, communicate with the relevant staff about returning them. Arrange for the devices to be set up ready for use, and connections tested.
- Are all PCs still supported and protected? If you have removed any workstations or laptops from your IT support arrangement, get them added back in if they are going to be active, so that they can be monitored again and the anti-virus status can be checked.
- Workers returning from furlough. Are their email accounts still active, with a valid licence applied? Will they need their passwords re-setting? Are their door entry cards (if applicable) still active?
- Telephone call diverts. If diverts have been applied which will no longer be required, arrange for these to be removed at the appropriate time.
- Telephone licences. If your telephone system has a monthly licensing model, are there any handsets which have had licences removed during lockdown, which now need re-applying? Or mobile apps that are no longer needed?
- Consider company data which employees may have at home. Have staff taken home paper copies of documents or data held on USB drives? Have they emailed information to themselves which may now be on home PCs or laptops? Remind your team of your company policy about holding data, and their duties around confidentiality. Provide instructions about deleting data at home, if appropriate.
If you would like to discuss the technology aspects of a return to the office, please call us or enter your contact details here and we will be in touch.