Following the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies were forced to shift from the traditional office operations to working from home. To some, it wasn’t much of an emergency because they had already integrated a similar system into their business. In fact, many enterprises were moving toward remote working before the health crisis.
As you’d expect, though, there are many companies that were forced to close down first because they didn’t have the necessary tools to adopt the new norm. Perhaps the main issue at the time, and even today, was team management and support. Dealing with an employee remotely can be quite demanding and might not be as effective as you’d expect.
Nevertheless, you’ll still need to provide the necessary support to your team, especially in the IT department, for you to further empower your business through technology. In this article, we’ll discuss some of the best ways you might want to follow when providing IT support for remote workers. Read on to learn more!
- Hire an IT service provider
The best way to offer IT support to your employees, whether onsite or remotely, is to hire a set of experts. Remote hands service providers have all the necessary tools to ensure that all the software and hardware used by your employees are working perfectly fine. It’s a great option, even for those who have their own IT staff. Rather than sending someone from the department to an offsite office, you can hire an external IT service provider who’ll be able to handle such issues.
So what are the advantages of investing in an external IT contractor? For one, they save you a lot of resources. Many companies today have employees working from across the globe, which makes it even tougher to offer certain support services. Flying an IT staff member to the location of a remote employee can be costly and will lead to a lot of time wasting. To save you these crucial resources, you can hire a company that offers nationwide IT services.
- Use real-time monitoring and troubleshooting tools
You can expect a lot of computer-related issues to occur if you are introducing work from home for the first time. Not everyone is accustomed to the current technology, and that makes it quite difficult to troubleshoot IT problems remotely. As a company, you’ll need to invest in real-time troubleshooting tools.
Among the must-have tools for your remote workers, you should include an application that allows your IT team to mirror an employee’s desktop screen. This way, they can assume control the device remotely and start working out various solutions to the problem at hand. (1)
Following such a procedure ensures that the whole process is done smoothly and within the shortest time possible. Also, since the IT support team is doing the troubleshooting directly, it prevents any mess-ups that might occur due to poor communication between then and the desktop’s owner.
- Provide various communication options
Sometimes one of your communication lines might be down yet a remote worker wants to report an emergency. Such a system can mess up your operations and IT support services might be delivered with a lot of delays. Rather than risking such a situation, you’d better invest in various communication channels.
Of course, email and a telephone line are essential, but they shouldn’t be the only options on the table. Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Zoom are other channels that you can use to ensure a collaborative environment between your IT and remote teams. These additional communication platforms make it easier to send information to more than one person and receive feedbacks from all of them in one place. (2)
- Provide remote desktops
Does each of your remote workers have a desktop or laptop with the right specifications to handle their duties? Unfortunately, not all employees can afford such systems, and that can have a negative effect on the overall business operations. If you can afford it, ensure that every remote worker has a company computer to use. This makes it easier for your IT team to provide support remotely because they already know the hardware specifications.
Conclusion
Working from home has become the new norm, but several businesses are still struggling to adopt and adapt to this idea. Providing quality IT support for remote workers can be quite frustrating for such companies. However, with the right tools—both software and hardware—it becomes a lot easier. Apart from hiring a remote IT support service provide, you should also ensure that provide the necessary tools to enhance the process. Communication platforms, remote worker desktops, and screen mirroring applications are some of the factors you should consider.
References
- “10 Programs And Tools Every Remote Worker Needs For Guaranteed Success”, Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2019/12/27/10-programs-and-tools-every-remote-worker-needs-for-guaranteed-success/?sh=50b1b5072cba
- “Three Ways To Build Effective Communication In Remote Teams”, Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2020/12/18/three-ways-to-build-effective-communication-in-remote-teams/?sh=3fe15681274e