Practical Advice For Businesses With Employees Working From Home

Our business has had someone working from home at all times for years. Last week we purchased a few cheap laptops from Best Buy and had the majority of our employees move to work from home within 24 hours.
Here are some of the things we learned over the years:

USE CHAT
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We use Slack, but there are many other options you can consider. Slack offers direct messaging (for private conversations), purpose rooms and much more. When using chat, keep it light and allow for some levity to keep everyone cheerful and involved. 

USE CLOUD

Sharing files via Cloud is very easy and convenient. Review advanced options so that you can fine-tune your sharing. 

USE TELEPHONE FEATURES

Most phone lines now offer advanced calling features that you can utilize to your advantage:

• Caller ID blocking – use personal cellular or home phone for work without revealing your number.
• Call forward – forward your business calls to your cellular or home phone.
• Voicemail, voicemail-to-email – serve your customers better by allowing them to leave a message that can then be forwarded to your team to handle remotely.
• E-Fax – if you are still receiving faxes, you can switch your fax line to E-Fax and receive and send faxes via email or browser, from anywhere. 
• Use the telephone line app and cloud PBX to manage your calls remotely.

USE REMOTE DESKTOP

Almost all PC’s today are equipped with remote desktop capabilities. This is one way to work remotely and access your internal network while at home.

USE TELEWORKER PHONES

Ask your telephone system supplier if your system is teleworker ready. It could be as simple as a remote license activation to allow you to take your business phone to your home office.

USE ADVANCED EMAIL OPTIONS

Consider setting up email groups and advanced email options to handle your incoming and outgoing emails better. If your email is IMAP based, you can manage one email account on multiple devices. Also, see if your provider offers Webmail access (browser-based email). 

NEXT STEPS
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Let us know if you need any help with your telecommunication needs during this time. We are offering a no-obligation consulting and advice to any business that may have a question or need advice on how to handle their telecommunication needs. We are not going to try to sell you anything, just offer our best advice. 
If you need any new services, we can set up phone lines, mobile cloud PBX services and email accounts quickly and over the phone.