Speaker 1: If you come to the point where you can't come to the office for an extended period of time,

Speaker 2: you should prepare yourself in advance. Put in place a structure that will enable you and your team to stay connected and continue working either from home or any other place. Luckily enough, existing technologies like collaboration software and remote access software allow efficient remote work. Now more than ever, with the coronavirus gone pandemic, more and more companies are introducing remote work to their employees. That's why now is a good time to start planning work-from-home guidelines and rules. And we're all in the same boat here. At Corporate Armor, we have recently prepared an action plan, and in fact, we have years of experience with remote work and work from home, as part of our team is regularly working from afar. So we were able to update and extend our already existing policies, and we're happy to share

Speaker 1: our experience with you guys.

Speaker 2: First of all, if you're like Corporate Armor and already have a telework policy, you'd want to take that as a base and update it. Now if you've never had practice to work-from-home policy, you may want to start now by allowing some of your team to work remotely. This way, you'll be able to learn the pain points and work them out over time.

Speaker 1: Establish clear rules and processes that must be followed when working from home, and then

Speaker 2: communicate them with your employees. Define reasons and situations which demand work-from-home, set expectations about working hours, determine how employees will report on their work progress, and decide the day and time of obligatory follow-up meetings to hold remote employees accountable for their

Speaker 1: goals and deadlines. Make sure you and your team all have appropriate equipment at home, computers, headphones,

Speaker 2: appropriate internet access, and so forth. If you'll be working for a limited amount of time in response to the coronavirus, then you don't need a top-notch computer. An ordinary or even second-hand computer will serve you well. You will only need it to connect to your office computer using remote access software. Now, you will need a reliable and fast internet connection. We'd recommend avoiding working on a plain laptop and get yourself a monitor, a keyboard,

Speaker 1: and a mouse.

Speaker 2: Install remote access software on your office computers to make it accessible from anywhere in the world. Choose a reliable and secure remote access provider, which won't charge you based on the number of users or workstation installations. Go for cloud-based technology and mobile-friendly software.

Speaker 1: Set up secure access to your network through a VPN.

Speaker 2: There are a lot of great VPNs out there to choose from, but VPNs aren't always necessary if you have the right remote access solution in place. For example, you don't have to set up the VPN to be able to use your RDP access if you are using ISL Online. ISL Online allows you to easily route Microsoft RDP or SecureShell sessions through a secure tunnel and connect to unattended computers running in the remote network without using VPN or making any firewall changes. And the best thing is, you can set this up in minutes.

Speaker 1: Click on the link in the description to learn more.

Speaker 2: By nature, people are social beings, so it's important to keep the team connected and stay in touch. Plan to get everyone together on a conference call once a week. Provide communications and collaboration tools to your team so they can continue to work together on their projects. And organize one-on-one group meetings to brainstorm when necessary. If you're using the ISL Online software, you might be interested to know that besides its main feature, Secure Remote Access, it also allows you to start a video call, web conference,

Speaker 1: or live chat conversation.

Speaker 2: Being physically distant, remote work brings in a different dynamic than office work. Inevitably, management loses certain measures to control, and that's why it's very important to stick to existing rhythms and rituals that you are used to in the office through regular meetings, phone calls, chats. Report your progress so all of you know what each of you is working on, and use the same messaging channels to share an occasional joke and relax for a few minutes. It's important to overcome the initial anxiety and build a sense of reciprocal trust with

Speaker 1: the team.

Speaker 2: Now if telework lasts for a longer period of time, discuss with your human resources department whether specific terms should be added into the existing contract of employment.

Speaker 1: And one last piece of advice.

Speaker 2: When working from home, find the most appropriate place in your house or apartment to work in. You have to feel comfortable, and you have to be able to maintain the focus. So make sure that you keep all things and beings that distract you outside of this place. In fact, once you get used to working from home, you'll most likely become more productive than at the office. Higher productivity is indeed one of the top benefits researchers study remote work have proven.

Speaker 3: Here at Corporate Armor, we want to make sure that you have everything you need to be prepared for remote work. Visit our website at corporatearmor.com forward slash remote dash work dash solutions to learn more about the products that we offer to assist with remote work, including remote access software, telework gateways, access points, and more.