Work-at-Home Recommendations
Checklist For Companies WithRemote Employees Due To COVID-19
by Wayne Rash, Contributor
Consumer Tech, for Forbes
March 18, 2020
The official response to the COVID-19 expansion in the US is already resulting in companies being told to have their employees work from home. You can expect these work-at-home requirements to spread, regardless of whether they’re called social distancing or shelter-in-place.
To make it a little less overwhelming, here’s a checklist of actions you should be considering. While this list isn’t comprehensive because every business is different in some way, it’ll get you started. This list was compiled with the help of a group of experts, notably Stan Lowe, former CISO of the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and currently CISO for Zscaler. Other input came from Laura Butler, senior vice president of Workfront, Dr. Jo Webber, CEO of Pod, Jay Ryerse of ConnectWise and Or Zilberman, CEO of Odo Security.
Organization
o Determine staff members or roles that can work remotely, those that can’t work remotely and those where remote work may be possible with some changes.
o Meet with your business leaders to determine what functions are critical for your business to function, including applications such as email.
o Conduct a survey of employees to determine the availability of computers that can be used for work as well as their availability of high-speed internet access.
o Create company guidelines for remote employees, including proper use of company assets and security guidelines.
o Develop and conduct work-at-home training to teach how to use remote access, proper use of tools and best practices for employee interaction.
o Choose a videoconferencing platform and a backup platform for services such as Zoom, Cisco WebEx or Google Hangouts, and procure the required licenses.
o Create a communications plan to involve remote employees in the daily activities of the company. This could be something like an all-hands daily Zoom conference.
Security
o Implement Zero Trust architecture on your network for remote employees.
o Ensure that all devices that will be used remotely have the latest version of their operating software, security software and applications.
o Ensure that all remote employees have access to and can use a business-grade VPN, and that you have sufficient licenses for all the employees working remotely.
o Instruct your staff on emerging threats tied to the COVID-19 coronavirus, including new phishing attacks and attempts to steal VPN credentials.
o Develop and implement a security policy that applies to all remote employees, including actions such as locking computers when they’re not being used.
o Implement two-factor authentication using smart cards or security keys.
Staff
o Adopt a policy of transparency with your staff and communicate frequently.
o Check on your staff, daily if possible, to confirm that they are comfortable with working remotely. Find and fix any problems they’re having.
o Make sure each staff member has reliable voice communications, even if that means adding a business-quality voice over IP service.
o Don’t try to micro-manage. Your staff will be scared, conditions at home won’t be ideal and they need to work out their own patterns of work.
o Create a phone number and email address where staff members can communicate their concerns about the company, working at home or even the status of the virus.
Infrastructure
o Confirm that you have enough bandwidth coming in to your company to handle all of the new remote traffic, then double it.
o Confirm that your staff can reach your cloud-based applications and services directly without having to go through the company network.
o Make sure you have backups of your services so your staff can keep working when the extra traffic makes your primary services go down.
Concluding Thought
You will need to modify and expand this list to match the specific needs of your company and the conditions affecting your organization. But these points should be enough to get you started and to help you think of what else needs to be done. And remember, this period of difficulty doesn’t need to be forever, unless your staff finds out that they like it and that it doesn’t hurt productivity.
Wayne Rash is a science and technology writer based in Washington, DC. He's a columnist for eWEEK and writes for PC Magazine.
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