Work from home in time of COVID-19

As we all know, because of the occurring corona virus pandemic world wide, many demand generation companies have migrated to a remote working environment. This is true for most tech companies and companies which are in the field of digital marketing. The list is long and it includes Apple, Google, Twitter, and Airbnb, as well as many others. Although this might seem like a smooth transition it has it`s good and bad sides, both for employers and employees, speaking about the human aspect of this migration, and some things to consider in the technical aspects for conducting the job properly. So, let’s start with the technical sides of this situation. What do you need to take care of so that you can do your work from home, now that you are removed from the office? 

Secure your internet connection

Transitioning the documents and other work information that you will be needing in time of numerous cloud services is relatively easy. Still, as COVID-19 has deeply changed our social and work environment and many of us must work remotely, there are some things you should put in order to respond to this situation. So, we give you a few tips, to get through it easier.

Your internet connection quality is of great importance.  Since most devices now connect wirelessly, your experience working from home will depend a lot on your Wi-Fi performance.  Be careful to maintaina low number of devices on your connection so that you don’t downgrade your quality of work performance when working out of office.

If you’ve had the same router for more than five years, now may be a good time to upgrade. Newer routers offer dual- and tri-band wireless networks. With newer, multi-band routers you can segment your wireless network into two networks: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

At the very least, whether your Wi-Fi router is old or new, it’s a good idea to go into the router’s management software and ensure it’s running the latest firmware, which can help improve the router’s software and also can update any security flaws.

Your internet speed and connection depends on the Internet Service Provider. This might be important to you if your work means teleconferencing, large file sharing, video editing or some other bandwidth-intensive tasks. So before you jump into an extensive “work from home” period, check if you have what you need in terms of uploading and downloading speed and stability of internet connection.

And lastly, don`t forget to update the anti-virus software and all other software that you are using.

Desktop or laptop?

Laptop`s are easier to fit into a non-office environment, but desktop`s are still a far better option, since they have better performance, offer the ability to connect more displays and so on. But, for many of you taking the company’s resources at home with you might not be an option, and it’s very likely that you`ll be using a laptop. And there is one more thing to think about when speaking of laptops, how to overcome the number of ports that the laptop has. In case you are missing ports, getting a hub is the solution. If your laptop doesn’t have a Thunderbolt 3 port but has USB-C, you need a hub. A simple USB-C hub will give you extra USB-A ports for your old external hard drive or mouse, or even an HDMI port for displays.

Choose the right webcam and headset

Working from home means that you will be missing a lot of the office chat. Ok , you will be missing all of the office chat. You`ll also be missing the eye contact with your colleagues and your supervisors, mentors, directors. All of this, now has to go through the numerous chats and video calls. So, work from home means you need a headset and a webcam, to bridge and reestablish the needed connection and the daily exchange of team collaboration. Teams like to see each other, so make sure you are ready to participate. 

The forgotten mouse and keyboard are important, too

Once you begin working from home you will realize that your mouse and your keyboard are also quite handy. They are more comfortable to use than the laptop’s built in options, and this time savers might mean a lot to you in days when there is plenty of work.

The adoption of the new situation for the employers and for the employees

This coronavirus pandemic might be the reason that you are experiencing working from home for the first time, or that you are letting your employees work from home for the first time. Regardless of the position that you are experiencing this, everyone needs to adapt to this new reality, where it’s a bit harder to communicate, coordinate, advise or exchange opinions. 

When you begin working from home you will find out that family distractions and other environmental loss of focus. So it’s good to be prepared for it all and to keep control over the life-work balance. You will need to keep you productivity from your couch on the same level as from the office, and you must find a way to do it. On the other side, the managers must find a way to keep their teams active, remotely engaged and on board while they are working remotely.

It makes no difference whether you have moved into a studio apartment or a four bedroom house with a pool in the yard – your home wasn’t built to be an office, and you will need to create a separate space that will comfort your work objectives. And ofcourse- there are no kids in the office, and many of you will jump from talking to the kids to back to doing your work all day, and this is not easy at all. There is one more social aspect about working from home, and that is the feeling of loneliness and isolation. This is a psychological burden, that you might be experiencing for the first time. And here jumps in the crucial question of maintaining the team spirit. You don’t have to know everything about COVID-19 to effectively address your team’s concerns—what you do need is a ready, steady and  crisis communications plan. So, help each other, help each other and support each other as much as you can on all levels of work and socializing during this time, this way you will keep your productivity as people and as companies.