Just because remote working is now the norm, it is no less a challenge; navigating home schooling, shared workspaces or for some the change of pace at finding themselves alone all day.
Hardware Support:
For many business entity’s the transition is also still ongoing, especially in the maintenance and management of remote IT. A new report by the Parliament Street think tank polled 200 senior business decision-makers on how they’ve organised their businesses during the coronavirus pandemic. They found that 58 per cent of companies have ordered in new laptops, tablet computers and mobiles to manage 100% remote working (worryingly 33%, have done so without upgrading their security systems!)
Despite this investment in equipment just under one third of UK businesses (31%) said that their video conferencing system has crashed during a critical meeting since the Covid-19 outbreak, whilst 2 in 10 companies have struggled with managing their payroll remotely.
Mental Health:
In terms of supporting staff mental health IT is also playing its part with 42% introducing quizzes and online team tasks to boost morale and 38% supporting continued staff development to enable digital skills training via video link.
Unsurprisingly, many businesses have found that their traditional, in house, IT department has required support themselves to survive the demands of remote working and 34% of businesses said they had hired external IT support to cope with the surge.
“We have seen a marked increase in new business enquiries since the start of the first lockdown” confirms 2.0 Director Billy Brundle, “from existing clients requiring assistance in facilitating remote working to new enquiries from business of all sizes who have never used an IT support service before.”
“As the report suggests we have also been approached by companies with their own IT departments who have needed extra hands to make things happen quicker” he adds, “when you’re a large business with lots of employees all trying to work under different conditions it makes sense to add extra hands!”
“remote working is definitely here to stay and we are enjoying supporting our clients progress”.
