Basics of Telecommuting

Once upon a time, in an economy far, far away, everyone traveled to work.

They hopped on their horse, sat in their car, or climbed on a bus and physically moved to their workplace.

Not so anymore!

The internet made telecommuting possible years ago, and the Covid economy put the trend on steroids.

Although some businesses cannot realistically offer remote work positions (factories for example), many others can – but they struggle to coordinate the remote part with the work part.

Many business owners know that to set up an employee workstation, their employee must have a computer, monitor, keyboard, and mouse.

And a place to print, probably.

When I discuss this topic with business owners, I like to make a distinction between remote access and a remote office.

Remote access can be achieved by giving an employee VPN or web portal accessibility.

But if you need higher security measures or a more official setup, we’re really describing a home office.

The business will likely provide a laptop or thin client, even a security appliance, and possibly the printer.

That way, by connecting the employee’s computer to a corporate-owned head device and corporate-housed operating system, you eliminate most security concerns right out of the gate!

(Much less the troubleshooting! Your support department or managed services provider deals with their property, their way.)

Of course, to deal with this, the employee absolutely has to have great setup instructions and a clear chain of command for IT problems.

And this, more than the tech itself, is a bigger problem for most companies as they provide telecommuting positions.