When we are confronted with a global crisis such as COVID-19, restricting our face-to-face interactions, banning air travel, limiting the use of public transport, and forcing business workplaces to temporarily shut their doors – we are required to recalibrate how we communicate and work. Consequently, digital tools have been critical to diminish disruption.
Technology has played a huge role in the evolution of communication and with each iteration, making it more accessible for everyone, anywhere. Unified communications now takes on many forms, including messaging, audio, mobility and video.
With the ability to easily collaborate and interact with colleagues thousands of miles away, we can cross borders instantly to experience a virtual interactive presence for real-time, long-distance collaboration. These include business tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom and Google Hangouts. They elevate face-to-face relationships via integrated video display and capture coordinate activities, streamline operations, and share knowledge.
Forging swift changes to how people work
It is often difficult and tricky for enterprises to support remote working, especially those who suddenly need to accommodate tens of thousands of new remote workers at one time.
For example, a large US based media and television company recently moved their staff to a largely remote environment requiring complex tasks, such as editing and producing video segments, to be completed remotely.
This requires access to enterprise production software which was never designed to be used remotely, the transfer of very large files, and the need for groups to review and edit draft cuts in real-time. They found themselves ill-prepared to handle the crisis.
Their situation however is not unique, as most CIOs and business leaders are scrambling to address many critical implementation issues, including:
- Deploying the right set of tools needed to accomplish remote work
- Balancing the need for usability/speed with the imperative for security and risk prevention
- Achieving broad adoption and engagement by staff
- Sustaining strong human connections and collaboration while working remotely
Delivering on the remote workplace: Emerging lessons for success
To help adapt to a remote working environment:
- Enhance tools to meet the challenge: A manufacturing company experienced immediate network stability issues after moving its employees to remote work because its legacy VPN platform did not have the capacity to support the increased daily demand for bandwidth. Based on these setbacks, the CIO, after completing an expedited security review, migrated the entire company onto a new (and more usable), cloud-hosted collaboration platform that does not require the legacy VPN. This enabled employees to immediately improve its productivity and engagement.
- Leaders as role models for remote working: To ensure a high level of adoption across the business, leaders need to set an example by consistently utilising remote working tools themselves. For example, after the start of the COVID-19 crisis, one CEO began a daily, company-wide online video chat with employees. This CEO made a point of also including family members and pets in the chat to help build comfort across the business in using their remote tools.
- Invest in strengthening ties between people: While working from home is not a foreign concept, the mandatory and prolonged element we are facing today can impact working relationships. In order to build stronger personal connections in a remote environment, many companies insist on the use of video (not just voice) for internal calls and meetings. Others encourage teams to organise virtual coffee meetups or happy hours as well.
As we transform working dynamics into the digital arena and collaborate in a non-physical, yet efficient and cost effective median, business leaders can witness the positive impacts of remote working well into the future.
At GHD Digital, we have the people, the platforms and the commitment to empower you to adapt, connect and deliver during this time of uncertainty.
Meet Bob
As the North American Digital Leader for GHD Digital, Bob Armacost builds upon the expertise of GHD’s global business to help organisations generate value for their businesses and reimagine their digital future. Bob has extensive experience in building and implementing digital strategies, innovation, and high performance global teams across multiple industries. Before joining GHD, Bob held senior leadership positions at KPMG, LLP, and Bain & Company as well as being a veteran of the US air force.
